When our forests are gone, we will be lost and confused

THIS IS in reference to an ad titled “Rio Tuba: From a Mine to a Forest.” (Inquirer, 4/6/11)

Can mining be responsible? The Rio Tuba Nickel Mining Corp. claims it can. “Mother Nature gives us the minerals, we give her back a forest … a truth that some self-appointed groups don’t want you to see…”
I was so taken by the ad. It was so beautiful and looked so responsible indeed. The March 2011 picture with the “lush” forest growing was definitely a clincher. It took me until the next day to reflect on it.
This is what I came up with. It didn’t show a picture of the beautiful, old-growth and primary forest that had to be cleared to get to the open pit mining picture of May 2008. It also didn’t say what happened to the communities that were affected by the mining operation and how the company handled the intricacies of the situation.

Our contention is that our heritage is an animist one. Our monument is nature. We were once very conscious of our oneness with nature. Anything that does not respect that heritage, and in fact obliterates the forests where our racial memories were formed, leaves us lost and confused. Now, doesn’t that sound like the Philippine narrative dating back to the American “benevolent” dictatorship that forced the “parity rights” and promoted the Americans’ “every man for himself mentality,” which prevailed when the western brown Filipino took over, stripping our country, in less than a century, of more than 80 percent of her forests?
What makes us think that this time things will get any better? “Avatar” the movie is playing out right here, right now in our true last frontier: Palawan.

It is not about minerals and taking them. It is about our survival as a people. Our life story has already been so distorted with the loss of our forests. Let us learn from our recent and confused past and the sacrifices of individuals who gave their lives to help us see through the distorted stories.

There is a reason for our myths. They embody truths, which we as a people need to stabilize ourselves and our nation. Our myths were framed on our oneness with nature. When our forests are gone, we will be even more rudderless (like dead men walking), and this time, there would be no assurance that we will ever find our way to our truths.

—JACQUELINE CANCIO VEGA,
jacqueline_cancio_vega
@yahoo.com