Communicating on non-communicable diseases

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

The initials NCD (non-communicable diseases) should become as familiar as NGO, MDG, HIV, CNN and WHO if used often enough. Why, even AH1N1 (hard to say for the H-challenged) made it to our vocabulary. Many Filipinos prefer to just say “Ahini.”

So, say NCD. Popularize it. Because fighting NCD is now on the global agenda and it better be on our national agenda, too.

Many diseases vie for attention. Advocates for their control and obliteration from the face of the earth are doing their best to lobby for funds, research, medicines and action on the part of their leaders.

There are two categories: the infectious or communicable, and the non-communicable. Cancer is an example of an NCD. Like other NCDs, and depending on many factors, it could be preventable, controllable, treatable and curable.

On Sept. 19 and 20 the High-Level Meeting (HLM or summit) on Non-Communicable Diseases will take place at the United Nations in New York. It is not often that the UN convenes a summit to tackle diseases. The last one was in 2001, which was on HIV-AIDS, a communicable disease.

Last June the American Cancer Society convened an international media forum to drum up the importance of the high-level meeting on NCDs. Global Cancer Ambassadors from the Philippines Dr. Rachel Rosario, Emer Rojas and Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala were in attendance and, upon their return, they embarked on an information campaign on NCDs in order to call the attention of government, civil society groups and the media.

The Sept. 19 UN summit will bring together the world’s heads of state/government to develop global strategies to address the urgent problem of the rising rate of NCDs, which are the world’s leading cause of death. The summit is expected to focus on galvanizing action at global and national levels to address the health and socio-economic impacts of NCDs. Multi-sectoral approaches are important in NCD prevention and control.

This summit is expected to come out with a political declaration that will determine the course of action over the next years for nations to address the NCD epidemic in order to save lives. Tobacco control is expected to be high on the agenda. The NCD Alliance has been calling for the accelerated implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

This once-in-a-generation gathering is seen as an opportunity to put cancer and other NCDs on the global health agenda. According to the American Cancer Society, cancer and other NCDs have traditionally been neglected by the global community. NCDs receive less than 3 percent of public and private funding. The global health agenda has been dominated by HIV-AIDS, malaria, TB, maternal and child health.

NCDs are a development issue because their risk factors are closely linked to poverty. The arguments are strong. NCDs are a serious threat to the health of people in developing countries. Some 63 percent of all deaths in the world are due to NCDs; more than 80 percent are in developing countries; 90 percent of those who die from NCDs below age 60 are in developing countries and economies in transition. Most of these deaths could have been prevented.

There is unequivocal evidence that NCDs are a threat to socio-economic development in developing countries. The NCD epidemic is growing faster in the poorest countries where the poorest people are more likely to smoke and often spend more on tobacco than on education, health and clothing combined. The cost of treating NCDs creates a poverty trap for poor families.

NCDs hold back the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in developing countries, particularly Goal 1 which is to “eradicate extreme hunger and poverty” and the health-related goals.

Will focus on cancer and other NCDs undermine efforts for HIV-AIDS and infectious diseases control, maternal health and other priorities? NCD prevention and control advocates will tell you that if development efforts are to succeed, they must address all diseases that trap households in cycles of illness and poverty.

For example, TB epidemic control is made difficult by coexisting epidemics of HIV and NCDs. Tobacco use, a leading cause of NCDs, is a big risk factor in the spread of TB. NCDs and infectious diseases are a double burden.

Interventions for NCDs will not undermine other global health goals. They will, in fact, contribute towards the MDG goals. Controlling NCDs can help reduce poverty and promote gender equality and child health. Reducing adult death rates and disability reduces poverty and promotes economic growth.

Preventing NCDs diminishes the overall burden on health services. But this implies strengthening of health systems under strong leadership. Governments must invest in cancer and NCD control, through health literacy, technology and delivery of services.

