Disaster-ready Philippines

The earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday, February 27, 2010, brought chills into my body as I remember the 7.1 magnitude earthquake I experienced in the 90s. 

Me and my classmates were off from school, walking along Taft avenue, under the light rail transit.  When the earth shook, we moved away from a huge building structure, embraced one another and said our prayers.  It was a foretaste of the end of the world (well, what do i know about it?!).  It was a moment where you think about your families, their whereabouts and the possibility of reuniting...  Was that a glimpse of Chile earthquake?  I dont think so.  Chile's earthquake was with far greater strength, unimaginable.  I would have not wanted to exchange my place that day to Chile.

Where was I?  I was part of a team that conducted a study tour in an organic farm.  I was surrounded by families (father/mother, young children) who made a decision to change their lives and believe that one step (at a time) will make a difference on earth. 

They are Catholic Filipino Academy, advocating for zero waste management.  While gradeschoolers get to know up-close the relationship of plants, soil, worms and how these work together in the farm to manage waste, the highschoolers did Organic Gardening 101, producing a plot of pre-germinated lettuce at the end of the activity.  The homework left for the whole family now is to bring what they learned in the farm to their own homes.

Meanwhile, the Philippines got a wake up call from Chile and sets the alarm for Disaster Preparedness.  How are we ready for a natural calamity? 

"This is another warning for us, if Ondoy and Pepeng were not enough, we ought to get our acts together and be prepared for the next time that mother nature decides to come down hard and pummel the Philippines again." said Senator Edgardo J. Angara who is calling for a focused drive to achieve a level of national disaster preparedness that would make the country better equipped to face natural calamities.

When do we start?

Know more about Sustainable Agriculture and how the principles of Care, Health, Ecology and Fairness are developed in this environment.  Join our Study Tour!  We Care for your Health, We Nurture the Earth!!!

Live this ONE full toDAY

We are fond of clipping inspirational articles; remembering quotes; copying poems from a dentist's recliner, from a bus seat, from an office bench, from a doctor's armchair, from a bar stool, from a train bunk...  While Valentine's Day is just around the corner, we are reminded to speak out our endearment to our beloved.  To the hearts that have been broken and fear the amour, i wish you breadth of surfeit TODAY... You deserve all the love for you are a child out of love...

"There are two days in every week about which we should not worry, two days which should be kept free from fear and apprehension.

One of these days is YESTERDAY, with its mistakes and cares, its faults and blunders, its aches and pains. Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control. All the money in the world cannot bring back yesterday. We cannot undo a single act we performed or erase a single word we said. Yesterday is gone.

The other day we should not worry about is TOMORROW, with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise, and its poor performance. Tomorrow is also beyond our immediate control.

This leaves only one day, TODAY. Anyone can fight the battles of just one day. It is only when you and I add the burdens of those two awful eternities - Yesterday and Tomorrow - that we break down.

It is not the experience of Today that makes us sad, it is the bitterness for something which happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may bring. Let us therefore… Live this one full TODAY."

photo courtesy of care2
Send your love. Send it through care2, the ecard that supports the environment.

Save the Ifugao Terraces

Where is Ifugao Terraces?
Ifugao is one of the six provinces of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), situated in the Philippines’ North Central Luzon. It is a landlocked watershed province bounded by a mountain range to the north and west that tempers into undulating hills towards the south and the east. The highest elevation is 2,523 meters above sea level (masl) with the rice terraces lying above 500 masl.

What is the source of living of the Ifugaos (originally Ipugo "from the earth")?
The traditional economy was characterized by terrace agriculture, woodlot maintenance and swidden farming which developed in response to the natural landscape and have given it its distinctive character over the centuries. However, these systems are now placed under intense pressure by both subsistence and market demands.

As a result, the traditional forms of subsistence are being eaten away by changing cultural values and the pressing economic needs of the local population. Ifugao today is one of the poorest provinces in the country. More than 90 percent of its income comes from its share of the Internal Revenue Allotment, while less than 10 percent is generated from local sources. Its total income in year 2000 was PHP 201,218,543.90 or roughly US$5 million.

About 69 percent of the labour force is involved in agriculture. Rice produced by the terraced paddies can only feed a regular family for a little over five months, so Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement has initiated eco-tourism to the community to increase economic benefits.  More information at UNESCO website.

Since its initiation in 2006, the eco-cultural heritage programme has yielded promising results, but much still needs to be accomplished and improved.

