Pilgrims and litter

AS A young man, my husband Pie used to join the annual trek from Mandaluyong to Antipolo. Setting off in the early morning hours of Good Friday, Pie would join a throng of other young men (women were allowed to join some years ago) and start to march, on foot, to the Antipolo Cathedral. They were joined by other devotees from the rest of Metro Manila, and by the time they reached the Ortigas Highway, the marchers would number in the thousands.

Pie says the Good Friday walk has long been a tradition in Vergara, the barangay in Mandaluyong where he grew up. In fact, he thought that only the folk from Vergara had such a tradition, but apparently it’s been an age-old ritual for people from Manila and environs. Recently, the march gained a name: “Alay Lakad” or walk offering, and has been sanctioned by the local Church.

By the time the pilgrims reached Antipolo, around noon, Pie said, they would say a few prayers in front of the church and then “kanya-kanya nang kain,” scattering to the various huts and food stands surrounding the plaza.

It’s a combination of devotion and youthful frolic, with young men grabbing the chance to carry out their Holy Week duties while enjoying a good time with friends and utter strangers.

However, EcoWaste Coalition, a waste and pollution NGO, doesn’t think the “Alay Lakad” is such a “harmless” exercise in fun and piety. Over the Easter weekend, the group decried what it called the “unchecked littering” that took place during the treks on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, which incidentally was also Earth Day.

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THE PAST Holy Week would have been a most propitious time to reflect on the link between our Catholic faith and our duty as earth stewards, a mission assigned to us by God when he bid Adam to have dominion over the Earth and subdue it.

But instead of using mankind’s power to exploit the earth’s resources wisely and preserve its riches for the use of coming generations, haven’t we been neglectful, wasteful and unheeding of the injunction to take care of the resources placed in our care? The littering that accompanied the Holy Week marchers is but a small example of the damage we are doing.

“We are saddened by the seemingly apathetic pilgrims who spoiled the penitential trail to Antipolo Cathedral with plastic rubbish and other garbage,” said “Basura Patroller” Manny Calonzo of the EcoWaste Coalition.

“While we’re delighted to see families and friends walk together to fulfill their sacrificial vows, we could not help but moan about the uninspiring environmental indifference of some pilgrims as if Mother Earth does not matter,” he added.

“Littering was so extensive even though it is banned by RA 9003 and related local environmental laws,” Calonzo noted.

Reports said that the long stretch of Ortigas Avenue Extension, which traverses Pasig City, Cainta and Taytay, Rizal and Antipolo City, was littered with assorted trash such as clear plastic bags for drinking water and “palamig” (coolers), plastic straws, cups and bottles, chips wrappers, paper scraps, cigarette butts and food leftovers.

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THE ANTIPOLO Cathedral, home to the miraculous icon, the Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage, was “carpeted” with scattered newspapers used by pilgrims that kept church caretakers very busy on Earth Day, EcoWaste coalition said.

According to parish personnel, the 15 staff assigned to clean up the church compound were likely to consume the 150 big garbage bags set aside for the massive occasion. “Outside the church, yellow-clad ‘Clean and Green’ personnel of the Antipolo City government swept up the roads leading to the Cathedral as small trucks hauled the garbage to a disposal site,” observed the Coalition. Also, enterprising child and adult wastepickers were seen painstakingly retrieving recyclables left behind by the pilgrims.
The garbage collected from the church and the streets of Antipolo would then be dumped at the city’s waste disposal facility located in Tanza I, Barangay San Jose, while the recyclables would be sold to junk shops.

“While disappointed with what we saw, we remain optimistic that future pilgrimages to Antipolo will treat Mother Earth more kindly. Next time, please abide by the law and don’t litter,” reiterated the EcoWaste Coalition.

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WHAT STILL amazes observers, hearing of the giant garbage dump that the route of devotees had become, is that local governments along the road to Antipolo apparently felt helpless about enforcing RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. This law lists littering, throwing and dumping of waste matter in public places as prohibited acts under the law’s penal provision.

In addition, Antipolo City, which produces 139 tons of trash daily, has enacted Ordinance 2008-287, also known as the “Basura Code,” which prohibits littering, while Ordinance 2009-370, bans plastic bags and polystyrene containers.

For next year’s “Alay-Lakad,” the EcoWaste Coalition has proposed that local government units (LGUs) deploy “litter-busters” all throughout Ortigas Avenue Extension and other major roads leading to Antipolo Cathedral to apprehend environmental offenders, “only then will litterbugs start to break the dirty habit.”

And only then, perhaps, will Manileños finally be able to fuse religious devotion with environmental awareness. I love the term the Church uses to refer to the apostolate of environmental care and protection: the integrity of creation. This drives home the point that we as human beings are charged not just with looking after the Earth, but with preserving the wholeness and entirety of God’s creation. And it begins with as simple a task as looking after your own litter.