The last frontier

The Philippines is about to lose one of its last tropical rainforests.

It is immeasurably small compared to the Amazon behemoth of Brazil. It is even diminutive compared to the mountain ranges of Sierra Madre. But this one is no ordinary rainforest. It is an impressive, triangular, and multi-dimensional chain of mountains sitting in an exotic paradise called Sibuyan, one of the islands that comprise the province of Romblon.

Mt. Guiting-Guiting is unique for its precipitous, and serrated terrains which render it almost impervious to hikers and loggers alike. Home to the inestimable diversity of fauna and flora, trees, birds, insects, and animals, it is acknowledged as the densest rainforest in the world. No less than 1,551 hardwood trees are contained in one hectare.

This rainforest has been declared Natural Park in 1996 by President Ramos. It is even considered one of the eight wonders of this benighted archipelago. Mountain climbers who scale the heights of Mt. Guiting-Guiting are awed by the wild beauty of orchids, the variety of multihued birds, and the intimidating presence of enormous trees—like the Hopea fosworthyi (Dalingdingan) trees—whose girth cannot be circumscribed by the combined length of the puny arms of Romblon’s congressman, governor, and vice-governor. The smallest bats in the world—Sibuyan Pygmy Fruitbats—are found in the caves of the rainforest. Some years back, one Swiss entomologist was astonished to discover six previously unknown tropical insects.

Such is the grandeur of Mt. Guiting-Guiting that when one contemplates its awesome existence, one cannot but feel a sense of the sublime and the sacred. Viewed from afar in the afterglow, it is like a serene, slumbering Colossus clothed with blue mist and crowned with clouds. In the tranquil moments of the evening, the majestic form of Mt. Guiting–Guiting is silhouetted by the glow of the full moon against the silverly surface of the sea.

ENDANGERED

Mt. Guiting-Guiting—which rises to 2,057 meters above sea level—is now under the grave threat of mechanized mining. The jagged terrains of the rainforest pose a formidable challenge to a full–scale logging. But they are extremely vulnerable to the massive operation of modern quarrying – slicing, digging, carving, and moving of huge amount of soil in the process of extracting minerals from the bowels of the earth.

Mt. Guiting-Guiting is known to hold huge amount of nickel, gold, and other minerals in its womb. Small wonder that, after Philippine laws on mining were liberalized, greedy capitalists and government officials are salivating like canines over the prospect of laying hand on the boundless wealth of the rainforest. As of this writing, the government has already given its go-signal to mining companies to start their activities in a foreseeable future. Although the actual excavation is yet to commence, and although the majority of the inhabitants of Sibuyan Island is strongly opposing the move to mine Mt. Guiting-Guiting, the minions of mining companies are already busy laying out their stratagems.

The Philippines is known for its wealth in natural resources and minerals like gold, copper, nickel, etc and the mining industry offers the fairest hope of lifting the people from the morass of poverty and mismanagement. It certainly provides jobs and other income generating opportunities for the people.

But the problem is that mining is a complicated and tricky business. Mainly motivated by money and profit, mining companies are particularly susceptible to the pressures and temptations of our corrupt body-politic. They can easily resort to the bad habits and shady deals being perpetrated by corrupt public officials.

Some mining companies are on hand to ‘’allay’’ the fears of the Sibuyanons. In broad terms, they tell the people that their geologists and mining engineers would see to it that mining excavations would be done properly—with a gentle regard to the rainforest.

Furthermore, they say that what is to be mined is just a small portion outside the guarded preserve of the rainforest. The 15,000 square hectares of what is called Mt. Guiting-Guiting proper will remain inviolate. Only those wooded "hills" in the village of Taclobo will be mined.

What they are not telling the people of Sibuyan is that mining Mt. Guiting-Guiting is an entirely different and complex case. Unlike mining in a level terrain with only undergrowth and few trees to be cleared, extracting nickel from its bowels will involve the cutting of hundreds of thousands of trees, the displacement of various kinds of fowls, birds, and insects, the destruction of innumerable species of flora and fauna, and the turning over of millions of cubic tons of soil.

The "hills" being referred to by the mining companies can actually be considered forested mountains because they rise up to no less than 130 meters in height. And we are not talking of just one or two so-called "hills." We are dealing here with a long chain of "hills"—thickly wooded, wonderfully formed by Nature, and inextricably linked with the mountains at the center.

‘GIANT FOOT’

Imagine Mt. Guiting-Guiting as a giant foot. Those so-called "hills" are like toes serving as lateral support of Mt. Guiting-Guiting. When the bulldozers start their engines, they will first chomp bit by bit the toes, and then move upwards biting and chewing larger chunks. It is literally slicing, carving, and moving mountains and hills. Once the lower parts of Mt. Guiting-Guiting give way, the chain of mountains at its epicenter will be destabilized sooner or later; and science can neither anticipate nor calculate the devastation it will wreak on the people living in the littoral areas.

For millions of years, Mt. Guiting-Guiting—a masterpiece of divine architecture—has been sitting in its primeval abode long before mortals reached the shores of Sibuyan; and, if left alone in its solitude, will outlast a thousand generations of human beings. Its long existence and enthralling beauty should remind us that it is a hallowed place that deserves our rapture and reverence. It should instill in us a humble thought that there are forces of nature far greater than us, and that we are not the rightful owners of, but only strangers in the land we temporarily inhabit.

Mt. Guiting-Guiting is a sacred place. It does not belong to this present generation, nor to any other. Our ancestors taught us not to touch the sacred but to reverence it as a constant reminder that we are mere ephemeral creatures. Mt. Guiting-Guiting is a hallowed ground because it gives life. And here we are—trying to obliterate the life-giving Mother Earth that sustains our very existence. How tragic.

by: FR. RAYMUN J. FESTIN