So, although this historic UN summit on NCDs is for heads of state/government (with some representatives of NGOs, academia and the private sector in attendance), it is important that those of us on the ground keep watch and stay informed. Summits such as this hold the key in shaping priorities and mobilizing coordinated global action plans.

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The 3rd “Silver Linings,” an educational forum and homecoming for breast cancer survivors and their circle of support, will be held at the Grand Regal Hotel in Davao City on Sept. 17, Saturday, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It is organized by icanserve, “a sisterhood like no other.” Registration fee is only P100 and includes meals. I hope to meet women from the rural sectors who will be there, and listen to their stories.

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A mother's call on World Suicide Prevention Day

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Joy and hope. She wears them like the bright silk shawls that she fashions from nature’s looms. These, Jean Margaret “Jeannie” Lim Goulbourn continue to weave into the fabric of her life and those of others even after a loss that tore into her heart.

Instead of dwelling in the abyss of sorrow, Jeannie, noted fashion designer (Silk Cocoon), entrepreneur, former model and wellness advocate, decided to put meaning into her daughter’s life and death. By doing so, she hopes to help those on the verge of a similar tragedy and prevent the loss of precious lives. In 2007, she put up the Natasha Goulbourn Foundation (NGF) in memory of a daughter whose death was caused by depression.

The whole day tomorrow, World Suicide Prevention Day, NGF will hold various activities. Early in the morning a “fit and fun walk,” and at 9 a.m., a lecture at the University of the Philippines. The open-air activities begin at 2 p.m. at Liwasang Aurora in the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City. There will be booths to stress the theme of “Rediscovering Oneself” as a path to healing from depression.

QC is the sponsor city this second time around, with Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte pledging to make the city a hub of mental wellness. Three government agencies –the Departments of Health, Social Welfare and Development, and Education –have pledged support for the advocacy.

Capping the day and to remember loved ones lost to suicide and depression is a solemn candlelight memorial walk around the Quezon Memorial Circle. Pangasinan Rep. Gina de Venecia will lead the participants. After she lost a daughter in a fire several Christmases ago, De Venecia put up Ina Foundation to help “orphaned” parents.

The candlelight walk will be followed by a free concert featuring several artists, among them, 8Track, Q-York and Morisette Amon.

“Bringing Depression to Light” is the goal of NGF’s advocacy. NGF advocates the treatment of depression through holistic means. Lifestyle change, good nutrition and a healthy support system help keep depression at bay.

An NGF poster shows a smiling young lady holding a dog. On the upper part where her eyes and forehead should be are the words: cum laude, accomplished pianist, fiction writer, volunteer, loves to cook, animal lover, committed to the environment, fun girlfriend, good daughter, dear sister, supportive friend, secretive, chronic depressive, committed suicide in 2005.

Jeannie, the NGF president, points out, “Depression knows no age, social class or gender. It can affect anybody. However, this mental illness is highly treatable and preventable.”

But awareness is key. Persons who suffer from depression need not feel they are alone while they cope with their mental condition.

So, tomorrow they and their circle of support (if any) should attend the gathering and discover ways of coping, find hands that reach out and meet kindred spirits who have overcome. Several schools – University of the Philippines, Miriam College, Ateneo and De la Salle – will provide free services and exhibit booths.

I am not a depressive, but I have friends who were/are and it is not easy to fathom the episodes of darkness that they go through. One friend killed herself six months ago by jumping from the 19th floor of a posh apartment building. I had dreaded the day it would happen, and one day she decided to end it all.

Another friend, a concert pianist, continues to cope in her own brave way. Several years ago she decided to come out in the open in the hope of shedding light on the condition and I was there to write her story. She will be at the gathering.

When Jeannie asked me if I could help her in her advocacy, I said yes. Last year I wrote a Sunday Inquirer Magazine article (“Weaving Meaning into Loss,” 10/30/2010) on her memories of Natasha and her reflections on the tragedy that visited her family. Jeannie and her Canadian husband Sydney have two daughters: Katrina and Natasha. Natasha died in 2002.

