Reviving Lake Lanao

I was just out of high school when I attended a youth camp on the campus of Dansalan College in the Islamic city of Dansalan, now Marawi. From the hilltop we campers beheld the splendor of Lake Lanao – serene and blue-greyish, a romantic picture framed by branches of pine trees. It was a beautiful sight I cherished for years – until I returned there two decades or so afterwards, and found it not so splendid-looking anymore – grey and murky, and, near the bank, emitting a gadawful smell. I mourn the disappearance of the picture of a beautiful lake.

I am not alone in my despair. Many women mourn the sad state of their lake, principally the members of the Philippine Women Muslim Council, a confederation of more than 30 Muslim women organizations coming from different parts of the country.

In communications sent me, PMWCers eulogize Lake Lanao, describing it as one of the 17 ancient lakes of the world, which for decades, played a major role in the country’s economic growth, particularly in the province of Mindanao. The lake serves as a reservoir for NAPOCOR’s six hydroelectric power plants built along the Agus river, generating 65 to 70 percent of the electricity used by the people of Mindanao. Oddly, the Islamic city of Marawi, by some flawed development, seems hardly benefited by the existence of the lake; the city is dark and fearsome (imagined, I suppose), with hardly any lighted electric posts on unpaved streets.

The M’ranaos, or “people of the lake,” as the women call the inhabitants around the vast body of water, take pride in calling the lake “our lake,” which “for several generations, has been a part and parcel of the M’ranaos’ existence, the center of (our) cultural heritage, political hegemony and religion.”

Recognizing their loss of what once was a thing of beauty, the PMWCers are rolling up their sleeves and calling on stakeholders to recapture its splendor, preserve, and conserve it. One of its activities is adopting the slogan, “Ranao Tano, Siyapen Tano,” which means, “Our lake, let us save it.”

The PMWC is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a women non-government organization. Officers were inducted by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City in 2005. It was created as an aftermath of a conference-workshop on the role of Muslim women in peace-building and development held at the Marawi Resort Hotel in Marawi City, with 800 Muslim women in attendance. The conference was jointly organized by the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Foreign Affairs with support from USAID, Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, and WICS.

President Arroyo, PMWC officers said, was moved by the council’s mission to empower and give voice to the Muslim women in the country, and its focus on five advocacy issues – environmental conservation and preservation, good governance, poverty alleviation and entrepreneurship, peace-building, and education.

In 2006 PMWC organized a conference-workshop on environmental conservation with the theme, “Stewards of Mother Nature, Stand Up to Protect Lake Lanao.” US Ambassador Kristie Kenney gave the keynote speech and led the signing of a covenant for the preservation and protection of Lake Lanao at this meeting.

In September 2007, USAID, through the Philippine Environmental Governance 23 (ECOGOV), gave PMWC a small grant to pursue its Lake Lanao Protection and Development Project aimed at making people in the city aware of the importance and right use of the lake. Corollary to this was the installing of signs and streamers in strategic places in the 18 municipalities around the city. Slogan and poster-making contests were conducted to get pupils and students involved in the lake advocacy.

In March last year, Ambassador Kenney went to the city again and met with the PMWC for a round-table discussion on assessing the lake’s condition.

An important forum was held last year, with National Power Corporation vice president for Mindanao Generation, Dr. Pasayud M. Macarambon as guest of honor to validate the issues, concerns and offered solutions raised as outputs of a focus group discussion held several months earlier.

Having built alliances with major stakeholders of the lake, PMWC has pledged to collaborate with government agencies to support the passage of a bill creating the Lake Lanao Development Authority – or Ranao Development Authority, if you may; to work for the declaration of Lake Lanao as a National and World Heritage Site, and to launch the “Adopt a Lake” campaign among countries around the world.

Such is the role of these “stewards of nature.”

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I finally came face to face with the much-talked about Maestro Ruggero Barbieri after the performance of the Filipinas Chamber Orchestra at the Night of Music sponsored by the city government of Makati, Barangay Bel-Air, and the Women of Bel-Air Foundation, Inc. last week. The Italian conductor had organized the orchestra, which is composed of professional musicians. What people could not understand was why the emcee, Mrs. Gloria M. Angara, former president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, called the orchestra the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, not once but twice. But no matter.

The night’s repertoire consisted of vocal numbers and renditions of light works by Mendelssohn, Rossini, Puccini, Verdi, and Felipe, Molina, Santiago, Velez, and Lucio San Pedro.

What was particularly thrilling for me and my partner was the performance of the “singing judge” – Judge Jenny Lind Delorino, a fantastic soprano. The judge was fascinating as a singer, even as she is a competent, fair, and strictly-no-nonsense member of the bench. She sang numbers with a good tenor, Jonathan Badon.

The concert was this year’s cultural program of Makati Mayor Jejomar C. Binay. Past presentations have been those of Helen Quach, the Philharmonica Jazz with Gerard Salonga, and Salcedo Nights Live.

For the successful night of music, kudos go to Victor “Jun” Gomez, Barangay Bel-Air captain; Constance “Nene” Lichauco, WOBA executive director, and Malyne Fernandez Lorayes, kagawad in charge of cultural affairs.

My email: [email protected]