Wanted: A nationwide clean-up campaign

I couldn’t help but notice the story in the front page of The STAR last Monday entitled, "DENR to vacationers: Clean up your mess." How timely! This applies to us here in Cebu as well. On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, while we were having a retreat at the Community of St. John (a French order) a multitude of Cebuanos and many Korean tourists flocked to the nearby Celestial Gardens in Banawa Hills, the place to enjoy the view and do the stations of the cross.

Actually, the Celestial Gardens is a cemetery run by the Tanchan Foundation, but since it is sparsely occupied, it has become a place of pilgrimage for many devotees who climb up the hills overlooking Cebu City as part of the commemoration of the Holy Week.

While we were deep in our spiritual encounter, we did have a few hours of rest, which is why I was able to walk to the Celestial Gardens myself on Good Friday. It was my first time to do so. I didn’t bother to go there before because I know that the roads were bad and narrow and there were always too many people going up and down the hills.

But since I was already cloistered in the retreat house, which is just next door to the Celestial Gardens, I joined the multitude and true enough there were easily thousands upon thousands of people climbing up the steep slopes, while most of the people were having a picnic in the grass made brown by the summer heat. It was a sight to behold and it just gives you an idea that Cebu truly needs parks and open spaces because people only go to the shopping malls to cool down or shop, but there’s no view in the malls.

The only problem in what I saw is the huge amount of litter or refuse that the devotees have thrown inside the park. There was not a square meter of land that didn’t have wrappers or empty plastic water bottles strewn about. While I laud the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) call for vacationers to clean up their mess, let me say it here that it’s a bit too late already for that notice, as most of the vacationers have already gone home.

Instead, what the DENR should do is conduct a massive advocacy campaign in print and television depicting today’s reality that we Filipinos are very dirty people. While most of the rich or the middle class people might refuse to accept this as a fact, believe me, you can find cigarette butts, gum or candy wrappers or empty bottles of Gatorade lying around even in Cebu’s most prestigious golf course, the Cebu Country Club (CCC). The only people who can afford to buy Gatorade are the rich ones, so I’m sure the caddies didn’t throw those bottles on the ground.

If there is anything I would like to see changed in this country (aside from my fervent wish to change the Constitution or fix whatever is wrong with our traffic penalties) it is our attitude towards the environment. The Arroyo administration should launch a massive information cleanliness campaign. Why can’t we be like Singapore where citizens are made to pay stiff fines for throwing wrappers or cigarette butts.

At dawn, if you’re watching from the hills of Cebu, you will see a fine smoggy white mist of smoke. The smoke comes from many home backyards where people would gather fallen leaves and trash and burn them early in the morning. Hence, we can assume that many Filipinos do clean up their own backyards. But we are still a far cry from the Dutch (dubbed the cleanest people in the world) or the Americans who cannot stand the sight of refuse or garbage anywhere.

I just came from a trip to the US and the Filipinos I met there have already embraced the Americans’ penchant for cleanliness. I’m sure that if we did this massive campaign, we shall see a cleaner Philippines in the very near future…. I hope!

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Here’s a letter sent to me by Mr. Jerry Quiblan in response to our article last Monday.

"Bobit, Our fallen heroes of Bataan reminds me of the movie "300" and West Point, among others. Araw ng Kagitingan reminded you of your grandpa, Capt. Valeriano Segura, who topped the entrance exams at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Unfortunately for him he was not admitted due to his height and fortunately for the second placer who took his place and became the first USMA Filipino graduate, Gen. Vicente Lim.

I am reminded of my uncle, the late Col. Salvador F. Reyes. He graduated in 1918, four years later than Gen. Lim. He also finished law and got a grade of 86 percent. Col. Reyes was the father of the late Col. Manuel V. Reyes, who at one time headed the Judge Advocate General Office and the late Roberto V. Reyes, Assistant Executive Secretary of the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Manong Bobby, as we call him, has a son, George Reyes, who is Ambassador to Cuba.

I am also reminded of Gen. Omar Bradley, the last of the 5Star Generals of the US military who graduated a year after Gen. Lim. Bradley was the alternative to Dempsey Anderson, who prepared harder for the entrance exams but failed. At West Point, Bradley also graduated higher than Gen. Dwight Eisenhower. He was number 44 to Ike’s 61st position. In the final analysis, however, Gen. Eisenhower became his superior officer during World War II. Col. Reyes was a plebe when these great generals graduated. If he and your grandpa Valen were alive today, it would be very interesting to hear their anecdotes. Happy Easter once again and best regards…. Jerry."

Thanks for your letter Jerry. I’m quite surprised to know that whenever I write articles about history, I always get comments sent to my e-mail address, which is clear proof that many Filipinos do love our history… but few writers make an effort to write them. I write a lot of history perhaps because it was one of my favorite subjects in High School.

However, I belatedly realized that our High School teachers only gave us basic history lessons. History is so fascinating and intriguing, which is why when I’m in a Barnes & Nobles Bookstore in the US, I spend countless hours just browsing on history books and time just passes me by. Whenever there is an important historical date, I will certainly write about it…if I have knowledge of that event. For sure, it is not to entertain my readers, but teach them a few lessons on history.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow entitled, "Straight from the Sky" shown every Monday only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable at 8 p.m.