MANILA, Philippines--Even in death, she continues to nurture the earth.

The ashes of Odette Alcantara, a fierce defender of the environment, were scattered Saturday in her farm in Tanay, Rizal, to nourish the saplings that were planted in her honor.

“It’s as though she has returned to the earth,” her sister, Noni del Mundo, said during the special ceremony that Alcantara’s family and friends dubbed a “tree-bute.”

“Some of us wanted to keep a part of her ashes. But it was her wish for her ashes to be scattered completely. She didn’t want to be stored in some columbarium,” Del Mundo said in Filipino.

Alcantara, green activist, arts patron, and chess player, died on Sept. 22 after suffering an aneurysm. She was nine days shy of 69.

On Saturday, under alternately weeping and sunny skies, her family and friends gathered to honor her at the Acuña Farms, an eight-hectare property that she co-owned.

To symbolize Alcantara’s strength and fortitude, the tree-planters began the ceremony with the planting of a Philippine ironwood (mangkono) sapling.
The species is said to be the toughest of Philippine hardwoods.

“It takes four hours to cut with a chainsaw, and four days to cut with an ax. That’s how hard it is,” said Binggirl Clemente, treasurer of Earth Day Network Philippines (EDNP).

1,000 saplings

Sixty-nine young trees indigenous to the Philippines, including narra, were planted to represent Alcantara’s 69 years on earth.

But EDNP chair Elisea “Bebet” Gozun, a former environment secretary, said some 1,000 saplings would be planted in all.

Before the tree-planting activity, Grace Odal danced to “Bathala” (god) as the University of the Philippines’ Kontra-Gapi played rhythmic beats using indigenous instruments.

Sarah Alcantara told the crowd that “the first thing” her grandmother wanted was “for everyone to unite.”

“How are you going to pull this off now that you’re gone?” she said she remembered thinking to herself.

“As I stand here today, she proved me wrong again. Even if she’s not here physically, she’s still able to unite people,” Sarah said.

Gozun said Alcantara knew at heart that there was only “one Earth to sustain us all.”

“Precisely because she has touched our lives, she remains a part of us, [giving us strength] to fight for what we think is right,” Gozun said.

She said planting trees could be considered “the biggest tribute we can give Odette.”

Passion lives on

More than a month after her passing, Alcantara’s advocacy lives in the passion for the environment that she shared with and passed on to her family and friends.

At her house in Blue Ridge, Quezon City, where she welcomed students, fellow environmentalists, artists and even government officials, for informal gatherings, forums and workshops, the talk is still love for nature.

Her son Alex Alcantara said it was part of her unwritten will: “She verbalized, when she was still physically alive, that this will be the meeting place for the common good for the environment.”

So, as it was when Alcantara was alive, EDNP members held their board meeting at her house on Nov. 6 and discussed the numerous projects she started.

“We are continuing the advocacy of the organization, which is also our way to celebrate Odette’s contribution,” Gozun said.

On that day, EDNP also invited Lone Andersen, a representative of a Norwegian company making biodegradable plastics out of corn and potato, to present some of its products.

Dubbed as “biobags,” the products are a possible solution to the garbage problem hounding the Philippines, made more pronounced by waterways clogged with mostly plastic trash.

(The 5.2-meter-long female whale shark found dead in Manila Bay early this month was discovered to have eaten plastics and nails.)

Good time to act

Gozun said it was a good time to call on people to act, especially in the aftermath of the serial storms that whipped the country.

What happened “highlights the urgency for everybody to take action,” she said.

Alex Alcantara said his mother had long warned about what nature, harmed and abused, could do.

Indeed, Alcantara died four days before Tropical Storm “Ondoy” triggered what has been described as the worst flooding in Metro Manila.

Andersen said that while many countries had already banned the use of plastic bags, governments had yet to specify any alternative.

She said the use of “biobags” was an option but that it should come with structural support as well, such as garbage segregation and compost stations.

She also said dumping biodegradable wastes such as leftover food in landfills would produce methane gas, which is harmful to the atmosphere.

If there is a compost station, biodegradable wastes, including the “biobags,” can be turned into compost that could even generate electric power in a biogas plant, Andersen said.

Just one glitch: The biodegradable products cost four to six times that of ordinary plastics.

But Andersen quickly added that people should also look at what cheaper plastics cost the environment.

Though ordinary plastics are cheaper, “how much does it cost to clean the earth afterward?” she said.

10M movement

EDNP is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year with the launch of the 10M movement.

The movement hopes to plant 10 million trees by next year, and to gather 10 million signatures from people to show not only their concern for the environment but also their commitment to do what they can for it.

EDNP has started a website—www.10mmovement.
ning.com—where people can sign up for the campaign.

“This is a revolution—a turnaround—of our mind, our attitudes, and our practices that must happen within us,” the EDNP said.

Gozun said gathering enough support for the environment would also send the message to aspiring leaders that “the environment should be high on their agenda.”