This is the transcript of the lecture delivered by the author as a resource speaker at the 2nd Buklad Arts and Culture Festival, Ateneo de Naga University, February 15, 2025. Buklad was the university’s celebration of Naga City’s National Arts Month 2025 which included arts exhibits at the NHCP Museo ni Jesse Robredo, Dance Competition at the Naga City School of Arts and Trades, and Karaw Plaza Rizal by the Naga City Government, among other venues. Organized by the ADNU Creative Endeavors Council, the 6-day affair featured a lecture series, film screening, an art exhibit, theater performance, ballroom dance workshop, and the Silakbo Art Fair.
I was first asked to speak on the broad topic of Women and Ecology, something which is too huge a topic for a forum. I am grateful that the organizers of the Buklad Arts and Culture Festival of the Ateneo de Naga University allowed me to narrow the scope and limitations of this talk to Bikol Women and the Ecology instead, something more bite-sized, local, and practical.
First, a short definition of terms so we’re all on the same page.
The term environment tends to be limited to the binary of humans/nature while ecology refers to the interrelationship of relationships, not only human/nature but everything in it, including mountains and stones, insects and molds. “Lahat ng bagay ay magkaugnay,” according to Joey Ayala. I prefer the term ecology, although I will also use the term environment because this is still our context at present.
An important term in this discourse is ecocentrism which views all of nature, life and non-life forms, as having inherent value rather than its use only for humans. On the other hand, anthropocentrism is the belief that humans are the central or most important element of existence.
Women refers to biological women. Unfortunately, my talk does not include the LGBTQA+ but that can be for another talk by someone in that sector who is more qualified than I am.
Ecofeminism is an umbrella term for those who advocate women and ecology. One stream believes in the direct connection between oppression of nature and the subordination of women. Women are said to be inherently more attuned and nature-oriented than men are, that they are more reliable in taking care of the ecology.
A stream of ecofeminism is Ecological feminism, which is more focused on the actual, specific interactions of women with the environment through history. An inherent connection between women and nature is not presumed, but material realities exist for the connection. Because women are usually in the nurturing and caring work force, are wives and mothers, teachers, nurses, and house help, women may be closer to the environment. Men are sometimes not trusted to protect the environment.
Ecofeminists debate these terms. Saying that women are inherently ecologically-minded sounds like a kind of essentialism. Simply put, just because one is a woman does not mean that one is inherently ecologically-minded. For that matter, it doesn’t mean that if one is rich or poor or more or less educated, one is more ecologically-minded either. Women vendors persist on using single use plastic despite there being an ordinance against it in Naga City, Ordinance No. 2019-054, which is obviously not being implemented. On one of our river walks, I witnessed a mother telling her young child to go to the toilet in a hole so that the waste would fall directly into the river. I have seen a female nurse throwing a plastic bag on the ground after drinking soda with a straw from it. I still see women throwing peanut shells and cigarette butts out of the windows of their SUVs. Babayi baga yan gabos.
Second, women’s power is presumed in ecofeminism. Even if women are held up as being the sector to solve issues such as mining, tree cutting, waste disposal, river cleaning, pesticide use, nuclear energy etc. they are NOT capacitated or empowered to succeed. Women lack access to land, resources, and efficient welfare programs. The responsibility is therefore forced upon women, who have no real power to fight the real culprits of the climate crisis, much less to reverse this. The solution is not holistic and does not consider historical and cultural contexts.
Besides, even when society is liberated from economic and social oppression, women may still be subject to male domination, colonialism, and racism, and humans may continue to exploit nature. For example, think of white ecofeminists from rich countries who buy goods created by poor laborers from the third world thereby propagating the latter’s poverty and possible degradation of natural resources. So, there are other streams such as socialist, postcolonial, and post-structural ecofeminism to address issues of class, gender, race, and knowledge hegemony together with the issue of ecology. Queer theory is also needed to battle the privileging of the experiences of heterosexual over those of homosexual women.
All in all, issues of women and ecology face many kinds of oppression and domination. Ecocentric women therefore work for a worldview that “celebrates all biological systems as inherently valuable,” according to environmental theorist Kathryn Miles.
