Siuálâ Ding Meángûbié

Acacia trees line the highway between Angeles City and San Fernando. Photo by Rey Maniago (From the Facebook album: End of an Era).

Call me strange... call me an old fashioned tree-hugging hippie... but the killing of trees have always sent chills down mine spine since I was a kid. For the past few days now, the Philippine government, through its local agents, has been murdering the trees that line the highway between Angeles and San Fernando for its road widening project. You can always build roads...but you can never replace the lives of thousands of tree that have been there since our grandparents' time.

There used to be lots of taboos in Kapampangan culture regarding the cutting of trees. My grandparents would often say "Manunu ka (The ancestral spirits will punish you)". Thanks to Capitalism and Christianity and the current literal interpretation of Luke's gospel regarding "the barren fig tree" (Luke 13:7), they don't think twice in cutting down "a tree that uses up the soil but does not bear fruit." And "bearing fruit" is now often interpreted simply as bringing in cash. If only the Kapampangan gods and ancestral spirits could enforce their punishment in a more drammatic old testament fashion...alas, like the earth and the heavens they judge us ever so silently.

Nature can live without man, but man can't live without nature. Sadly... a lot of people are too short sighted to realise this.

Killing of the Acacia trees line the highway between Angeles City and San Fernando. Photo by Rey Maniago
(From the Facebook album: End of an Era)

The murder of these trees have triggered a huge response from various sectors including young artists. Here's a song composed by Denden Wong Guiwan entitled Ulagang Kelingwan:


Ulagang Kelingwan
Lyrics: Denden Wong Guiwan
Music: Five against the Wall and Denden Wong Guiwan
Featuring: Waldo (Vocals)


Munag sumala ika ing kayabe ku
Keti sulip ning banwang malagu
Lugud a bibye mu yang pane kayabe ku
Ika ing pane masanting a pamagbayu

Miyaliwang kalamidad a linabas
Kekang lilung kekami mu yablas
Bibiye mung saup kekami alang kupas
Emi pa rin balu…. Ing kekang… ulaga

Kekang pangisnawang bibiye kanaku
Terak king angin yang pane alben ku
Kekang ikit ing dakal a kuwentu
Ika ing pane pane….kayantabe ku

Lunus mu ing kakung anyaran
Lugud binye ku keka isukli mu
At nung maputut ing ugnayan tamu
Tutung mayaspak ya ing pusu ku

…………. ing pusu ku
…………. ing pusu ku
…………. ing pusu ku
…………. ing pusu ku

You can also listen to this song on imeem.

Killing is murder. There should also be an international tribunal on crime against nature.