As a contribution to help farmers overcome their structural poverty, the overall financial contribution of the rice cycle tours to the host communities is still insignificant. The number of visitors to heritage sites other than Banaue is still relatively low. Thus the economic impact of tourism on the host communities is not yet felt. Nevertheless, the increasing number of visitors participating in the heritage tours is a good sign. With the right local government policies, continued collaboration of all stakeholders and continued investment from both the public and private sectors, the heritage tours may eventually be a significant contributor the local economy and a tool for the conservation of the rice terraces.

Let us preserve our heritage, let us support the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement (SITMo), a non-government organization, which aims to revive traditional management practices through the transmission of indigenous knowledge systems to the younger generation and to assist ethnic communities to develop pro-poor tourism industries that benefit all stakeholders and revive disappearing cultural practices.

TUNOD AD HUNGDUAN TOUR (2010)
Feb. 19-21 (3 days, 2 nights)
(Rice Planting Tour, December, January and February)

The tour will give the tourists the opportunity to experience the Ifugao rice terraces culture by actually participating in tunod or transplanting of the rice seedlings.

Day 1 Feb. 19 Friday- Kiangan
6 am Arrival in Kiangan
8am-9am Breakfast
9am-10am Orientation on Ifugao Culture and the Ifugao Rice Terraces
10am-11am Visit Gen. Yamashita Surrender Site , WWII Memorial Shrine, Ifugao Museum
11am-12nn Lunch
12:30-1:30 pm Travel to Brgy. Julongan
1:30pm-3:30 pm 30 minute nature-treck to Bagnit waterfalls(swimming in its natural pool)
4pm-5pm Travel back to SITMo Office (place of accommodation)
Free time
7:30pm-8:30pm Dinner
8:30pm-10pm Bonfire/ socialization
Overnight at SITMo Office dorm

Day 2 Feb. 20 Saturday– Tunod Day
7am-8am Breakfast
8:30am-10:30am Travel to Hungduan
10:30am-11:30am Check in at Hungduan Eco-village
11:30am-12:30pm Lunch
1pm-3:00pm Tunod activity
4pm-7pm Free time/rest
7pm-8 pm Dinner
8pm-10pm Cultural show and community interaction

Day 3 Feb. 21 Sunday
7:30am-8:30am Breakfast
9am-111am Loom weaving demo ( for those who want to attend mass, mass starts at 9am)
11am-12:00nn Lunch
12nn-12:30pm Travel to Brgy. Hapao
12:30pm-2:30pm Hapao Viewpoint
Wood carving demo
2:30pm-3:30pm Visit Banaue Viewpoint
Souvenir shopping
5pm Departure for those going to Baguio (KMS Lines)
6 pm Departure for those going to Manila (Autobus)

photo courtesy of SITMo

The Only Hope for the Philippines

From a compassionate retreat master to a well-respected American Jesuit priest, who has found home in the Philippines and in the hearts of Filipinos (including mine).  Father James Reuter, S.J has something to say...
 
Our republic has become one of the weakest nations, steadily left behind by its more progressive neighbors. Forty years ago, we were only second to Japan in economic stature, and way ahead of Singapore , Hong Kong , Malaysia , and Thailand . Today, at our present growth rate, it will take us 30 years to get to where Thailand is.

Our national debt is estimated to be at US$200B (compared to US$28B when Marcos fled). We will be competing, not against Thailand or even Vietnam , but against Bangladesh. We will be the most corrupt nation in Asia , if not in the world (we're already ranked 11th most corrupt nation by Transparency International) ...

The signs are clear. Our nation is headed towards an irreversible path of economic decline and moral decadence. It is not for lack of effort. We've seen many men and women of integrity in and out of government, NGOs, church groups & people's organization devote themselves to the task of nation-building, often times against insurmountable odds. Not even people's revolutions, bloodless as they may be, have made a dent in reversing this trend. At best, we have moved one step forward, but three steps backward.

We need a force far greater than our collective efforts, as a people, can ever hope to muster. It is time to move the battle to the spiritual realm... It's time to gather GOD's people to pray for the economic recovery and moral reformation of our nation.

Is prayer really the answer?

Before you dismiss this as just another rambling, I'd like you to consider some lessons we can glean from history.

England 's ascendancy to world power was preceded by the Reformation, a spiritual revival fueled by intense prayers.