At the time of her death, Natasha had just finished working with an international fashion company in Hong Kong and was going into her own product line. There was a lot going for her. Her international education and travels had exposed her to enriching opportunities. She had a very supportive family. “She and her sister Katrina were very close,” Jeannie recalled. “They were like twins.”

Jeannie described Natasha as happy, gregarious and friendly. “Then I observed how her personality changed. We had her see a psychiatrist who gave her anti-depressants. She did tell us that there was something about the medication, that she felt funny and lightheaded. Her perception of reality changed. She had mood swings, she avoided crowds.” Those were warning signs. Three months later, Natasha was gone.

NGF aims “to share with the world the need for education and information on depression – what it is, what causes it, how to manage it and how to heal from it.” Depression can be treated and those afflicted must seek the correct help. Suicide, NGF stresses, should not be an option. (Visit www.ngf-hope.org or call 8972217.)

Jeannie’s wish list: For the DSWD to set up counseling rooms for depressives. For the DepEd to conduct seminars for teachers on how to spot depression. For the DOH to look at the “one suicide each day” statistic in the Philippines. For schools, hospitals and churches to put up informative posters on depression.

Jeannie’s thoughts constantly turn to Natasha’s passing. “My faith was shaken. This girl had a lot of dreams for the poor, the sick and the aged. How could we allow these to go to waste? But there is a reason for everything. Natasha was really on loan to us, and she had a purpose.”

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AIDFI: 'greatness of spirit' in harnessing technologies

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Again, congratulations to the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI) for being one of the six awardees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) for 2011. This is a great honor for this non-government organization (NGO) based in Negros Occidental. AIDFI was the only organization that received the award during formal ceremonies on Wednesday. The rest were individuals.

Last year, AIDFI won first prize in the BBC World Challenge, a global competition aimed at finding projects from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at the grassroots level. The AIDFI entry was dubbed “The only way is up” to describe the direction of the water source from down below to the upland communities needing water for their homes and farms. Shortly after receiving the award from BBC, AIDFI received the Fr. Neri Satur Award for Environmentalism. Since 2006, AIDFI has been getting awards and recognition here and abroad.

For those who have become cynical about NGOs and their sustainability or have had less than pleasant experiences with NGOs, AIDFI is one great example of concrete service to communities. It had its share of organizational problems in the past but it not only rose again from the dead, it climbed to heights—literally and figuratively—in order to deliver water to upland communities and improve lives through the use of technology.

AIDFI (Philippines) is being recognized for its “collective vision, technological innovations, and partnership practices to make appropriate technologies improve the lives of the rural poor in upland Philippine communities and elsewhere in Asia.”

The RMAF, in choosing awardees these past 54 years of its existence, puts great weight on “greatness of spirit and transformative leadership in selfless service to the peoples of Asia.” Greatness of spirit is that X factor.

We might falsely associate greatness of spirit with leaders oozing with charisma, tremendous drawing power or profound spirituality, great thinkers, philosophers, men and women of letters, missionaries and the like. What about an engineer in flip-flops?

This year’s awardees—two from India, two from Indonesia, one from Cambodia and one from the Philippines—have one thing in common, RMAF president Carmencita T. Abella said. “(They) are all deeply involved in harnessing technologies—both hard and ‘soft’—that can genuinely empower their countrymen and create waves of progressive change in Asia. Working on critical issues that impact not only their respective countries, but indeed, all of Asia, they are showing how commitment, competence and collaborative leadership can truly transform individual lives and galvanize community action.” (For more on the awardees, visit the RMAF website.)

The RM Award is another boost for AIDFI, not only because it is a prestigious award but also because of the cash prize that goes with it. The cash can go a long way for AIDFI’s sustainability. As in, thank you for the honor, but thank you, too, for the cash.

