Globe tower built on sacred grounds

HAPPY WEEKEND

Gina Dizon

(First of two parts)

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- The Globe telecom tower erected at sacred Calvary Hill near the Calvary Cross and just above the cemetery is not a good sight prompting the congregation of the Church of  St Mary the Virgin to call for the transfer of said structure to another place.

It was three years ago when the Globe Telecom tower was built on Calvary Hill with the blessings of a tripartite agreement with authorities of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Philippines (ENDP), the Vestry of the Church of St Mary the Virgin (CSMV) and the Globe Telecom on March 2010.

The agreement came with the congregation of CSMV having been reportedly  assured by Globe representatives  that building of the tower atop Calvary Hill is ‘temporary’. The temporary status and the tolerated existence of the tower dragged on for three years. 

Not until Globe had trees cut at Calvary Hill along with riprapping  and supporting construction built  to prevent erosion of  soil  holding  the tower September this year made to look like Globe is there to stay at the sacred Hill. 

And not until an indignation with pictures of  felled trees  and reinforcement structures built  on the base of the relay tower were posted in Facebook.

In a congregational assembly called for the purpose October 7, questions ranged from  the  basis of  why the tower was built at Calvary Hill, to the damage brought about by the structure,  and the purpose of cutting  the trees.

Said tripartite agreement provided for a P20,000 monthly rent renewable in five years for the building of a communications tower within a 146 square meter Lot.

The tower was earlier erected near St Joseph  Guest House then transferred to the base of the public cemetery when opposition was noted from the public due to health reasons and solemnity of the cemetery.

The Vestry then in 2004 protested the tower at the  base of the cemetery and eventually  transferred to  the top of Calvary Hill  sometime in 2007-2008 with construction having began these years and which must  have started negotiations and agreements already with Globe.

Church and community leader Ms Soledad Belingon said the tower ought to be transferred citing the sanctity of the place where it was erected further saying that the trees were cut without consultation with the parishioners.

As to when and where was not clear during said Oct. 7 meeting pending negotiation by the Vestry members of CSMV with Globe Telecom.

It’s barely two weeks  before the parishioners of St Mary the Virgin and the people of  Sagada  shall  clean the graveyards  few days  before they will light up candles and wood  and warm the graves of their dearly departed  come eve of All Souls Day on Nov. 1.

They shall be greeted, lo and behold to a towering mass of steel called Globe Telecom  tower  atop  the public cemetery mightily  perched on the hill overlooking the graves and perched beside the Calvary cross. 

Except for  some members of the CSMV congregation who favoured  Globe because of the money the church receives monthly, not all members of the congregation, not all people of Sagada people like the Globe tower. 

This was made visible during the congregational assembly October 7 where women vehemently  forwarded their objection to the building of  said  tower and the removal of this.

Opposition of the people started even before  2013. 

Earlier in 2010, the people forwarded a petition to Mayor Eduardo Latawan asking him to stop  Globe operations based on an  earlier  2006 Sangguniang Bayan resolution telling Globe to secure legal requirements and a Mayor’s permit.  

The telecommunications  company  earlier gained flack  from the Sangguniang  Bayan in 2006 telling Globe to secure the necessary legal requirements- a free prior and informed consent (FPIC) from the national commission on indigenous peoples (NCIP), and a certificate of environmental compliance (CEC) from the   department of environment and natural  resources (DENR).

Community women leader and  comebacking SB councillor Jane Bawing who was then  a vestry member  in 2004  and a member of the SB  in 2004-2007  then must have made the difference of  influencing other members of the  vestry to get  Globe get out from the base of the cemetery  while demanding Globe to pay its  dues by initiating the resolution at the Sangguniang Bayan.

“Sanctity makes up the essence of  the Calvary cross and the cemetery which is a resting place for the dead”, she said.

Earlier  in 2004  the Globe tower  was built at the base of the cemetery near  the church Rectory housing the priest in service  of the Church of St Mary the Virgin  then blessed apparently by an agreement with the Sagada-based  Brotherhood of St Andrew with less than P20,000 a month rent. The Vestry in 2004  however did not like it and ordered it removed pointing out threats to health and sanctity reasons being near a cemetery.

In 2010, the NCIP conducted an FPIC  process and gathered sentiments that the decision of whether to continue construction of the tower rests on the people and other stakeholders. This means not only the vestry of the church of  St Mary shall decide  nor the bishop of  EDNP which has ownership to a 34 hectare space popularly called ‘Mission lot’, a part of which is the Calvary Hill where the Globe structure was  built.

That was three years ago and the consent of the people was not yet fully secured with the NCIP having stopped full FPIC process and with the church still exercising full control of  rented parcel of land continued to receive the monthly  20,000 rent of Globe  telecommunications.

Globe happily continued its operations and the church comfortably  collected what is due her. Until now.

It gained flack again now with the exposure of  CSMV parishioner and church women leader  Ellen Reyes-Gawigawen who  exposed this to Facebook  going  viral and reaching a number of Episcopalians and other readers whoever they are. 


(2nd of two parts)

This with the new set of vestry members exercising  their power and  approved the cutting of  trees, 17 in all which  got into  full view the  towering Globe tower when you enter the  public cemetery, a gigantic show of steel with four disks apparently  showing its  strength and superiority the graves below seem to succumb to.

Protecting Globe structure

A quick look of  some space where the trees were cut showed these were cut to protect the  globe structure from  eroding. Ripraps were built to hold the soil from cascading  to the graves located below the tower  Other spaces in the cemetery  were cleared of trees seemingly to make true what it called  expansion.

