Sonny Calamita: The Panday of Sto. Niño

For Filipinos the word panday (Filipino for blacksmith) evokes thoughts of a hero larger than life thanks to the Carlos J. Caparas comic book character immortalized in the silver screen by the late Fernando Poe Jr.   But what is a panday?  And what does it take to be one?

At its very essence a panday is a craftsman who works with metal.  The “black” in blacksmith comes from the black metal which they use to make different things and smith is derived from the word “smite” which means to hit.  Blacksmiths were essential to village life in the olden days but today the purpose they serve has been replaced by hardware stores which have all the tools and implements we will ever need.

Blacksmithing is a dying profession as urbanization spreads outward to the provincial and rural areas.  Progress comes in the form of malls or department stores that carry a wide array of very affordable items from all over the globe.

But in a remote agriculture-based barangay like Sto. Niño – located in the municipality of Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro – the Mangyan community there still needs a panday. 

Sonny Calamita is in his early thirties.  He is a soft spoken man who is economical with his words, but when he does speak he is insightful and always diplomatic.  His father Onyo is a well-known Mangyan  elder with the equivalent “rank” of a Mayor.

From his father, Sonny inherited his affable demeanor.  Sonny is uneducated and can neither read nor write.  He has 6 children, the youngest being a newborn while the eldest is in her late teens who has given him a granddaughter.

He is a rice farmer by profession and also plants root crops to supplement his income.  He is your average Mangyan save for one thing: he successfully completed a training workshop on blacksmithing.  By itself, this was hardly earthshaking but taking into account the Mangyans’ traditional way of eking a living, this was most extraordinary.  Nomadic and traditionally dependent on hunting, blacksmithing to and for the Mangyans was a literally a craft above the rest.

Going by the age-old adage of “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day but teach him how to fish and you feed him forever” – Mindoro Nickel undertook the blacksmithing workshop as part of its continuing livelihood and capacity-building programs to uplift the lives of Mindoreños.

This was in December of 2009 when Sonny signed up to be part of a select group of Mangyans who were trained as blacksmiths.  Today, Sonny is the local panday of his community in Barangay Pag-asa in the municipality of Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.  He and his group have since been serving the needs of the Mangyan community and more importantly, they have recently taken in apprentices to share the knowledge that they have gained.

In today’s highly industrialized environment, blacksmithing may seem insignificant.  However, in Sonny’s world, it is probably the most wonderful thing to have happened, for through his blacksmithing skills, Mangyans will have harrows and agricultural implements to farm, knives for crafting, weapons for hunting.  In short, everything the Mangyans would need to eke out a decent living.

Blogged with permission from http://www.intexresources.com.ph/mindoronickel/ .

Can one man make a difference?

In recent years, “climate change” has become a hot topic on everyone’s lips.  On the one hand, there are the environmentalists who strongly believe in the immediacy of climate change although there is no unanimity on how to move forward.  Then there are public officials who project themselves as protectors of the environment by espousing – at every possible opportunity – legislation in defense of the environment.

Even today’s young are exposed to the importance of environmental protection as early as grade school where they are taught the rudiments of waste disposal segregation – “blue” cans for recyclable waste, “green” for biodegradable waste and “red” for non-biodegradables.

There is no debate, however, that human activity is the causal reason for “climate change” – whether it is from fossil fuel combustion, from the use of aerosols, from methane emissions originating from waste or from the depletion of forest cover with its conversion for urban needs. And there is consensus that everyone needs to chip in.

But can one man make a difference? He could if his name is Maximo Cabri. And who is Maximo Cabri?

Maximo Cabri is a Mangyan, a group of Indigenous People who have their roots in the island of Mindoro.  He is a respected Mangyan elder, being the chairman of the Alangan Mangyan Cooperative. He’s 56 years old and a father of seven.

Maximo has a man-sized job cut out for him.  He is charged with maintaining a whole mountainside with approximately 11 hectares of the Alangan Mangyans’ ancestral land.  Together with his fellow Alangan Mangyans, he is reforesting their ancestral land so that it can continue providing for their needs.

Fortunately, Maximo had help. During the celebration of Earth Day in June of 2008, the Department of Natural Resources joined hands with the Philippine Army, the local officials of San Agustin and Pag-asa (both being barangays in the Municipality of Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro) and some high school students.  Working in solidarity, this group of civic-minded Filipinos literally planted the first seeds for the reforestation of the Alangan Mangyans’ ancestral mountain lands.

This first attempt at reforesting their ancestral lands consisted of an initial 3,000 seedlings over the 1-½ hectares. Since then, Maximo – together with his friends, family and members of the cooperative – have successfully planted over the rest of the 11 hectares. This 11-hectare plot of land has been reforested with indigenous species such as Falcatta, Acacia Mangium, Narra, Gmelina and Cashew seedlings at around 2,500 seedlings for every 1-½ hectares.

This dry season was particularly challenging in terms of fire prevention as there were some close calls.  As a contingency he scattered some make shift wells around the mountainside, filling 2-3 foot pits with water so that he could put out small fires before they get out of control.  He also has a couple of huts overlooking the land and he is accompanied by his children as he goes about his work.

Maximo is shy and seems without guile and such an unassuming man, who in his own quiet way is offsetting more than his share of carbon footprint.   One does not really need to understand or even agree with the science behind climate change and its human impact to realize that it does not hurt to act and minimize individual consumption. Maximo’s acts are personal.  Yet their impact goes far beyond his ancestral lands, maybe even global. Maximo Cabri can and does make a difference and together with other like-minded souls, their cumulative efforts will ensure that this planet becomes a little bit more habitable for its 6.8 billion denizens.

Blogged with permission from http://www.intexresources.com.ph/mindoronickel/.