If I may stray a bit, there are awards and awards, plaques and trophies and glowing words for service-oriented groups and individuals, but rarely do these come with cash when cash is what these awardees sorely need to go on serving or to stay alive with integrity. Excuse my cynicism but I can’t help thinking that some awards are probably more of an image booster for the award-givers than for the recipients. Many award-giving bodies require their awardees to fly over, leave their work behind and dress up for the occasion. The awardees are then sent home with heavy trophies or plaques that add weight to their baggage. And then there are fly-by-night award givers who require their nominees to, you know what….

RMAF, considered Asia’s Nobel, is a class all its own. It gives a certificate and a medallion with the likeness of the former president Ramon Magsaysay after whom the award is named—plus big cash which an awardee could use as he/she pleases. I remember the late film director and RM awardee Lino Brocka saying that the first thing he did after receiving the cash award was to pay his electric and other household bills. He was not wealthy but he quietly helped workers in the movie industry. A footnote: he received his award (this was during the martial law era) with a cry for justice emblazoned on his barong tagalog.

AIDFI introduced the ram pump to upland areas to provide clean and cheap water for homes and farms, saving people the back-breaking work of carrying water from distant sources. AIDFI, with the help of Dutch marine engineer and Philippine resident Auke Idzenga, re-invented the centuries-old technology and made it come into its own. The technology uses the power of a river’s flow to push water uphill without any other energy input.

AIDFI has fabricated, installed and transferred 227 ram pumps that benefit 184 places in Negros Occidental and other provinces in the Philippines. AIDFI has also extended help for the poor abroad and is now doing technology transfer in Afghanistan, Colombia and Nepal. It has designed and fabricated an essential oil distiller that can process lemon grass into organic oil for industrial users. By transferring the technology to farmers and giving them support in marketing, AIDFI has helped increase rural incomes.

In AIDFI’s premises is a technopark that showcases AIDFI-designed technologies—from cooking and farm implements to a biogas plant, and a windmill which can generate up to 800 watts of electricity.

Truly, AIDFI’s pioneering technological innovations, the vision and greatness of spirit of the individuals—Filipinos and Dutch—behind it, have transformed countless lives in Asia.

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Hazare in Gandhi's footsteps

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

In the news in India and all over the world is anticorruption activist Anna Hazare who began a hunger strike that led to similar protests in India.

The latest issue of Time magazine carries a half-page photo of him with the caption, “Why does Delhi fear this man? Anticorruption activist Anna Hazare is surrounded by admirers at a memorial to Mohandas Gandhi in New Delhi on Aug. 15. Seeking to pressure the government into pushing through proposed reforms, Hazare, 74, and hundreds of supporters were arrested for attempting to start a hunger strike without permission. That sparked protests around the country.”

Many young Indians have joined the campaign and are flashing placards with the words “I am Anna, you are Anna, now the whole country is Anna.” It is like our own Pinoy “I am Ninoy” catchphrase.

What I noticed right away in the online articles on Hazare was the involvement in the issue of Ramon Magsaysay awardees from India Aruna Roy (Community Leadership, 2000) and Arvind Kerjiwal (Emergent Leadership, 2006). Their names rang a bell right away. (I had written about them and their advocacies. Kerjiwal, a journalist who used his pen to fight poverty, had been our guest speaker in the Inquirer.) Social activist Roy, like the famous novelist Arundathi Roy, does not approve of Hazare’s methods, while Kerjiwal supports Hazare. Another Indian RM awardee, Kiran Bedi (Government Service, 1994), is also a supporter of Hazare.

Hazare has shaken government institutions and raised awareness about corruption. At the heart of Hazare’s campaign is the Jan Lokpal Bill (citizen’s ombudsman bill), an anticorruption bill being pushed by civil society groups seeking the setting up of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and prosecute if necessary. Very much like our own Office of the Ombudsman.

A New York Times News Service article that came out in the Inquirer last Tuesday said that despite boiling temperatures during the weekend, people streamed into a public place in the capital, Delhi, to join Hazare on the sixth day of his anticorruption hunger strike. And in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, thousands gathered and marched through the city. Peaceful rallies were also held in other parts of the country.

