A now-cruel river runs through it

A FEW minutes into Nonoy Regalado’s documentary film "Resource at Risk: Philippine Marshlands," a Manobo man plaintively launches into a Visayan rendition of an old American pop song: "Rain gently falls..."

Then the voice rises to a heartbreaking crescendo as the man passionately sings: "There’ll be no sunshine in my life...!"

This is a moment of supreme irony because, of course, the rain doesn’t fall gently. It is a downpour, in fact, and it brings such flooding to the Agusan River that the muddy water reaches up to the roof beams of the schoolhouse and won’t recede for months.

The catch basin for this flooding is the Agusan marsh. It is the largest remaining undisturbed freshwater wetland in the Philippines, spanning 90,000 hectares, says a note on the jacket of the film’s videocassette.

"This is the home of the Agusanon Manobo," continues the note. "In this documentary, the viewer will see how the Manobo people adapt to the harsh conditions of the marsh--virtually living on water for six months each year while nearly everything around them is submerged in a great flood."

How these people adapt is by turns sad and funny. We see, for instance, kids playing, cats and dogs frolicking, pigs and chickens feeding, vegetables growing on drifting boats and rafts instead of in proper backyards. Some of the families, in fact, have made makeshift backyards of bamboo poles and wooden planks tied to their houseboats.

A few of those interviewed say some years ago the river was not this cruel, the water was not this dirty, the flood was not this high, and it receded hours after it rose. The viewer reflexively puts the blame on the rampant logging which denudes the mountains, and rightly so.

Landscape and history

"The river carries with it the best and worst of Mindanao’s landscape and history," intones a voiceover.

And the viewer is regaled with vignettes of the rich wildlife (102 bird species, 16 of them endemics; tall tales of a giant crocodile swallowing people, birds as big as children), the great flood, illegal logging,

nonsustainable fishing (the electric method used by big fishermen destroys the fish stock, thus depriving small fishermen of their sustenance).

Here the film turns National Geographic, particularly in the vignette about the purple heron, the most regal resident of the marsh, which came all the way from Russia and Mongolia.

With a Manobo named Molong as guide, we visit the nesting ground of these herons, where their long-necked heads rise like periscopes above the water hyacinths. Molong says they first espied these birds in 1984. There were only a few of them then, but now there are thousands.

The Agusanon Manobos are committed to protect their piece of earth (or waterworld). Datu Tikling, their leader, teaches them the conservation of nature’s resources. For instance, since the purple heron lays only three eggs, the Manobo takes only one egg from a nest so there will be two left to be hatched.

This is a beautiful documentary, made by committed young people. Regalado is both director and cameraman. An Mercado-Alcantara wrote the highly informative, often poetic script. Raul Rodrigo is creative director, while Stella Chiu is production manager. Writer-environmentalist José Ma. Lorezo Tan narrates.

"Philippine Marshlands" recently won the Film Academy of the Philippines award for Best Documentary Film. Its VHS tape is available at Bookmark and The Filipino Bookstore.

Farmland and sanctuary

It’s also a timely project, as the Agusan marsh is being threatened today. Only a third of it was proclaimed a protected area and wildlife sanctuary in 1996, and more and more of the area is being converted into farmland.

This would be disastrous, says the narrator, as it would not only destroy the wildlife in the marsh, but it would drown Butuan City out of the map.

The film proceeds to show the disastrous effects of the conversion of the Candaba swamp. This used to be 22,000 hectares stretching from Baliwag, Bulacan, to Pampanga; it has been reduced to 500 hectares after having been divided by dikes and subdivided into farm lots. It has since ceased to be a catch basin, thus the perennial flooding in the Great Plain of Luzon.

The film traces a similar problem of Manila to the conversion of marshlands into what are now Makati City, Sta. Ana and parts of Ermita. With those catch basins no longer there, the Pasig River swells and, unable to contain so much volume of water, brims all over the place.

The narrator laments that it seems the great marsh of Agusan is going the way of the Candaba swamp and the Pasig River. But there’s a ray of hope.

Some people from the outside world, such as conservationist Blas Tabarranza, forest ranger Sammy Ortega, scientist Danny Balete, and, yes, the film documentarists themselves, are working closely with the Manobo people to protect the Agusan marsh and preserve this cradle of life.

Who knows, they may yet bring back the sunshine to the passionate singer’s life.

[ Agusan River Wiki ]