Ritual for the Water

By Julius R. Paner

While birding in Saliducon on December 31, 2023 I chanced upon a group of Bagobo-Tagabawa from barangay Sinoron who were on a scheduled ritual ceremony they do annually to give thanks and gratitude to the Supreme God Manama for the abundance of water they get from Salop spring. The group are familiar faces in Sinoron Ecopark who are really good friends led by Datu Danny Udal, Nong Nerio Quitua and former barangay captain Henry Lim. Salop Spring belongs to Saliducon but they agreed that the source be utilized for Sinoron residents with mutual agreement to pay royalty out of the potable water they get from Salop. They agreed harmoniously given that Saliducon and Sinoron are neighbor barangays and it belong to one Ancestral Domain and customarily the Tagabawas are peace-loving and compassionate people.

I joined the 30-minute trek knowing that the ritual would give me more wisdom about gratifying God for the water and friends and everything in between. Over the years I have accorded tremendous respect to Datu Danny for being a good leader of his tribal guards association who painstakingly safeguard the rainforest of Sta. Cruz particularly in Sinoron and adjacent areas. I consider this man a mentor and father not only because we share the same passion of conservation but at the same time he has all the prudence of a true Tagabawa. And my respect grew to higher proportion when I witnessed him leading a ritual for the water in Salop Spring. Here I realized the sense to acknowledge Manama for giving us water. Every year Datu Danny delivers prayer of admiration and credits and even forgiveness to the “owners of the waters.” 

I said to myself this is a serious ritual. Something that should be emulated by the rest of humanities. In a casual conversation Datu Danny said few interesting facts about the chronicles of the Tagabawas in the foothills of Mt. Apo, stressing important roles of water systems such as spring and rivers to the overall survival of the tribe dating back 15^th century. He shared that when they had all the struggles of natural disasters, hunger and even insurgency all they needed was to stay close to a place with water and everything would be fine. I have been working long enough as a cultural worker but the wisdom I got from Datu Danny during this trek was special because he emphasized something extra special about gratifying God for the gift of water.

In Sta. Cruz there are important springs tapped as sources of potable water. Ragobrob Spring has been the main source of water for seven barangays (Bato, Tagabuli, Tuban, Zone 4, Zone 3, Zone 2 and Zone 1) while the Binuangon Spring in Coronon is a reliable base providing water to the residents of barangay Coronon. Lumaban Spring in Sinoron is an active water source for its northern sitios and portions of Zone 2 while a spring in Mt. Buribid distributes water access to the residents of barangay Tibolo. All the rest have different sources for minor consumption and some industries are utilizing underground sources to support their water-based businesses. The only thing left unexplored are surface waters from our major rivers such as Pilan, Sibulan and Langan.

With all these being presented I could hardly remember barangay functionaries, government offices and private sector employing ritual for the water the way Datu Danny and his group did last December 31. Except for some entities I cannot even recall how many of us propelled a mechanism to maintain a healthy forest that serves as wellspring of water and life.  There are very few I should say, and I take off my hat to you for that.

Apart from the rituals being undertaken should also sprout the efforts to conserve our forest environment to prevent water crisis in the future. Our friends from Sinoron maintain an annual ritual for the waters and at the same time seriously plant trees to support their prayer. We need to learn from them.