A young student was quoted as saying, “(Hazare) has an X-factor. He is fighting for us. He is fighting for young India.” Many professionals and families with young children, even the middle class that used to be called apathetic, have joined Hazare’s campaign.

Why? The Indian government has been embroiled in corruption scandals that caused outrage and moved many to join Hazare’s protest moves.

Sounds familiar? The Philippines may be a step ahead because we have the Office of the Ombudsman but we all know what became of it under someone’s watch, and we all know about the plunder that went on unabated. Now every other day we learn of yet another big-time corruption scandal that happened under the past administration. Even the massive election cheating that we all knew happened but thought would never be unraveled, just suddenly all came under the light. But will anyone, big or small, go to prison?

Ah, but so many cases of corruption will remain hidden if the Freedom of Information bill is not passed.

We could feel sorry for the small fry who keep saying they just followed orders (and kept a tiny fraction of the loot). They should be pinned down so that they would cough up the truth about their bosses. Like that bookkeeper who gave an incredible story about the scandalous helicopter deals involving the former First Gentleman. She ended up in the Senate detention cell.

Who is Hazare? Hazare served as a soldier in the Indian Army but retired at the young age of 39, after which he went home to his village in the state of Maharasthra and helped poor farmers by pioneering in rainwater conservation. This earned his village international recognition. He then worked for electrification, building of schools and livelihood for the poor. He would later set up the Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (People’s Movement Against Corruption).

Hazare’s main protest weapon is hunger strike. He has his share of critics who call his style a form of blackmail. But his supporters are growing. An NDTV online article said: “But his weapon is potent. In 1995-96, he forced the Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra to drop two corrupt cabinet ministers. In 2003, he forced the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) state governments to set up an investigation against four ministers. In April this year, four days of fasting brought thousands of people out in support of his crusade against corruption. They also made the government realize it could not be dismissive about Anna Hazare and his mass appeal.”

Hazare may not be all that original, having imitated the protest style of Gandhi, the Mahatma. Gandhi was, of course, an original. He was an original even in his experiments with celibacy. But that’s another story. He fasted and led marches to end British rule in a non-violent way and, after that, worked to end the strife between the Hindus and the Muslims. He died a martyr for peace.

India has a special place in my heart because I spent almost a year there, trying to discover the spirituality in my Asianness, and the Asianness of my soul. I stayed for a month in an ashram where Gandhi had stayed and in several other sacred places, both Christian-Catholic and Hindu. It was a journey.

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Philippine e-books on the way

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

We have seen tiny grade school pupils groaning under the weight of their backpacks, with their spinal columns in danger of getting deformed and their physical growth compromised. They have to carry so many books and school supplies on their backs every day of their early school lives.

Now imagine all these heavy books compressed into microscopic pixels and uploaded into very light electronic devices and then downloaded for reading page by page. Minus the paper and the heavy weight.

Two days ago I was invited to a presentation by Vibal Foundation hosted by Anvil Publishing on the hows, whats and whys of e-publishing and e-books. A number of writers were present. Vibal Foundation executive director Gaspar A. Vibal and program director Kristine E. Mandigma took us by the hand to show us how e-books can change the way we publish, buy and read books.

Vibe is the first electronic bookstore in the Philippines which will be launched at the annual book fair in September. Vibe has already done a lot of work and spent a lot of money to convert into e-books precious out-of-print books that now belong to the public domain (50 years after the author dies), as well as new publications of their own.

Why? All for the love of these books, Vibal would tell you. Outside of his family’s publishing business, Vibal has spent years working in the book business in the United States. He knows the ropes and, now, the e-technology.

Vibe is also the name of the reading app (application) that could be downloaded for free and installed on PCs, Macs, Android devices, iPhones and iPads.

Printed books will not go the way of the dinosaur and those with a fetish for caressing books and who get a high when smelling the pages will not suffer withdrawal syndromes and need rehab. But readers now have a choice.

