Reaction Paper

BAGUI, Ciela Mae D.

NASC 10 G

Reaction Paper

Life at the Tarima

Midst in the mountains of Davao del Norte, Jay Taruc, reporter of I-Witness, met the Manobos who are residing in the said place. With this, as part of his documentary entitled “Life at the Tarima,” he unveiled the lives of the Manobo tribe up in the mountain. It was said that the primary source of income of most families in the community is only from cultivating corn and planting root crops. However, these were not sufficient in order to support their needs. Well, life there was not easy. It can be seen that they were experiencing poverty. In line with this, the main purpose of Taruc’s documentary is to reveal the appalling story of the children that carry logs which weighs at least 40 kilograms. There, he met a child named Arnel. At an early age of 12, Arnel learned to cut trees and brought them down the mountain to sell those. In other words, he works as a wood transporter. Just to earn a few peso, he needs to wake up early every morning to cut trees in the forest. After that, together with his pals, they would walk for about an hour carrying the logs and brought them down the mountain. I think it was really difficult especially for him because he is just small to carry such a heavy log. According to Arnel, he was doing that to help his parent – of course, for their family to survive everyday lives. As I watched the documentary, I can’t help myself but to be sad and pity those children particularly Arnel. At his young age, instead of thinking about school and stuff, he was looking for a job (wood transporter) just to help his parents to raise their family. He cannot even enjoy his childhood life that is one of the happiest memories that a person can have. It made me realize how fortunate I am. I also admire him that he sincerely wanted to help his family that he can even sacrifice his opportunities just for the sake of his siblings. He fully took the responsibility as the eldest in the family even though literally he is not. Indeed, he and his sacrifices is worth to be appreciated of.

Anyway, in deeper thoughts, the video presented also made me think about the things happening in our society and in our environment. Undeniably, upon watching the documentary I cannot avoid to notice some issues regarding environmental injustice that was presented. First indicator that popped up in my mind is the poor governance. Well, it was like there was no mark of existence of the government in the place. As I notice, I think even the people there were not aware of the government who is responsible to help them. The said place is really worth to reach out for by the government. We cannot blame the people there why they cut trees and do other stuff like that. Yes, it was a mistake in the environment. It contributes for the destruction of the forest. But then, they also need to survive and they have no choice but to do it. After all, the government is also lacking when it comes to their responsibility towards the people there. Also due to lack of good governance, the government was not able to improve the agricultural system in the community. The Manobo tribe already established farming system in the mountains but then it is not enough. Actually, I think the place has lots of opportunity when it comes to farming because after all indigenous people have knowledge in better way of farming rather than the commercial ones but then the aide of government is absent. So there is also problem regarding lack of support for community initiatives. Surely, if ever the government will able to help the Manobos to enrich farming in the community it will greatly help for the people there to avoid cutting trees because they have this more improved farming system that will give them much higher income. Apparently, instead of cutting down trees that may result to destruction of forest they may just enter into farming. Another thing that captured my attention was when the buyer bought Arnel’s log for only 5 pesos. I was like very shock at that moment not only because Arnel really exerted too much effort just to bring down the log but because I really think that its value is more than 5 peso. Come to think of it, that log that was sold by Arnel is from the tree that grown for more than 10 years. I am emphasizing that more than years which is the needed time in order for a tree to achieve full growth and maturity but then a log is just worth 5 pesos to 20 pesos. That is too bad to know. Overall, the documentary is really nice and interesting. This documentary opened the minds and awaken every one of us in the reality that it is time to take an action for our environment and in our society. 