The early American settlers built the foundation that would make it the most powerful nation today --- a strong faith in GOD and a disciplined prayer life. Throughout its history, and especially at its major turning points, waves of revival and prayer movement swept across the land.

In recent times, we see Korea as a nation experiencing revival and in the process producing the largest Christian church in the world today, led by Rev. Paul Yongi Cho. No wonder it has emerged as a strong nation when other economies around it are faltering.

Even from a purely secular viewpoint, it makes a lot of sense. For here, there is genuine humbling & seeking of GOD through prayer, moral reformation necessarily follows. And this, in turn, will lead to general prosperity. YES, we believe prayer can make a difference. It's our only hope.

Today, we launch this email brigade, to inform Filipinos from all over the world to pray, as a people, for the economic recovery and moral reformation of our nation. We do not ask for much. We only ask of you to fwd this email to your close friends and relatives.

This is the kind of resolve and unity which can make a big difference. Of course, if you feel strongly, as I do, about the power of prayer, you can be more involved by starting a prayer group or prayer center.

We have tried people power twice before; in both cases, it fell short. Maybe it's time to try prayer power. GOD never fails. Is there hope? YES! We can rely on God's promise, but we have to do our part. If we humble ourselves and pray as a people, GOD will hear and heal our land. By GOD's grace, we may still see a chance of a better future for our country.

'If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land...
(2 Chronicles 7:14).

If you care for your children and grandchildren, let's not abandon the Philippines.  Please pass this on...

No Crice-sis?

One early morning, preparing to leave home for Villegas Organic and Hobby Farms in Batangas, my breakfast-to-go was packed with a news that the Philippines is importing another 250,000 tonnes of rice because of the typhoons that struck the country.  This is on top of the 1.5 million tons of rice we have contracted with Vietnam to supply us early 2009. We have become the world's biggest rice buyer and the government is claiming there is no rice crisis. 

Rice is the most important food crop, a staple food in our country.  Over 10 million metric tons of rice is needed to feed Filipinos.  However, it is palliative to say that rice importation is the solution to rice shortage (or no shortage?!).

A senator notes that rice importation "symbolizes the government's neglect of the local agriculture sector." An NGO adds, "Rice importation has not resulted in lowered rice prices, but worsened the bankruptcy of farmers and even placed the country in greater food insecurity."

While rice production from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation's point of view "is facing serious constraints including a declining rate of growth in yields, depletion of natural resources, labour shortages, gender-based conflicts, institutional limitations and environmental pollution. Overcoming hunger, poverty and malnutrition - while protecting the environment - requires collective action by all stakeholders. The diversity of the regions, peoples, and resources connected within the world's rice-based systems, requires a diverse approach for global rice-based development that includes participation from the local to the international level."

A study made by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) showed that consumers in the Philippines waste some 25,000 sacks of rice, amounting to Php30 million everyday.

How do we, in our own little way, avert a full-blown rice and food crisis?

This SUMMER 2010:  Expose your kids to the values of Care, Health, Ecology and Fairness through sustainable and organic agriculture.  At Villegas Organic and Hobby (VOHO) Farms, we are ensuring informative FUN FOR YOUR KIDS while ensuring food security and nutrition, poverty reduction and overall environmental wellness through the employment of sustainable and organic agriculture practices.

Take a tour of the farms in 5 minutes, click here. 
We Care for your Health, We Nurture the Earth!!!
CALL +632.774.8472  
SMS +63.9088.858.656 
EMAIL activeculture.club@Gmail.com   activeculture@Ymail.com
SKYPE activeculture.club (kindly email us first before calling)
WEB http://villegasfarmcomplex.multiply.com/

Other activities at the VOHO Farms:
Lakbay-Aral sa Bukid Organiko (Study Tour in an Organic Farm)--SIGNATURE TOUR
Summer Camping--SPECIAL PROMO, Lakbay-Aral for Parents and Teachers, Tree Planting and Harvesting, Educational Trip stop-over, Communing with Nature, Tree Climbing, Fishing, Animal Care and Experience, Trail Hiking, Preparing and Tasting Ethnic foods and delicacies, and more

Some of the Organizations that have been to the farm are De La Salle Lipa faculty and students; United Nations Filipino Consultants and Expatriate Staff; Medical doctors and practitioners of Alternative medicine; Agricultural Development and Marketing Officers from Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Japan and Philippines.