What are the loads of lumber for by the way?  Reasons  forwarded  was for the repair of some old Church structures. Such reasons however fall short of not consulting the parishioners, besides a master development plan for the church was not yet formulated and agreed upon.

Desecration

Anyway, for the past three years, the Globe structure was not that seen in public view due to trees which hid the structure from plain view.

The new view obviously shows the towering steel look as if it is the king of  the Calvary Hill and the public cemetery where  hundreds of  Sagada’s  ancestors and the  dead have been buried for years since the Anglican church was established in Philippine soil particularly in Sagada in the earliest years of the 1900s.

On top of the ascending  cemetery is a big cross signifying Christ and further up is  Calvary Hill where stands the Calvary cross signifying the struggle of  Christ  as he was led by soldiers flogging and taunting Him as he was nailed to the cross.

A Calvary cross located nearby the tower  relives a part of Christian history and  a part of the lives of the people of  Sagada who were christianized by American missionaries who set  foot in a once grassy place called Ganduyan with inhabitants who practised their own spirituality of honouring God called Kabunian and paying respect for other spirits as spirits of their ancestors and nature- trees,mountains and springs.  

A towering mass of steel now standing mightily on top of the  cemetery and beside a humbled 10 feet Calvary cross  tells one word: desecration.  It’s the complete entrance of  a material entity totally different from  the nature of a sacred hill, a total transformation of what a solemn and serene state to a confused mix of information technology, crass materialism with  the sacred and the holy.

A scenario where the graves and the  grounds of the Calvary Hill blessed a thousand times by the priests and bishops from the holy incense of the  Holy Spirit has now come to be side by side  with a material alien of some sort which now has reaped the  blessings of what the vestry and the  authorities of the church has sealed into an agreement on the  building of  structure one can readily call an unholy alliance.

Manila-based Episcopalian and native of  Sagada, Raymond Alipit said, ”We, the church cannot just sneeze and let this just go by and let the 'Towering Inferno' aflame and bring hell over us. It has gone to far and even redesigned the natural beauty and serenity of the sacred Hill. This 'Towering Inferno' is a desecration of every inch of the 'Exhaltation of the Cross' and the grave sites of our forefathers, our parents, our brothers and sisters, our MISSION”.

Money and sanctity

Yet is it a question of survival of a church that the church has to go into  destroying its very essence so that it will survive? Is it a question of desperation that the CSMV does not have money to survive, asks a US-based Anglican priest.

A quick look of the Parish shows nearly P2 million annual tithes (erratum: this should read nearly P1 million offerings),  a 34  hectare lot, and a thriving St Joseph guest house and cafe located within a tourist town, including donations that it receives.

Christ  came to this world born in a lowly manger. He preached with his 12 disciples on sandals and walked from village to village preaching the words of God. His message was clear, spread the word of God while doing so in all humility, compassion, justice, and courage. He got angry and castigated the money makers and  tax collectors doing their business in his very own temple. The divide between money and the church of God was very clear.

While money is a need in every institution and every household in this world, it does not let the very meaning of the core of existence of a person-individual or institution- be the all, otherwise lose and  destroy   its meaning and reason for  existence.

For sure, the church of St Mary shall still be standing even if  the P20,000 a month is not being  given by Globe as pointed out during the recent congregational assembly. Otherwise, it means the church’s resources are not being managed wisely and the congregation not being  moved profoundly to let a church thrive  robustly and meaningfully. For one, for the Globe structure can be built in another place  and not necessarily at the sacred Calvary hill.   

For what is the cultural basis of what am blabbering about.

It was seven years ago when Globe came  knocking at the doors of villagers here at  Demang, Dagdag and Ambasing  to have their tower erected at  their “babawiyan”, a sacred place which happens to be the place that telecommunications tower must be receiving strong  signals.

The strong opposition of the people against the offer of Globe tells their strong  and clear sense of what sanctity and sacredness means on their sacred spots, that no other disturbances  and foreign objects be erected near their sacred images.

Solemnity and  serenity and  associated with what is sacred and what is holy thus making a more  pronounced  effect of the unseen on the  mental and spiritual  state of the mind and a community. The villagers see this. 

It is very clear to  surmount that a Globe telecommunications tower as it is called a  telecommunications tower is a very  busy  mass of steel sending and emitting out  signals  for people to communicate. While its very physical presence is already an invasion to  a serene and holy state of  the calvary hill and the cemetery, there’s more to the very nature of communications the steel tower is meant for that disturbs  the holiness of the place, the resting place of the dead that has been bombarded with.

While this mass of steel has stolen the very sanctity of a holy and sacred and place, it has also made use of energies exploiting to the very limit what the  sacred hill offers.

Religion tells a human being is a body, a spirit and a soul. It’s a total mess and confusion that in this scenario the human being once its dead is just a body mixed with the bowels of the earth. Yet it should not be.    

Bring back  Calvary

Time and an occasion to redeem one’s  failures and  weaknesses is not over to get the structure out of the place, and bring back Calvary to its holy existence.” It’s not  yet late to bring back Calvary”, Josephine Cadiogan, a devout church goer said. 

Non-relocation means death of a spiritual church, erosion of what spiritual and Christian values are. Non-relocation means a people unpossessed of what Christianity means, that it has not entered the minds and souls of a congregation, of  the people,  that the very spiritual realm of their existence is somewhere else.

As a Full Blooded Izagada  in Facebook  says, “yes to Globe relocation or removal”.