So press released the Angeles City government a few days before the Holy Week.
“The Sapang Balen Creek symbolizes (sic) the main artery of the city. If it is polluted, it will reflect on the state of cleanliness in our city.
Murky and filthy water flowing through it will bring diseases, dengue-bearing mosquitoes, filth, pollution and environmental disasters.
We will no longer tolerate the destruction of our environment and if we are to contribute in minimizing the effect of climate change, the Sapang Balen Creek will be our battleground.”
So sounded Mayor Ed Pamintuan the call to arms.
Which instantly drew me back to August 2009, as recorded here…
NO, SAN Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, better known as Bishop Ambo, did not spew any expletive – no damning hijo de pu__, not even a harmless taksyapo could ever emanate from his holy lips, even as he declared a curse on those who pollute the Sapang Balen creek that runs through the heart of Angeles City.
This is a curse of a kind totally different from your everyday ‘dana or ‘tang ‘na. This one is an execration, a sumpa, righteous one at that coming from a person of moral authority, inflicted upon people in grave error, if not sin.
Consequent to this curse is the castigo…not simply de obispo – coming as it does from a bishop, but de dios, the bishop being a man of God.
Says Bishop Ambo in his blog hrp-sac. blogspot.com: “As a Filipino, I believe in sumpa (which) are very much part of Filipino culture and tradition. Usually pronounced by someone in retribution for an extreme act of disrespect or wrongdoing, a curse is believed to be effective especially when pronounced by a person of authority such as one’s elders or by a priest.”
And “to Kapampangans who are well known for their legendary love and respect for the clergy, being the object of a priest’s sumpa is a fearsome prospect.” Yes, our old folk still shudder in remembering the sumpa cast by Spanish friars on the pueblo of Masico prior to their execution by the Filipino revolutionaries.
Or that cast by a dying priest on Mabalacat. Bishop Ambo’s curse is totally removed too from the spell, magic or witchcraft that is also attributed to a curse.
Hence, there was no incantation, but matter of fact statements with Bishop Ambo saying: “Magmula sa araw na ito, binibigyan ko ng sumpa ang Sapang Balen. Sinuman ang lalapastangan nito ay magiging malas sa buhay. (From this day on, I am putting a curse on Sapang Balen. Whoever dares to show disrespect to it will be unlucky in life). This, over a portable sound system as he walked along the banks of the creek, his blog showed.
So how did the people take the bishop’s curse?
“Gasps and whispers from onlookers and passersby” were heard by the bishop, his blog reported. “Then, a handful of residents living near the river joined his group and hastily picked up some trash lying in heaps along the riverbank.”
Posed the blog: “Why would a Bishop go to this extent to help revive a waterway?”
Answered Bishop Ambo: “The river has life and anyone who dumps garbage without compunction is killing it slowly. Laws and ordinances do not seem to work at all; people just ignore these. Let us see how they will react to a curse from a bishop.”
No eternal damnation though is carried in Bishop Ambo’s curse. He himself provided “an easy way out.”
“Kung gusto ninyong pagsisihan ang inyong ginawang paglapastangan, mangumpisal kayo at ang tanging parusang ibibigay ko sa inyo ay magpulot kayo ng dalawang sako ng basura mula sa ilog. (If you want to make amends for the sin you committed, just confess to me. For your penance I will ask you to collect two sacks of trash from the river),” the blog quoted the bishop as saying.
Fast track now to October 2011, again as recorded here…
“WHEN WE started cleaning Sapang Balen some years back, we were told by the city government (under then-Mayor Francis Nepomuceno) that they would support us.
No, we told them, we are the one’s supporting you. Today, that has come to pass, the city government of Mayor Pamintuan leading, all of us supporting. This is a dream come true.”
So hailed Bishop David of Lingap ku king balen. Malinis a Sapang Balen, the program to clean the city’s principal waterway as well as other creeks and rivers.
Initiated by Pamintuan, the clean-up drive started in October with scores of students, city employees, civic groups and individual volunteers clearing with their bare hands, rakes, shovels and other implements the Sapang Balen and Abacan creeks of wastes. It will be undertaken every first Saturday of the month “until the waterways are restored to their pristine nature.”
“Taking care of God’s creations, of Mother Earth herself, for the next generation is also paramount in my hierarchy of values,” Pamintuan says, seeing in the devastating typhoons and floods “nature exacting its toll for all the abuses man committed against her.”
Back to the present. The efficacy of the bishop’s curse much in doubt. The sustainability of the city’s clean-up program absolutely shot.
Now what?
“Among the solutions proposed is the strict implementation of existing local ordinances and national laws on environment by penalizing with fines those who are caught dumping trash on the river. Illegal structures which were constructed along the river will be demolished and the respective barangay will increase the frequency of garbage collection in areas near the river.
“…to lessen indiscriminate throwing of solid waste, the local government urges the city’s village chiefs and every resident traversing the Sapang Balen creek to monitor and do their part in keeping their surroundings solid waste free.
“…also planning to set up screens along the edges of the river to catch the garbage being thrown to prevent it from reaching the water system. In addition, screen barriers will beset up on the barangay boundaries in order to prevent the garbage from flowing downstream to the other barangays.”
Let’s just do it. Fairly. Justly. Unrelentingly.
