By: Fr. Vincent Busch, MSSC

Robbers Strike. So?

A lawyer, seeking to inherit eternal like Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” In answer, Jesus told the story in which a priest and a Levite, respected religious authorities in the Jewish community, passed by a wounded man left by robbers to die in the side if the road. A Samaritan, a foreigner disdained by the Jewish community took compassion on the wounded man and nursed him to health. Jesus ends the story with the question: “Which of these three proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

Paradox!

The paradoxical message of this Bible story is that people find salvation when they get their heads out of the Bible, so to speak, begin to act   with life - giving compassion. In northwestern Mindanao a group of ordinary people have taken compassion on the wounded land and are saving their endangered habitat.

A Forest is Husband of Soil

The soil is a community of tiny living and non living things. A thousand of years the soil lived on the slopes and foothills of the Malindag mountain range. Living above this soil was a community of trees, plants, vines, insects, birds and animals called forest.

Love Relationship

The soil and the forest communities interacted in a mutually beneficial friendship. The soil was the ground where the forest laid to rest its dead leaves, plants, and animals. There, in the soil, worms, fungi and bacteria decomposed the forest’s dead into nutrients for the living forest. The forest, for its part, sheltered the soil from the scorching sun and the pounding monsoon rain.

The wonderful Subanon

The first humans to join the soil and forest communities of the Malindang Mountains belonged to the tribal group called Subanon. The Subanons lived lightly and politely with the earth; lightly, because they always ask the permission of the of the spirit world in their habitat before clearing, planting or harvesting their small plots in the forest. Asking permission was done through simple rituals conducted by tribal shamans (priest – doctors).

The Wise Subanon

Subanon families practiced shifting agriculture. After a few harvests, the soil would become exhausted and the family moved away allowing the forest to grow back and the soil to renew itself. Such small-scale agriculture over a large forested area allowed the Subanons to live harmoniously within the forest and the soil communities of Mt. Malindang. They were good neighbors.

Lowlanders Arrives

In this century, especially in the last fifty years, waves of settlers from the Visayan island of the central Philippines have flowed into the soil and forest communities of Mount Malindang. They were many and they needed much. Within a few decades loggers and farmers had stripped the forest and robbed the soil, leaving the wounded land to die in the scorching heat and lashing rain.

Passed By The Wonderful land

Many respectable people passed by the wounded land. Student passed by on their way to study the ways of commerce, industry and business. Salesman of agro- chemicals passed by, pre-occupied with selling fertilizers and pesticides. Priests, catechists and Church workers passed by, zealously bringing the sacraments and seminars to the barrios. Loggers passed by, intent on cutting the remaining forest. And more hungry settlers passed by, hoping to plant come on slopes stripped by the loggers.

We Were All Blind

In fact, almost everyone in the northwestern Mindanao, at one time or another, has ignored the wounded forest and soil communities of Mount Malindang. Like the priest and Levite of the Gospel story, all of us    were too preoccupied with our customary lives to pay attention to our dying neighborhood.

Hopes Arrives

Since 1998 the parish of Jimenez has begun to include care for the earth among its pastoral concerns. Since then members of the parish have attended ecological awareness seminars and the parish high school has started a student ecological group. At their regular meetings the Christian communities in the barrios have shared their concerns for the fate of their forest and soil. Ecological awareness was growing but ecological action was till lacking.

Action Begins

To answer the need for action, the ecologically aware people of Jimenez formed the Malindang Volunteers. Members of this group spend one week a month replanting denuded hillsides in the remote barrio of Carmen. Their work depends totally on voluntary labor, and local donations for transport, seedlings, tools, foods and lodging. Said Mrs. Angelita Ambag, a farmer and housewife: “We plant all kinds of tress, especially fruit trees. We are not interested in making money with these trees. We want to restore our watershed so that everyone will benefit from our work”. Cristina Atillo, a high school student, agreed: “Although our work is hard, we are not discouraged, because we look forward to a more healthy future.”

Dangerous Work

On their first expedition, they spent five days hauling materials to build a bunk house, which they dubbed the “Malin – Vo Hotel” to be the base for their operations. A truck lent by the Pipuli Foundation could only go so far in this rugged terrain; everything had to be carried the rest of the way by the volunteers. The work was always hard and sometimes dangerous; many would fall on the steep slopes.

Sister Earth We’ve Come to Help

Before starting work each morning the group would hold a simple ceremony reminded us that the soil is our brother and sister and we live in communion with the earth,” said Mr. Ver Ambag. The group now includes many who formerly passed by the dying land. In Barrio Carmen impoverished farmers who once cleared the forest to grow food are now replanting as Malindang Volunteers. The group works with the farmers to plan alternative ways to support themselves instead of destroying a forest to grow a few stalks of scrawny corn.

Arise Wounded Earth

The group has no guarantee that their seedlings will survive or that their ecological vision will take root in the wider community. They work, inspired by the conviction that they will find life through their compassion for the forest and soil. They have proved to be good neighbors to the wounded earth.