So, why not Bikol HUMANS and ecology, you might ask. To give concrete examples, mas nagsakit daw an babayi kaysa sa lalaki sa baha na dara kan bagyong Kristine satuya? How about the floods of Valencia in Spain? Or the wildfires in LA? We can surmise that there are more men at fault because they are in positions of power and made decisions that put us in danger, although women have allowed them to do so and also benefited from those decisions. As for taking care of the ecology, are women to be relied upon more to mitigate or adapt to climate change than men are? These are questions that still have to be resolved, based on research and hard data. I have myself veered away from binaries such as men/women and culture/nature. Even if women, at this point of time, seem to be the more nurturing, it can be defeatist if the focus is only on gender. It’s not about being a woman per se; even in politics, there is GMA and Sara without an H; on the other hand, there’s Leni and Leila.
What is clear to me are facts in the households of my friends and in my own, where the women are definitely more ecologically conscious than our men. We cannot generalize this though for all households, and the younger generation is changing. What is also clear to me is the contribution of certain Bikol women to the ecology, and I’ve seen more Bikol women engaged in significant ecological work in the region. To be fair, there were and are also staunch male ecological advocates we have worked with. But it is the women who have been active in ecological issues that I am assigned to highlight today.
To clarify the scope of my list, I personally have worked with or know of these particular women. I am familiar with what they have done and what they continue to do. Second, this cannot ever be a complete list; extensive research is needed on the topic. Third, I do not include government workers, especially those in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) even if they are ecologically-minded mainly because they’re paid to do the work. I instead focus on those who practice ecocentrism as volunteers because they are convinced by and dedicated to the cause. Besides, I have a rather dim view of the DENR in particular because of its bad track record: the dolomite beach in Luneta, the resort smack in the middle of Bohol’s chocolate hills. Or mining in Rapu-Rapu and Paracale, quarrying in Caramoan, Rinconada, and Albay, and massive tree cutting for roads, arm-in-arm with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and local government officials. In 2017, it took the effort of environmental workers to campaign with the DENR to stop the building of a mini-hydro project in our watershed, Mt. Isarog. In Rinconada, where have the hills of Pecuaria gone? In a recent show of the DENR, an officer of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau said it was the governor who gave permits for quarries, not the bureau. When old trees were cut in Naga City without consultation in 2017, the Naga City local government pointed to the DPWH as culprit. “I wash my hands of your demolition,” Pontius Pilate sang in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.
So let me now share what Bikol women have done as possible guides for our own action, to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis, because there is no way it can be reversed in the short run.
First is much-awarded writer Merlinda Bobis, who grew up in Albay, Philippines at the foot of an active volcano and now lives in Canberra, Australia. She has a Bachelor of Arts (Summa cum Laude) from Aquinas University of Legazpi, a Master of Arts in Literature (Meritissimus) from UST in Manila, and a Doctorate of Creative Arts from the University of Wollongong. An academic, she taught Literature and English at Philippine universities and in Australia.
Merlinda writes poetry, songs, fiction, drama, and critical-creative essays in English, Filipino, and Bikol in Australia, Philippines, and the US. She also performs her writing. She retold the story of Daragang Magayon from a woman’s point of view and later wrote Banana Heart Summer, Fish Hair Woman, and A Kindness of Birds, all with ecocentric themes. As an ecofeminist, she challenges Western colonial and anthropocentric poetics by including non-human communities; land and water are living characters in her work. She honors the specificity and complexity of the Philippine islands by writing about Bikol as Ilawod and Iraya. She writes about, for, and towards the ecology with love, especially in her forthcoming book about trees, which also tackles the issue of settlership and complicity in colonial violence. Although she is not based in the Bikol region, her ideas continue to influence those who read and teach her, including close friend, fellow bookworm, and declutterer, your college teacher, the late Marifa Borja-Prado, to whom this paper is dedicated.
As an activist, Merlinda has designed and facilitated community arts projects on the environment and other concerns. She initiated Susog Salog with green advocates of Ateneo de Naga University and Naga City. She is also a donor of ideas and logistics to Irukan: The Emelina Regis Sanctuary of Native Trees of our group, Sumaro sa Salog (SULOG) which I will talk more about later.
Second is Glenda Tapel Newhall, an educator, health worker, and organic gardener. She was once an elementary school teacher, a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines, and a family nurse practitioner in the US, graduating with a Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Washington. For the Camarines Sur National High School alumni in the audience, you will be pleased to know that she graduated from your school. She also has a degree in Education from the Bicol University in Legazpi.
