Of fires and trees in Sagada

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- It is once again pinagpupuo or time of fires for folks of this tourist town. Years ago, it was during this time that bush fires were set off intentionally to clear areas for planting, to  build a house, for lands to bear grass for grazing or simplyto burn unwanted plants. 

Starting forest fires was supposed to be prohibited but for one reason or another, these were tolerated in areas where lands were made into kaingin. 

For the locals here, trees had a purpose. These were used for firewood, to build houses or to singe black pigs or chicken in times of death, marriage or pagan rituals. 

If you cut a tree, you were supposed to choose trees according to their use. As a kid who grew up in this place, we climbed trees to cut branches with bolos, skinned the bark, bundled these with vines and brought home for firewood. 

Oh my, my grandmother was all praises for the piles of pine branches which encircled our barn left to dry for the rainy days.

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During those years in the late 60’s when I was in elementary, LPG fuel tanks for cooking were virtually not a fad. But later in high school, cooking with gas caught up. By the time I went to Baguio for college, most were using LPGs which we called Gasul then. 

Times have changed in this town. Years ago when trees were felled, those sandwiched between other trees were the ones which were cut to enable others to grow straight up which would be used to build a house later. 

If you cut a tree, it was your obligation to replace it by planting a seedling. 

But then, there are some who don’t follow this norm. A few years back, someone cut a lot of trees at our property at Pilao Mountain near Lake Danum and even had the temerity to build a shack in the area. I hear he tore the cabin down when told by some elders it was not his.

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He was never prosecuted despite the government’s total log ban since nobody filed a case against him. Now people talk about him in whispered derision when the issue is brought out. 

Cutting trees in Sagada had been tolerated by even Environment officials since they understood the culture of the people in relation to cutting and since these were put to good use like in building houses at this time of the year which folks called pinagsasaad. It is also a fact that ancestors of locals here planted the trees and for them, it was unfair for government to ban them from cutting these when they were the ones who planted these in the first place. 

If you look at pictures of Sagada taken by American missionaries early part of the previous century, it was obvious  there were shrubs but not a lot of trees.   

In earlier times, when somebody wanted to build a house, folks would come over bayanihan style and help construct it without expecting to get paid.

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In the 60’s, I remember people would come and provide food like camote or rice. Cabbage was a favorite for lunch which was often mixed with sardines. It was an unspoken expectation that if you helped build the house, then the house owner was supposed to help you when you or your family would build one.

 Times have indeed changed in this once sleepy little town. Nowadays, when you construct a house or building, you have to pay for people who work.I was talking to my Auntie Alice Daupan who dropped by our abode in La Trinidad last week and she was telling me the going rate for a day’s construction work was P300. 

The Sagada that I knew as a kid – lush with trees -- is now a getting to be a thing of the past.Then, at night during full moons,the road from Poblaciongoing to Ambasing where Sumaguing Cave is locatedwasa ribbon of moonlight since roadside trees contrasted to reflection of the thoroughfare.  You see the road from the vantage point at Danonoy these days at night and what you see are lights emanating from large buildings. 

The trees which used to line the road have slowly been replaced by concrete edifices. Baguio may have been like Sagada a century ago. Like the Summer Capital, Sagada is not exempt from the ravages of time, tourism and population growth.

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One time last year, out of sense of déjà vu, I went to Gedangan River where we used to swim as kids and found the once mighty water artery dying. All around were houses. The rice terraces were still there, but then the vantage point where we sat as kids and did watercolor paintings to put on paper the beautiful scenery of green rice stalks, blue skies with wisps of clouds with the towering Ampacao Mountain as background was gone – replaced by a huge house. 

It was here where we could lie on the grass while waiting for the others to swim and look mesmerized at a solitary eagle up high flying in circles looking for an innocent chicken down below which it could swoop in its mighty claws in seconds for food, then disappear somewhere to feast among the trees at Ampacao.

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Trees are still an attraction of the town. During cold months from October to February when Siberian winds blow strong, the loud sound of trees swooshing within the Anglican mission compound could be likened to sea waves. 

At night one could still see locals and tourists having bonfires underneath the trees. The air is still fresh and it is still a thrill trecking the winding footland ways underneath the protective canopy of the Pines. At this time of year, one could still see old men in g-strings walking down the road beating a piece of wood called pakapak to signal an obaya (rest day) or a tribal ceremony.

Trees are used for a variety of ways in this town. These also provide protective cover to communist rebels lurking in the shadows but that is another story.