Farmers, Aeta families reclaim river, hold feast

PORAC, Pampanga—Celebrating their struggle against destructive quarrying on Malele River, upland farmers and Aetas held a festival at the foothills of Mt. Pinatubo on Saturday with a vow to rehabilitate the water source that feeds their farms.

At past 8 a.m., leaders and members of Nagkakaisang Mamamayan para sa Kalikasan at Agrikultura (Namaak) and Pagkakaisa ng Aeta ng Pinatubo (Pagkakaisa) opened the Fiestang Ilug (Feast of the River) by praying and releasing 3,000 tilapia fingerlings into the Malele River in Barangay (village) Planas here.

Amid the dry season, water continues to spring out of forest clearings that old folk call Wakat and Pamasain. Mt. Pinatubo, the volcano that heaved back to life in June 1991, is less than 10 kilometers northwest.

The release of fingerlings is part of a resource management program that began in the area in September, said Wilfredo Cruz, regional director of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Central Luzon.

Saturday’s event was held to “celebrate the fruits of our fight and our unity,” said Jacinto Morales, Namaak chair.

Since 2011, starting with the help of local painters,  Namaak’s 60 members fought a company that quarried rocks from the river to turn these to gravel. The firm’s quarrying activities just beside the river widened the waterway, eventually eroding nearby farms planted to rice and vegetables.

As the river changed course during the extractions of stones, the farms lost their access to irrigation. It also threatened to erode a portion of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.

Eddie Santos, a leader of Pagkakaisa, said the feast was “in consonance with a culture that values the environment.”

“Bie, Kabiayan at Pamibie-bie (Life, Work and Way of Life)” is the theme of the event, the second to be held after four years. The first event was mounted by Namaak without the Aetas.

Former provincial administrator Vivian Dabu, who provided free legal services as a counterpart of the Kapampangan Manalakaran Inc., said various forms of protests, dialogues, networking and a legal case helped stop quarrying operations on Jan. 16 last year.

Amid the vigilance of the farmers, the company had pulled out its earth-moving equipment when its environmental compliance certificate lapsed and the provincial government did not renew its permit, she said.

Morales asked support groups among the youth, artists, civic leaders, government agencies and businesses to help more by reviving the Malele River through reforestation and irrigation works.

Farmers displayed and sold their harvests of bananas, sweet potatoes, cashew and other food crops and reenacted planting rites. An old Aeta woman, Rosing Nacu, sang to celebrate the “gift of the river.”

They played native games such as carabao racing, fishing using spears, arrow shooting and climbing a greasy bamboo pole before sharing meals of vegetables, chicken and pork.

Mariano Ocampo, a 70-year-old Aeta, said the quarrying activities led to the disappearance of shellfishes called suso and patari, and shrimps, from the river.

Namaak and Pagkakaisa, Ocampo said, should use their unity to further improve the economic lives of tillers. He said capital should be accessible so they could remove the financiers who, aside from providing funds during the planting season, also dictate the prices of crops.

“Fish will be bountiful and lots of water will feed the farms if the river is revived,” Ocampo said.