When Glenda and her husband volcanologist Chris Newhall retired, they chose to return to Bikol and set up the Mirisbiris Garden and Nature Center in Sto. Domingo, Albay, a non-profit social enterprise. They took the effort to make it as eco-friendly as possible to minimize the impact on the environment as well as to limit expenses. The income of this center goes to scholarships, other educational programs, staff salaries, and maintenance. Glenda says that at Mirisbiris, “we practice sustainable living, protecting the environment through organic gardening practices, and protecting the forest.” Some of the environmental activities Mirisbiris has organized are Earth Day celebrations and Nature Camps for children. Glenda believes that “We have to start them while young and impressionable.”
Glenda clarified that she had not really focused on teaching or advocating environmentalism per se, as they soon “learned early that environmental issues were so far from the minds of our barangay when the most immediate need is to put food on the table.”
In 2003, the Institute for Women’s Policy and Research noted that that both environmentalism and political participation are linked to income and education. Education, especially for women, is necessary before people can even begin to think of the environment, except when it directly affects them. Glenda focuses “on education specially for non-readers (challenged readers), for teens (to veer them away from teen pregnancy and offer hope for going on to college), for mothers about proper nutrition since there are some undernourished in our barangay), and for seniors…about health matters, medications, etc).” It is through her own practice of sustainable living and work at Mirisbiris as well as educational work in the community that she serves the ecology.
Third on my list of Bikol women and ecology is Bernadette de los Santos of Baao, Camarines Sur. After high school at the Sta. Monica Academy in Baao, she earned a degree from the Ateneo de Manila University Not an academic in the formal sense, she has been a mentor in the entrepreneurship program of the Ateneo de Naga, as well as a guru to the many rural women she has taught in Baao, Magarao, and elsewhere. After she returned from the US, Bidi managed the family farm in Baao and was awarded a Good Agricultural Practices certification for this. In recognition of her contribution to good farming practices, she was assigned as member in the Bicol Regional Agricultural and Fishery Council (RAFC) in 2007, appointed Chair in 2022, and elected to the Chair from 2023 to 2026. She has always worked for women’s participation and the amplification of women’s voices especially at the grassroots level in the male-dominated agricultural industry. She has given priority to women-led cooperatives, encouraged women entrepreneurs, farmers, and fisherfolk, and advocated for more capital for women to match their skills. She won the Most Outstanding Rural Women Award in 2008.
In 2009, Ms De Los Santos founded her social enterprise using her nickname, Bidibidi. Let her tell you about it herself in the attached video. Later, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) funded her training of 150 women on embroidery, most of them Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program beneficiaries. Bidi’s activism is her work at the grassroots in the rural community. She believes that the benefits of the women’s skills and resources should go back to them, to augment their income as farmers. Bidi provided some economic empowerment to Baao women by giving them a chance to earn while continuing their duties to their families. Part of the enterprise also funds scholarships for farmers’ children. For all these efforts, Bidi became a beneficiary of the Gender Responsive Economic Action for Transformation Women Project Phase 2 in 2018.
Bidi is therefore someone who takes care of the ecology as an individual, as a community worker in Baao who champions community-based environmental initiatives, as an organic farmer of sustainable agriculture, and as a largely unpaid public servant with the Department of Agriculture. She once wrote the late Gina Lopez, the short-lived Environment secretary of then President Duterte, about quarrying in the Rinconada area, and Gina responded positively.
Asked about what she thinks is her greatest contribution to the ecology, she says “it would be my commitment to upcycling fabrics and promoting sustainable fashion through my #VlusasYVestidas and my patchwork quilts. The fashion industry is one of the largest polluters in the world, and by transforming textile waste into wearable art and meaningful pieces, I help reduce waste while empowering women artisans. This work merges sustainability, creativity, and livelihood—a combination that makes a lasting impact on both people and the planet. But truly, I believe my greatest contribution is not just a single project but a way of living—choosing to be kind to the earth in everything I do.”
The fourth woman advocate of the ecology is Maria Leny E. Felix of Naga City. A graduate of the University of the Philippines, she was an academic for several years at the De La Salle University and the College of the Holy Spirit. She is now a social development worker; her work takes her to many undeveloped areas of the world, as consultant for public health concerns such as malaria and HIV. As an individual, she runs the Hardin nin Aninipot, an exemplar of organic gardening, together with her daughter Beau, and lives a simple lifestyle.