Authors and publishers can now consider linking up with Vibe for e-publishing and e-marketing. Anvil’s Karina Bolasco told me that my out-of-print “Journalist in Her Country” and a children’s book that I wrote last year could soon be turned into e-books. At no cost to Anvil or me. Now I can’t help but think of the e-possibilities for the Classics Illustrated and the Junior Classics Illustrated (in comics) of my childhood that, though bound and preserved, could succumb to the elements.

A US e-book publisher I inquired from e-mailed to say that converting from hard copy (no digital copy) to e-book could cost around $300. Forget it.

I met Vibe only two days ago and if I sound excited about it, it is because the people behind it dared to innovate and spend millions in order to offer something new for Filipino readers. It deserves a push. For although e-books are now the rage abroad and can be ordered via the Internet, books published in the Philippines have yet to get into the mainstream e-bookstores.

Vibal announced that a school in Metro Manila will soon acquire 5,000 devices for their students to use and into which will be uploaded books and books and books. That’s a different ball game.

Philippine trade books (non-textbooks) are what Vibal is even more excited about. These e-books will definitely be cheaper than printed ones. Think of paying P10 for an e-book instead of P300 for a printed version. Of course, you have to invest in an electronic device.

Oh, for the techno illiterate. The “e” stands for electronic, as in e-mail. So many products and services are now prefixed with the letter e. There is e-padala, e-wallet, even e-libing and e-burol.

Vibe, Vibal said, was inspired by the National Book Development Board’s Booklatan sa Bayan program. Vibal Foundation is using this “cloud-computing” project to make available to readers the widest number of newly published, out-of-print or public domain book titles, as well as magazines and newspapers. This, Vibal added, would address the problems of high prices, fragmented distribution and marketing delays. Vibe could also be a venue for independent publishers and authors who wish to sell their works directly to the public. Copyright issues and royalties are to be discussed.

So, what makes Vibe different from e-bookstores like Amazon Kindle, iBooks, etc? Vibe is designed with the needs of Philippine readers and publishers in mind. Unlike foreign-based e-bookstores for which a buyer would have to use credit cards for payment, Vibe will also accept payment through Globe Gcash, Smart Money and other services such as pasa-load, e-wallet, etc. Philippine publications could also be marketed in major international bookstores via Vibal Foundation’s links with them.

According to Vibal, the foundation has already digitized over 1,000 public domain titles and helped dozens of Philippine publishers in mass digitization efforts. It has also five years of experience in helping government offices in their e-publications.

Vibe can help you convert your print titles into ePub books. You can also convert your own e-books and upload them into the e-store. Calibre, a free software, can convert your books into ePub files. All preliminary ePub files, whether supplied by you or the foundation, undergo a validation process to ensure correct formatting and syntax.

If I sound like a techie, it is because I try my best to understand the language and keep abreast. So what’s the difference between, PDF files (portable document format) and the ePub format? The former looks the same as the printed page no matter what device you are using. With the latter the text can adapt to the size and orientation of your device screen.

Uh, are you still with me? Be not afraid, e-books will remain in “the cloud” till the twelfth of never. How? That’s another story. For e-book inquiries, contact

gvibal@vibalfoundation.org.

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On borrowed earth

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

As I trudged closer to the mountain’s windy peak, the dark jungle slowly broke open. Then, without warning, a million peach-colored flowers surged forward and I was swallowed waist deep in a lush ocean of color. And I thought, what place on earth is this… what undiscovered beauty….

Going up I encountered a moist green snake, insects and leeches, poisonous bulan-bulan leaves. A slip, a fall, a bone-crunching day and a bitter cold night had preceded all these. Now, here, suddenly, the morning of Creation. How wild and how peaceful.

This was not a prelude to paradise, I would just soon realize. A few more upward pushes and the flowers receded. Suddenly I was facing a bare desolate peak, the dwelling place of a small community of B’laans.

Here they lived. Here they had been pushed. Like so many scattered B’laan communities, these tribal folk dwelt, if not on mountain sides, on mountain peaks from where there was no more space to go but the sky. Sad were their faces. Sad was their chanting. Forty, 50 years ago, before the settlers came, these shy but hardy people roamed and owned the Mindanao vastness. Not anymore.

