By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Last March 8, I was honored to be the guest speaker of the Women’s Day Celebration of Bontoc Municipal Government. Bontoc is also home sweet home to me and my family. I resided in Bontoc for 37 years having worked at the Bontoc RHU for 22 years then transferred to the Provincial Health Office (PHO), also in Bontoc, and worked there for another 15 years. Going back to the Municipio was like a homecoming for me. I would like to share with you excerpts of my talk on the theme “We Make Change Work for Women.”
By the way, it’s not only women who are affected by change. The men are also affected because women cannot really be separate from the men and the rest of our environment. What happens to one will affect the others. If the mother is happy, then the father is happy also because Mother is happy. If father is happy, then Mother is happy because Father is happy.
Let me share my experience in Bontoc. I remembered that when I entered Bontoc RHU in 1981, there was only one diabetic patient in the municipality & she had been living in Manila. When I transferred to the PHO in 2003, I could not count how many had diabetes. Back in the 1980s, gallbladder stones was rare in Bontoc and was only found in females, fat & forty. Now, even young adults- men and women- have gallbladder and kidney stones. We are mining different stones nowadays- cholesterol stones, calcium stones, uric acid stones, etc. I myself got sick.
What happened? Bontoc had 24-hour electricity in mid 1980s. We welcomed this development as it meant convenience- click lang at meron ng ilaw, we didn’t have to blow on the charcoal to be able to iron clothes, we watched shows on TV or betamax. We bought TV, refrigerator, washing machine, electric fan, etc. What does the refrigerator contain? Meat, hotdog, eggs, soft drinks, ice cream, cake, cheese, margarine, butter. What we put in the refrigerator is not in our indigenous diet.
At this time also- mid 1980s- we began to feel the effect of trade liberalization- the Philippines was a member of the General Agreement on Tariffs & Trade (GATT) which eased importation of goods. Before GATT, we can only buy imported goods in the Camp John Hay or in the black market & we can taste imported chocolate only when a US Navyman came home. In 1985, I could already buy imported chocolates in Baguio grocery! I am a chocolate addict so I know. Powdered milk like Nido and Sunnyboy and also infant formulas flooded the market. All kinds of food from the factory became so avaiable, even in Bontoc – candies, cookies, Jello, corned beef, luncheon meat, ham, bacon, jams, jellies, butter, cheese, etc- nakaplastic, nakalata, nakabotilya. Almost all store-bought food contained sugar and milk. Even milk has added sugar! Again, all these foods are not in our indigenous diet. See how decisions at the national level impact on our lives. Thus we really have to choose our leaders wisely at the national and local levels.
With these changes mentioned above, salaries increased and more people sought work abroad. Thus people had disposable cash and could afford to buy what they liked. As discussed above, these foods are not in our indigenous diet. Our indigenous diet is healthy because it is purely natural. We didn’t have much choice. The food available was only what we planted and what was provided in nature. And we cannot plant milk or hotdog. We started having unhealthy food choices in the mid 1980s. Sadly, at that time, what we health workers knew about healthy diet was go-grow-glow only, so drinking Coke then was not considered unhealthy. Sadly, our schools had an unhealthy view of a healthy diet. In medical school, we were taught that high blood pressure is genetic. We know now & Bontoc has taught me that it is not. High blood develops from an unhealthy diet.
So many changes occurred in our communities and in the world. Have these changes been working for women as our theme shouts out? Have these changes worked for or against women? Let us see. Well, the computer definitely made typing jobs easier. The washing machine makes washing blankets easier but frankly I like to handwash my clothes. How about the refrigerator? It’s good that the refrigerator can store hotdog and meat and ice cream so that we have them everyday or every meal. But is it good? We love to drink refrigerated water and soft drink, but is that good? Vehicles bring us to our destination faster but is it good to ride even if it’s just apit na der? Yes, we love the convenience of gadgets & vehicles and the yumminess of modern foods. But after 15-20 years , we saw the adverse effects of all these changes. From seasonal cough and colds, diarrhea and toothache in the past, our diseases have grown a hundredfold- high blood, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, dengue, typhoid fever, now there’s covid. And this is happening not only to us but to all other indigenous peoples around the world. In the 1980s, kidney failure was not common. Now, we have a dialysis center in Bontoc. Definitely, this is not a good sign.
Now there is even climate change & global warming. Our environment is having fever & it is scary for the future generations. It is predicted that our oceans will be poisonous by the year 2050 because we are polluting it. Can we live without the ocean? Again, this is not working for us. We are all interconnected. Scientists see climate change happening at a faster and faster rate. We are killing ourselves slowly if we don’t stop & reverse what we are doing now.
The Women’s movement which gave birth to this Women’s Day celebration is actually a movement for women empowerment. But how can we have power when we are sick? How can we have power when we can’t do the things we want to do because we are sick? How can we make rational and fair decisions when we have a headache and can’t think rationally? For me, having power is being calm and pleasant even under stress.
What will guide us then to choose wisely to make these changes work for us men and women and not against us?
Praise God, we have our rich indigenous heritage of family ties, community, ayyew, inayan, ten-en (moderation), og-ogfo, simple living, gaget, etc. to guide us. And this is what we celebrate today. Our rich indigenous heritage will see be our guiding star. Thank you so much Lord for our forebears! Our national hero said, “Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinaggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan”. One of the things why I love Bontoc so much is that it has retained much of its traditional values, knowledge and practices. And thank you Mayor Odsey for being a model of healthy indigenous living. Among others, the good Mayor plays tennis at his age and has harnessed indigenous systems like the Council of Elders for governance.
The indigenous worldview sees life as a web. As I said earlier, what happens to one affects the other. When one member of the family does good, all members are happy. When we plant trees in our backyard, it will make our surroundings cooler, including that of our neighbours’. What you sow is what you reap. We plant love, we harvest love. An action produces a reaction. Furthermore, indigenous worldview recognizes a Supreme Being- that there is someone or something more powerful than us and is called by many names- in English is “God”, in Arabic is “Allah” & in Igorot is “Kabunyan”- and he is actually in control. Indigenous peoples have discovered long ago that there are laws of nature and if we go by the laws of nature, we will be okay, our environment will be okay and that there will be enough for everybody. In other words the key to health and wellness amid changes in life is living in harmony with nature. When I reclaimed our indigenous diet as my diet, I was healed after 6 years. Thank you, loving Father! Our bodies are designed by God to be nurtured by nature- food from nature, not from the factory, air is oxygen, water is water and love for one another. Our body is made with joints so we need physical activities to move them. If we don’t abide by the laws of nature, we will get sick. It’s like a car engine – if it runs on gasoline and you put diesel, it will conk out. Then you have to keep it running or else it will rust. So when we are choosing what to eat, what to buy, what to cook or we are deciding what activities or infrastructure projects to undertake, let us ask the question “Is this decision in harmony with nature? Is this food or is this infrastructure in harmony with nature?” So it’s okay NOT to have a refrigerator because even drinking iced or chilled water is not good. If you already bought a refrigerator, think carefully what you will put in it. Always ask, is this in harmony with nature? HAPPY WOMEN’S MONTH! ***
Eccl 3:1. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”