She has published pieces in the books Hagkus and Girok and for the Bansay Bikolnon series. Her major book is Rekado asin Rekwerdo (2019) the first book in Bikol about the region’s food. As activist, she is a member of our group, Sumaro sa Salog (Sulog). Sulog’s Irukan Center for Sustainable Environmental Governance is her brainchild. Irukan is envisioned to house the Emelina G. Regis Sanctuary of Native Trees, a Museum of Bikol Rivers, and a Green Nursery. We planted native trees before the pandemic and started on a nursery of native plants before typhoon Kristine.
Leny’s most recent Bikol-centered research has been on food in a time of calamity, for a book she intends to write as a follow-up to her first one on Bikol food and memory. She says having enough food is one way to battle all the physical and mental health problems in a time of disaster. Yet not enough has been done to ensure food security. She is appalled why, in times of calamity, most people rely on ready-to-eat food such as sardines, noodles, and processed food while harvested vegetables, fruits, and root crops rot. She asks what has happened to traditional food that kept us alive during calamities and explains why we have to go back to traditional food in a time of climate crisis. She researched and interviewed simple folk on Bikol food in the time of calamity and how they contribute to local culture. People used to plant root crops, ferment shrimps, and make flour out of cassava, practices they have given up because they get ayuda, or sometimes 500-peso bills after a calamity.
When asked if she thinks that people have finally learned to return to folkways regarding food, especially after a disaster, she says there is still no food security in terms of availability, access, utilization, and stability in Bikol given the present situation. What else can be done so that people can be more conscious of food security in the region? Her reply: a) Itukdo sa eskwelahan an relasyon kan kakanon sa salud asin planet Earth. b) Paggamit sa kakanon asin kalamidad/pandemya bilang tema sa mga rawit-dawit, tigsik, musika, asin osipon sagkod sa iba pang pangkulturang aktibidad. c) Pagmukna nin field activities manungod sa food security, such as learning exchange programs in the communities. d) Have cooking lessons on traditional food. e) Patronize local food producers using traditional methods or food system. Definitely, bako yan burger, soda, o mahal na imported na kape na gusto kan kahobenan asin middle class ngunyan.
Fifth is someone from the younger generation, Celine Murillo of Sorsogon, a photographer, filmmaker, and a “greenfluencer” or social media influencer for the environment. She has gained some recognition nationally, in much the same way as Patricia Non did for her community pantries during the Covid19 pandemic. Celine and her husband started on their journey for the ecology with a container garden that attracted birds during the pandemic. They started traveling around the country, joined conservation efforts for the tamaraw, and then began to study plants, trees, and flowers in the forests. Her content on YouTube, Facebook, and Tiktok highlights her commitment to environmental conservation, as she features educational videos about the country’s rich biodiversity, waterfalls, native Philippine trees and flowers, and birds and butterflies. She believes Philippine flora and fauna should be taught in schools. She points out that humans are now suffering karma: “Whatever we do to the environment and other creatures will eventually come back to us, as evident in the triple ecological crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.” She seeks to influence policies that require accountability from those who despoil the environment; in Angono, she tried to persuade government officials to declare native trees in the town proper as heritage trees. Besides, the town could benefit from doing this by organizing walking tours under the trees. Sana all, ano? Think of that when you vote in the next elections.
By the way, to my question about what she thinks of Sorsogon’s new and greatly touted coastal roads, Celine’s reply: “Pedestrians first over vehicles. Mass public transportation instead of private cars, and bike lanes, urban parks, and community/recreational centers should be the priority infrastructure.” Asked what her greatest contribution to the ecology is, she said, “At this time, the body of work that I have created as a nature storyteller – including the short videos on social media – has become a free and supplemental educational resource not just to teachers but for architects, science communicators, fashion designers, historians, linguists, and the Filipino public in general.” This is not her end-goal, but this is something she is also very proud of. She hopes “that her work could help viewers reconnect with nature and live in harmony with it, and “inspire others to protect the only planet we call home.”
Sixth in my list is not an individual, but rather individual women and women-led groups at the grassroots. For example, farmer Tia Maring, an interviewee of Leny Felix, is an exemplar of tagama, (allocation, in reserve) which Leny states is not only about what one puts in the stomach but a reflection of the love and care for every member of the family. Tia Maring always saves rice and root crops so they have something to eat during typhoons. She also saves vegetable seeds such as those of perkoles (lima beans), balatong (string beans), and langka (jackfruit), not only to eat, but also to plant after the storm. She kept the seeds in a chest for use at the right time. She is the opposite of those who merely wait for rations and help from the government after a calamity, sometimes waiting all day in queues to get a little rice for the family.