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Those were the first paragraphs of a long magazine feature article I wrote many, many years ago after spending more than a week in the land of the B’laans and the T’bolis in Mindanao.

I have written many feature articles and column pieces on the indigenous communities I have visited and immersed in-B’laan, T’boli, Mangyan, Aeta, Kalinga, native Americans, etc.—and the selfless individuals and groups that work among them. And I have considered compiling these articles into a book. Many years from now their present way of life will no longer be the same, and it is changing dramatically even now.

The United Nations’ International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples was observed two days ago, Aug. 9. This yearly observance is meant to promote and protect the rights of the world’s indigenous population and to recognize their contributions to make this world a better place, environmental protection among them.

In 2004 the UN assembly proclaimed 2005 -2014 the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People. The decade’s goal is to further strengthen international cooperation for solving problems faced by indigenous peoples in areas such as culture, education, health, human rights, the environment, and social and economic development.

Alas, despite all that, the IPs who are the guardians of this planet’s last frontiers, are also the ones who continue to bear the brunt of so-called development for profit.

I commend Akbayan Rep. Kaka Bag-ao for her privilege speech (“Earth Borrowed from our Children”) on Aug. 9. She began by saying, “While the Philippine Constitution and the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) recognize the rights of indigenous peoples (IP), our vibrant ethnicity also chronicles the un-romanticized tale of cultural communities who are historically marginalized by our state policies. The policy, which this representation is referring to, is the state of perpetrated plunder of our national patrimony which we commonly refer to as the Philippine Mining Act of 1995.”

Bag-ao is pushing for the repeal of the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 which, she said, allows 100 percent foreign ownership of mining projects which could use up to 81,000 hectares of land and could last for 50 years. Mining companies are given priority access to water resources within their concessions and can repatriate all profits subject only to 2 percent excise tax with tax holidays and deferred payment incentives.

It is as if the government is doing a bargain sale and even subsidizing exploitation, she said. In 2008 the reported contribution of the mining industry to the gross domestic product was only 1.28 percent.

Bag-ao stressed that the Philippines holds the third largest gold deposit in the world, fourth largest deposit in copper, the sixth largest deposit in nickel. She noted that the bulk of the country’s mineral wealth, timber and other raw materials are found in the last frontier inhabited and protected by the IPs.

Citing data from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Bag-ao said that there are 482 mining applications covering 1,046,350.87 hectares. An estimated 595,058.11 (56.87 percent) will cover IP territories.

Present in the House last Tuesday were Subanen leaders from Zamboanga Peninsula who have filed a petition before the Supreme Court for the issuance of a writ of kalikasan to stop mining in the peninsula.

And while mining corporations rake in billions in profits, the communities that have guarded the resources remain impoverished and are the first to suffer environmental disasters such as ground subsidence and the landslides in Benguet and mercury poisoning in Sibuyan.

The Commission on Human Rights had issued a resolution in favor of the Ifugao tribe in Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya, calling for the revocation of the Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement of Oceana Gold but it was not implemented, Bag-ao said. In 2010, the Ifugaos and the Subanens sent a complaint to UNCERD but the government ignored the recommendation of the international body.

And to cap Bag-ao’s lamentations: “Last June 30 … the paramilitary group Salakawam killed anti-mining lumad (IP) leader Arpe Belayong and his nephew Solte San-ogan in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, host to several mining applications.”

The IP guardians of the wilderness believe that the land and all its riches are borrowed from their children and should someday be returned for them to enjoy.

There’s blood on borrowed earth. And the bleeding continues.

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'That she may dance again'

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

To become an interruption, perhaps a prophet to the Church hierarchy that for so long has denied women of equal dignity and full humanity.”

