Fr. Robert Reyes, the running priest, along with runners from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), led this week’s advocacy run from Manila to Los Banos in Laguna in a bid to stir up greater public interest and support to efforts to rehabilitate the country’s mountains through the National Greening Program (NGP) which President Benigno S. Aquino III launched last May 13, 2011.
DENR Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje said the advocacy run, dubbed “Takbundukan: Takbo Para sa Kabundukan,” is also in conjunction with the observance of Proclamation No. 125 issued by President Aquino on March 15 declaring 2011 as the “National Year of Forests” in support of the declaration by the United Nations of the year 2011 as “International Year of Forests” with the theme: “Forests for People.”
“Takbundukan goes beyond pure athleticism by making use of this popular outdoor activity as a venue for Filipinos to reflect on the need to renew our physical and spiritual ties to our mountains and have the satisfaction of knowing that in doing so we are contributing to the protection of our mountains as a matter of social and moral responsibility,” Paje said.
The 3-day run from June 6 to 8 started from the DENR central office in Visayas Avenue, taking the Manila-Pasay-Las Pinas-Muntinlupa route to reach Laguna province passing through San Pedro, Binan, Sta Rosa and Calamba cities culminating at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB) where tree planting of “Balakat-gubat” (Balakata luzonica ‘vidal’ Esser), an indigenous tree species thriving in Mount Makiling, was held participated by the UPLB academe community and DENR-Region 4 officers and employees headed by Regional Executive Director Nilo Tamoria.
Fr. Reyes in a statement said the advocacy run was a call to voluntary simplicity and seeks to reawaken the Filipino’s “essential nature “ as a people with “basic reverence for nature as sacred” which has slowly eroded in the Filipino’s trait as a people and has contributed to the alarming state of Philippine environment.
Calling it “a pilgrimage to the mountains,” Fr. Reyes noted that Takbundukan points to the need for us to take “an outer and inner journey into our spirituality and lifestyle and contemplate (on) mountains as symbols of nature, of creation, of being and redemption.”
The loss of this trait, he said, have resulted in over-consumption, waste, laziness to recycle, pollution, luxurious lifestyles to the disadvantage of the poor, destruction of watersheds and other sources of water.
The advocacy run likewise aimed to shore up public support for President Aquino’s Executive Order 23 which bans logging in natural forests, immediate passage of a new Philippine forestry law, widespread planting of indigenous tree species, promotion of community-based eco-tourism, greater respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and their practices, and declaration of more protected areas by Philippine Congress. -30- PAO, DENR