When I researched on the women leading the campaign for the ecology in Sorsogon, a male DepEd teacher there replied, “An igwa kami mga politiko na mahilig sa infra projects, reclamation and coastal roads, quarrying, kaya binabaha na kami.” Young writer Albert Morris of Sorsogon however pointed me to the strong women and community-based leaders of the Save Gubat Bay Movement (SGBM), comprising local fisherfolk and crab farming groups, the Cota na Daco Crablet Workers, Samahan Alay sa Kalikasan Cooperative, Alyansa san mga Parasira san Sorsogon, and Sorsogon King Crab Association Inc. About half of the Cota na Daco Crablet Workers are women, and together with other environmental workers, campaigned against the construction of the coastal road that would destroy their sources of livelihood. There is also a Sorsogon Coalition for Environment Protection that campaigns to save their beaches against the construction of a seawall and boulevard that will convert kilometers of beaches into concrete. These beaches are nesting sites of pawikan, Bulusan’s pandan forest is endangered, and the natural beauty of the beach is irreplaceable.
And finally, for now, because this list is sure to grow, there is the late great Emelina Gagalac Regis of Naga City, the quintessential advocate for the ecology as practitioner, researcher, teacher, cultural worker, and activist. Lina studied at the Colegio de Sta. Isabel in Naga City. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Botany, an M.S. in Biology in 1982, and a PhD in Environmental Science in 1999 from the University of the Philippines in Diliman. Husband and co-academic Mel summarizes Lina’s major contribution to the ecology into three: Environmental education, anti-mining advocacy, and publication. For 48 years here at the Ateneo de Naga, the ecology was the cornerstone of her teaching and research. Because of her, the university has an Institute of Environmental Conservation and Research (INECAR) that continues to do research on the ecology. She also encouraged and sponsored extracurricular activities such as student organizations, writing and staging environmental plays, Pintakasi, field trips to different ecosystems, and research and lectures in other schools and rural barangays. “Isipin ang iba pang bukas,”was one of her main themes.
Lina lived her beliefs and shared them outside the academe. She was involved in the community as a scientist, researcher, and activist in forest protection, biodiversity conservation, and marine ecology: in the Bikol National Park and the Mount Isarog watershed, the waters of Camarines Sur, particularly her favorite Pasacao; the quarrying and rechanneling of Subang Daku in Southern Leyte, and the dying ecosystems of the Pasig River and Naga River. She has done studies on the relationship of mining to poverty on Rapu-Rapu Island, Paracale, and Jose Panganiban in Camarines Norte; in pristine Sorsogon; and in Lupi, where a presidential son’s proposed dam endangered a heritage town. One of her last projects was the establishment of LiDAR, the geo-hazard mapping project in the Bikol region, something that in my opinion, was not given due importance by the city authorities, and that contributed to the lack of preparation for the disaster wrought by typhoon Kristine in October 2024.
As an artist, Lina brought environmental education through her plays to the grassroots, especially “Dalawang Mukha ng Kagubatan” which was shown in far-flung barangays without electricity. The awards that came later on were in recognition of the impact of her environmental activities, among them, the Don Carlos Palanca Award for Literature one-act play in Pilipino in 1992, the Mayoral Distinguished Service Award for Environmental Protection from the City of Naga the same year, The Outstanding Bikolana Award for Ecology, given by the Philippine Association of University Women (CamSur Chapter) 1993, the CHED REPUBLICA Award (Runner-up for Regions IV and V) 2004, and the “Bulawan na Bikolnon Award” from Ateneo de Naga for excellence in pedagogy, environmental protection, and research, in March 2017.
Lina’s impact is so great that she produced among her students a decidedly ecological frame of mind, and these students are now all over the region and the country, others as far as the US. Lina’s work has inspired the formation of volunteer groups, a book, and a play. She dreamed of a Center for the Environment but became too ill to realize her dream. We in Sulog are trying to fulfill her dream through the aforementioned Irukan and its Sanctuary of Native Trees named after her.