This is the opening line of the foreword of the book “That She May Dance Again: Rising from pain of violence against women in the Philippine Catholic Church” (2011) authored by Sr. Nila Bermisa, a Maryknoll Sister, and published by the Women and Gender Commission (WGC) of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP).

The book should be read especially by both the men and women who serve in the Church so that their eyes may be opened to painful realities and they will understand the root, the history, the dynamics of the experiences that many women have suffered in secret.

It takes a Catholic woman to write openly and bravely in a book about a subject long held in secret, even often denied. But now that the dark secrets are coming out from many parts of the world, the Philippines included, these realities might as well be laid bare in an honest and compassionate way. No less than the Pope himself has apologized on behalf of the powerful Roman Catholic Church for the sins of the past that had long been swept under the altar.

But indeed, it takes a woman, with supportive women around her, to do the spade work so that what are buried may be unearthed. So that those concerned may act and prevent more abuses against women, and more importantly, so that justice may be served. So that women themselves, in knowing and understanding the roots and dynamics of these realities, may become empowered to curb and prevent more of these.

Sister Nila delves into the individual experiences of those who have suffered sexual abuse in the hands of priests and Church officials. At the core of the book are some true-to-life cases of sexual abuse and violence. But the book is not a case book. She does not serve up case after case in order to shock or cater to voyeurs and readers’ curiosity. She treads calmly and uses the women’s stories to show in a phenomenological way what the women had gone through, the circumstances surrounding the abusive encounters, the whys and the wherefores.

It all began with a letter of concern from the WGC that was sent to the bishops. The reaction was negative. Sister Nila recalls: “As I drove away from the CBCP compound I kept asking myself, why can’t they take our word? Are these men blind or deaf to what is happening around them? WGC was asked to substantiate its claim that there are sexual abuses in the Catholic Church in the Philippines. We had to provide raw data…” And so more spade work was done.

I had known about the research on sexual abuse conducted by WGC. I wrote a two-part series on their findings in the Inquirer in 2003. I knew that the findings were also presented to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

Recalls Sister Nila: “The media managed to obtain parts of the report and published these in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a national newspaper. Meanwhile other women’s groups also started to release information about other cases of abuse and misconduct by the clergy. The publicity created confusion among the people when they started hearing and seeing in the news that their parish priests or bishops (whom they knew and respected) had been involved in sexual abuses. Although the bishops could no longer ignore the reports, still they tried to minimize the existence of these abuses by saying that these were not representative of the clergy in general.”

The book goes beyond the reactions that attended the presentation and release of the findings. While she writes in the first person, she carries with her historical, biblical, theological, psychological, spiritual and feminist perspectives that enrich her narrative. Hers is a scholarly piece of work.

And it was not enough that she and the WGC researchers listened to and recorded the women’s tales of woe. They created a haven (Talitha Cum) for the women in distress and helped them find healing.

Sister Nila holds a doctor of ministry degree with specialization in International Feminist Theologies from San Francisco Theological Seminary, USA. She also has an MA in religious studies from the Institute of Formation and Religious Studies in Quezon City where she was dean from 2001-2005. She is a member of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians.

Here is what noted theologian Fr. Percy Bacani, MJ said of Sister Nila’s opus. “Sr. Nila unlocks the web of sexual violence in the Church…she narrates the psycho-social and spiritual impact of abuse committed by the clergy and how traditional theology, ecclesiology, and spirituality legitimate the past and current behavior of Church authorities. The only way out is to allow women to name their experiences and become part of the on-going rethinking of Church’s teaching on women and men. ‘That She May Dance Again’ is an attempt to see women’s experiences and wisdom as integral part of the total renewal in the Church. Without their voices, we shall remain impoverished in living the subversive memory of Jesus who calls us to be friends and disciples and never as lording over others.”

There is a lot of rebuilding to be done, Sister Nila concludes. She quotes the prophet Isaiah: “Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.”

“As a people of faith,” she writes, “we are called to rebuild God’s temple. It is rebuilding the kin*dom of Jesus where women and men can enjoy life in abundance and wholeness.”

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