tagabungtod

Try your best not to be distracted by this guy in the foreground. Don't pay attention to him yet. He is not our main point of interest. The background is. (To appreciate, click on the picture to enlarge it.)

Kung talagsa gilaay ka na ug wala ka na ganahi sa Nabunturan tungod kay daghan na'g tawo, unya wala ka na kaayo'y kaila, busa mingaw na para sa imoha, unya daghan na kaayong pedicab ug motorcycle nga pwerteng banhaa, naa pa gyu'y daghang videokehan nga gayagaw lang, try looking for something else to do. Go to the barangays.

Have you tried taking that new feeder road which starts from the Cuñado farm kanto Alvania subdivision (across the Iglesia ni Kristo church) and goes all the way to Libasan? You should try that. It is a well-maintained, more or less, 3-kilometer stretch and traverses the adjoining wide ricefields of Nabunturan and Libasan. Right in the middle of the basakan! Drive slowly and leisurely. Try stopping in the middle of the road and enjoy the scenery.

Your view of the hills, mountains and plains of that part of town is unobstructed. And it is captivating. It speaks of the beauty and allure that our parents must have witnessed and experienced when they first came: the once verdant hills, forested mountains and wide plains to which they could stake the future of their children.

These hills are still there but not as green anymore; the mountains are still there but, sadly, with very, very sparse forests. Only the plains, which have for decades provided rice staple for us and our neighboring towns, remain. But to us tagabungtod, its beauty still beholdens although degradation and destruction of the environment are quite perceptible. (Notice the kaingin smoke in the mountainside?)

Without "life" in the hils and mountains, I do not know whether "life" in the plains is sustainable in the long run. That's another long discussion. I hope I can invite Dr. Wenifredo "Ikoy" Maglana and his Kinaiyahan Foundation to contribute some environmental eye-openers in this blog.

For the curious: in the picture is Saturnino "Turni" Tayabas-Lupiba, anak ni anhing Tasoy ug ni Noning, panaptonero sa unang panahon, town councilor for 12 years, past director of cooperatives, farmer par excellence, quintessential friend, atbp. He is one of the founders and former chair of DAMSEPCO, a coop which is based in Tagum City, and one of the major providers of rice seeds in the country. In the background is his rice farm in Libasan (dili tanan, ha).

/tgt