From Nordis, January 13, 2008
Of all the years that I have travelled to many remote places in the country, one thing became clear to me. The less accessible a place is the more preserved it is. People is a major source of change. They can alter the landscape, dilute culture, replace indigenous ways of thinking and doing. There is one place I had been visiting for the last eight years that had remained virtually unchanged because of its isolation. It is a place where nature proceeds in its own pace and where people are deeply connected to their environment because their survival depends on it.
The Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park is the biggest park system in the Philippines, covering an area of 359,486 hectares, including 287,861 hectares of land and 71,625 hectares of marine area. It is located in the province of Isabela and covers 12 major types of habitat. Studies show that 70 globally threatened and near threatened species of wildlife are found in the park. Being exposed to the harshness of the Pacific very few people live in this wilderness. Only an estimated 32,500 people including 1,000 indigenous Dumagats or Agtas reside within or adjacent to the park. There are no roads connecting the park to the developed municipalities of Isabela in the west. There are three ways of getting there- by boat from Sta. Ana, Cagayan in the north or from Baler, Aurora in the south, and a faster way which is to fly from Ilagan to Palanan.
Not too keen on being on a small aircraft I have always gone by boat from Aurora province. It is a scenic and exciting route since I get to see the wide expanse of the Sierra Madre mountain range. Waterfalls abound since the Sierra Madre is a well preserved watershed. It is in fact the last remaining big block of forest cover in Luzon. Un-named falls drain out to the Pacific as they carve out age-old rocks that had been exposed when the mountains were formed through folding. Miles and miles of rugged coastline are honeycombed with caves, cliffs and crevices. Beaches as varied as the nature can create lace the edge of the mountain. There are beaches with coral rubbles, pebbles, boulders, rocks and pink, gold, brown, gray, and white sand. Occasionally river deltas break the beach and allow the mixing of salt water and fresh water from the forest. This brings about an ideal condition for the growth of mangroves.
A kayak is a perfect tool to explore such riverine ecosystems. On one of the trips I paddled into a river and discovered a waterfalls at the end of one of the narrow corridors. It was such an exciting and exhilarating experience since I could not help but think that I may have been one of the privileged few to have seen it in its most pristine state. There was even a bit of a shower that day and the mangrove trees were in full bloom. Drops of rain drops fell on bright red flowers making them glimmer like diamonds. The pattering of rain mixed with the symphony of crickets, birds and the gushing of the water from the falls. The entire experience was surreal and puts one in such a state of being – meditative and hypnotic. Pristine places always have this effect on me. Somehow they open me up to messages that otherwise I would have not picked up from the noise and chaos of the city.
In this same river I met a Dumagat named Daniel. He offered bananas and root crops in exchange for coffee, sugar, diesel and gin. Money has no value in this place since there are no stores or shops where one can spend them. Since that encounter I learned the art of barter. I realized soon after that certain objects that have very little value for city folks like me can be a treasured possession. A woman named Lina taught me this lesson when I gave her a used raincoat as a farewell gift. I did not expect her to shed tears of joy for such a “cheap” item. I must have appeared more touched than her as she exclaimed with full emotions while hugging my gift, ”Naku di na ako mababasa pag kukuha ako ng nipa sa gubat! Iingatan ko ito talaga!” (I will no longer have to get wet when I collect nipa from the forest. I will treasure this gift.) Value is not always equated with the money one exchanges for an item. It is more associated with how much it will serve us. This woman has no idea that the lesson she gave me that day was even more valuable than the raincoat I left her.
One lazy afternoon while I was walking along the beach I met a group of Dumagat men who told me that they were on their way to attend a wedding. It was quite fascinating that the actual wedding ritual was not exactly set on a specific day and time. They told me that the wedding will occur when all the guests have arrived from wherever they were supposed to come from. These men had been walking for two days and it will take them another two days to reach their destination. Their story reverberated with the lesson of patience. People in the city no longer know the real essence of patience as we go about our daily routine stressfully hurrying from one task to another. When my five year old son came with me in one of these expeditions he brought with him his colourful toys that he used to build sandcastles. He could not understand why his Dumagat friends were not interested in playing with his toys. After picking them up and looking at them, these ebony skinned carefree children of the earth lost interest and instead started gathering sticks, seaweeds, flowers and stones. They built their sandcastles out of nature and with nature. I could not help but envy the freedom of spirit that these children enjoy. I watched them roll their naked bodies in the sand and blissfully shriek with joy as they run and jump with the waves.
Near Josefina falls in a place I call Shark Fin Bay, I became friends with a family of semi-nomadic Dumagat that had put up temporary shelters made of grass and leaves along the beach forest. An old man they call the Mayor proudly showed me a Philhealth card. He said that Governor Grace Padaca gave them this card so that they can enjoy health services anywhere they go. Although he said that the nearest health center is a few days walk from where we were, he nevertheless appreciate the fact that they have not been forgotten, that they are still important and that they still deserve such benefit.
The Dumagat is one of the many indigenous tribes of our country who are striving to survive in an ever changing world. Their population is slowly diminishing due to high mortality rate brought about by poor nutrition and diseases. They may be poor based on the usual criteria people use to gauge prosperity, but it is my belief that they are rich. They are full of indigenous knowledge and wisdom. The natural environment has been their home, their holy place, their medicine cabinet and their supermarket. Wild as it may seem, life in this remote place is actually tamer, simpler and slower than where I came from.
