IT COULD have been one of Davao’s momentous events, but Mother Nature herself was probably showing her anger against big business which is cutting down century-old trees to make way for shopping malls in this city.
As we watched, first in awe and wonder, then in utter disbelief, the thirty or so lanterns soaring up the night sky to mark Earth Hour over at Magsaysay Park last Saturday night, all of them drifted back to earth, gasping for breath as it were, their flickering lights drenched and dying from the sudden rain that fell from a clear moonlit sky.
There was nothing wrong with the weather. I still could see the three planets, Venus, Mars and Jupiter, lining up next to the bright waxing gibbous moon, clearly visible through the thin cumulus clouds. Where in heaven’s name did the rain come from?
The rain came twice, first at 8:00pm when hundreds of people were preparing their big paper lanterns at the big skating ring under the floodlights. The second downpour came at exactly 8:30 pm when the speech of Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio was read by a city councilor followed by a musical performance by a school choir group, marking the exact time Earth Hour was celebrated all over the world (what happened to the time difference around the world?—Editors).
If you still don’t know yet, the celebration of Earth Hour, the largest environment movement in history, was actually launched in Sydney, Australia sometime in 2007, a world-wide symbolic gesture to make people aware of the need to protect the global environment. In Davao, this particular hour at exactly 8:30pm was also observed in different parts of the city as well as provincial cities like Mati, Tagum, Samal, Digos, etc.
In the middle of it all, was Dr. Bo Puentespina, chair of the environment committee of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, egging everyone in the dark public park to shout at the top of their voices, ”Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!” — or at least after the Earth Hour wound up. As the rain fell in torrents, Bo asked the people to pray and beg Heaven to please, please, please stop the rain, and allow all the lighted lanterns to make their way to the ivory-black sky (how’ that again?—Editors).
(I found out later it was dry in most parts of the city, there was NO rain in many areas, including Nova Tierra, Lanang where I live. The rain fell, it seemed, only on Magsaysay Park, ruining the Earth Hour event that weekend)
Despite the rain, the big sponsors like Holcim, Phoenix, Aboitiz Power, Abreeza Ayala, San Miguel, Anflocor, Dole, Sumifru, etc all got the good PR image they paid for, albeit in the dark. Whether or not these firms are really doing something tangible to improve the earth’s environment is one question left for them to answer, since no amount of publicity can gloss over the pollution they may have spread over the years. But schools lent a helping hand thru their students, who also got their share of public exposure even after they all ended up dripping wet like trembling chicks under shared umbrellas— Ateneo, UM, Holy Cross, ICCU, USEP, you name it.
It was surprising to find Koreans, those staying in Davao under the Davao Korean Association, making sure they weren’t counted out by Earth Hour organizers when DKA vice president James Han put up a food booth for nearly 100 fellow Koreans to join in releasing lanterns. “We’re part of this. The whole world is part of this. We’re proud to be here,” Han told this writer, but probably addressing their fellow Koreans in their country, those running factories and industries and polluting the environment.
One of the biggest and most active groups of course, was the group led by Cora Baylon, president of PCEEM Davao, or People Collaborating for Environment & Economic Management an NGO which gets support from Canada and the Dept of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which had been selling black Earth Hour souvenir t-shirts to participants last Saturday.
Whole families — mothers and fathers with children in tow carrying paper lanterns—came as early as 4:00pm to sign up for the Earth Hour event that was supposed to last till 10:00pm but was cut short by the sudden rain which fell at exactly the time when they were supposed to light up the wax inside the lantern.
Despite Bo’s preparations and careful coordination with the Davao International Airport to check with them whether it’s clear and safe to fly the lighted lanterns, he didn’t get any warning it was going to rain that night. Even the local weathermen, if asked, didn’t have any inkling of that sudden downpour that seemed to have targeted only the Earth Hour event at Magsaysay Park.
If Mother Nature was trying to send an angry message to organizers and sponsors of the Earth Hour by raining on this event, we don’t know…
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