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[av_heading heading=’The desecration in Alimodian’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY ROMA GONZALES
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Wednesday, January 11, 2017
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WHEN you literally woke up to find that your antique pieces of jewelry were stolen, what do you do? They were passed down by countless generations of your ancestors that their value exceeded any digit in any currency and you hoped to pass them down to your children.
This how it must have been to Nong Small, a mountaineer who posted pictures of broken stalactites and stalagmites in a cave in Alimodian the other night. He knows the trails in Agua Colonia like the back of his hand and watches over the mountain like a guardian.
His lamentations were punctuated with strong words in an attempt to articulate his sorrow and frustration. As of posting, the culprits remain unknown. Sadly and certainly enough, the destruction can only be caused by human hands. Based on the uploaded photos, they look as though they have been chiseled.
Were they disrespectful hikers? Or were they locals who got finally tempted with the beauty of these glittering rocks? Or are they outsiders who have no respect for the environment?
These rocks were part of the history and culture of Alimodian which has been striving in recent years to promote their tourism industry. They are its natural gems, this municipality that promises great possibilities with its Seven Cities teeming with vegetation and natural landscapes and Bato Dungok which continues to capture the fancy of many mountaineers for its difficulty and beauty (It is nicknamed the “Pico de Loro” of Panay).
Formed after millions and millions of years – perhaps long even before our species existed, these rocks disappeared unknowingly in the dead of a single night. And for what? Greed? Selfishness?
We hope these people will get caught and punished in accordance to our environmental laws (do they even exist?) to ensure that these disheartening acts are not tolerated and that our natural resources (or what’s left if it) are protected. This should also bring into discussion how we can uphold responsible eco-tourism.
There are such things as mountaineering principles and ethics, but with the sharp rise in the popularity of outdoor activities especially among millennials these days, many take on the mountain without even learning how to properly converse with it. Must it simply go on this way?
Hiking and outdoor camping has undeniably increased in popularity during the recent years. The good thing is that the person who finds peace and beauty in the forests will preach about how it should be conserved. The bad thing is some may only see possibilities of money and exploitation, if not their vanity and arrogance. Finding a natural paradise and keeping it to ourselves seem like doing Nature a bigger favor, actually.
They were not jewelry, it’s true. And it’s truly sad if we only come to appreciate their value if we convert them to money. But they were heirlooms created and passed down by nature, and only he who hopes to let the next generation admire them in their natural setting has been touched with the magic of Gaia.
There are people out there who will not understand what this rant and whining is all about. “They’re just rocks!” they will say. They are exactly those kinds of people that will sneak into the woods and chop down a century-old tree or chip off millennia-old rocks. And I hope they will be the first to go thirsty when the streams refuse to trickle, to starve when the land stops waking up the seeds, and to fall when the mountain wakes to shake us annoying little critters off its back./PN
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