Other Bikol women advocates for the ecology are ecofeminist poets, the late Francia Clavecillas, Merlita Lorena Tariman, Jazmin Badong Llana, and Belle Nidea. There are also cacao farmer Aurora Banzuela of Camalig, Albay, freelance writer Alma Gamil of Sorsogon, and a certain Bea Amador of Greenpeace from Catanduanes who correctly said we cannot fix the climate crisis with resilience. There is also no lack of environmental groups that advocate sustainable farming practices, saving of seeds, native trees and waterways, and the reduction of plastic waste, such as the UP Alumni Association in CamSur. Sulog, as well as the They Grey We Green, are groups that comprise not only women but also men and trans. They are not purists given the present socio-economic, patriarchal, and anthropocentric context. But they moderate any tendency to greed and teach their children to do so as well. They protest anthropocentric policies especially of government, as well as patriarchal practices. They are not tree huggers, although they count trees and have been known to hug a tree or two and talk to plants and birds. They are pro-recycling and upcycling; they tend to admonish grocery baggers who automatically use plastic, and carry tumblers instead of plastic pet bottles. (In this regard, our warm congratulations to Ateneo de Naga for enforcing the use of tumblers instead of pet bottles on campus.) They eschew places that symbolize conspicuous consumerism such as the recent big warehouse-supermarkets that most probably played a role in Naga’s recent flooding. They prefer to buy from the farmers or fisherfolk themselves or from the public market, if possible. They walk or take public transport when they can. They live below their means to reduce their carbon footprint. Some of these women are Shane Bimeda, Damae Bitara, Beau Albao, Susan Pejo, May Sina of barangay Carolina, Jan Plopenio, Rochelle Priela, Edizza Quides, Stoney Salceda-Mazo; the cast and crew of Mga Aninipot sa Tahaw kan Salog, teachers and students of Camarines Sur National High School, Bicol State College of Applied Science and Technology, Naga City Science High, Ateneo de Naga, and the former Raya School in Naga; the parakalakal of Naga who wanted to help save the river; and the 80 plus law students who joined us in filing a case against the DPWH to save Naga’s trees. That case was won in a regional trial court in Naga City, and only this February 2025, in the Court of Appeals.
Now you may say, some of these women advocates for the ecology in my list are middle class educated women, some of them not even physically present in the Bikol region. That is true, but remember what Glenda Newhall said, that the stomach and education first have to be addressed. Since “both environmentalism and political participation are linked to income and education, higher-income, highly educated women” have been given more recognition. After all, they have the time and the energy and the funds to do so. But that does not mean other, women at the grassroots are not engaged, such as the many farmers like Tia Maring and the Sorsoganon fisherfolk I told you about earlier.
At this point, let us pay attention to the finding that the Philippines is the ‘worst place’ in Asia for environmental defenders, and in fact fifth among the most dangerous places in the world for land and environmental defenders, according to a Global Witness report in 2023.
To sum up, the Bikol women advocates for ecology that I have listed today are academics, artists, and activists who, together with many unnamed farmers, fisherfolk, and workers, focus on local issues and promote sustainable practices whether agricultural or developmental, relevant to the unique environmental challenges faced by the region. They focus on information and education, especially of women and the youth. It is not only a personal or family lifestyle; they exert effort to raise awareness and involve local communities in their efforts to protect the environment. They actively campaign for climate-conscious practices and policies and protest unsustainable development. They know and state that “jobs versus the environment” is a false choice. Open-eyed, they know that theirs are but small initiatives, that they have few if any allies in government, and that long-term initiatives that focus on intangible ecosystem services rather than direct economic benefits are necessary.
Books, the internet, and we can prescribe what have to be done, but I challenge the youth here instead to learn from these women and think for yourself what steps you can take for the ecology. It is you who will inherit this planet after all, with all the typhoons, floods, and heat waves that hit more often these days. I trust that you will develop your own sense of personal responsibility, check colonial and unhealthy consumption habits, and consider the type of government officials we have. Vote wisely. Be open-eyed also, like these ecological workers; note that whatever we do are palliatives and still not the drastic solution required to at least stem, if not reverse the climate emergency. Nevertheless, I cling to hope against hope that despite our lack of power and resources, you can yourselves outline the concrete action steps we can take as women, as men, and as trans to make a difference.
Dyos po, asin an ekolohiya, an magbalos.
About the author
DOODS M. SANTOS is a retired professor of Ateneo de Naga University and De La Salle University. A student of Bikol arts and culture, she has written many articles and books on the topic, among them, Hagkus 20th Century Bikol Women Writers. She serves as a referee for three university presses and is a volunteer for the ecology with Sumaro sa Salog (SULOG), Inc. and Irukan. (Photo: Doods Santos at the Pagsurat Bicol VII in Catanduanes)
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