Historian-astronomer cum professor is now with his stars
Today’s early morning spectacle is the first lunar eclipse without Dante – physically.
History Professor Dante Ambrosio of the University of the Philippines dreams of becoming an astronomer but there is no such course in the Philippines that he settled for the study of Physics, the one nearest to it at the Ateneo. His grandmother’s tales of Tatlong Maria and Supot ni Hudas bedazzle him that his quest for the study of the Philippine stars led him to travel around the country, including Tawi-tawi, where he discovered the ancient Filipinos’ Moroporo and Balatik, constellations Pleaides and Orion, respectively, that guided the Filipino ancestors in their fishing, farming and other life’s daily activities.
He is like a dear brother to me. Fresh from my high school newspaper, we were together in a newspaper that catered to trade unionists. He was the editor, I was one of the five writers. While covering the labor beat, he protected me and kept his eye on suitors (an intrepid one will become my husband in the future) seeing to it that his staff is safe, and that I would not be lost amid political and personal battles.
“Live simply,” he admonished me. Tap water from the faucet replaced my favorite softdrink, dark denim pants in place of my skin-tight jeans and worn-out rubber shoes replaced my stilleto. We had to blend with our sources.
Many years later, he would become a teacher at UP after finishing his degree in History; I would become a journalist for the mainstream media. My constant visit to him in school always ended up in Katag, Casaa or any other nearby eatery as we discussed many things under the sun. Dante encouraged me to go back to school and finish college which I did. “It is for the future of your children,” he assured me.
We shared the same interest in history and he always talked about giving back to the people whatever knowledge was gained from field work and archival research. His latest published book “Balatik,” his dissertation, speaks about the relationship of the development of Philippine civilization with how the indigenous peoples read the ancient past in the heavens, stars and constellations.
This year’s month of June has been rainy but the night sky was full of twinkling stars when Dante died last 4 June after a lingering illness. His passing on has created a vacuum in the academic community, in the field of astronomy and in the hearts of trade union workers.
UP has named him Historyador ng Bayan. Plans are also afoot to name him Father of Ethnoastronomy, his newly coined word that pertains to the indigenous study of the stars.
Indeed, he lived a full and meaningful life. As I always tell Baby, his only sister, and nephews Ian and Jason, Dante is now with his stars. We will surely miss him; heaven has him now. But we will always see Dante when we gaze at the stars.
(Gloria Esguerra Melencio)
Photo: Ares Gutierrez
Copy Editor, Gulf News
June 15, 10:30 pm, 20 years ago
By Edicio Dela Torre
What happened at 10:30 pm on June 15, twenty years ago?
In fact, something stopped happening at that hour, on that date. According to scientists, that was the official end of the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.
What happened since then has become part of one “most significant story” in my life – my lifelong journeying with the Aetas, the “first people” of the Philippines.
The eruption forced the Aetas to leave their homes, farms, and hunting grounds on the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo. Their clans and communities were dispersed into various resettlement areas. Up to now, the original residents of Barangay Villar which is considered the “mother barangay” of Aetas, live in in four or five different sites.
But 150 families belonging to LAKAS (Lubos na Alyansa ng Katutubong Ayta sa Sambales) decided they would stick together, even if it meant transferring 10 times to different temporary sites. They finally settled in a place, sitio Bihawo, from which they could see Mt. Pinatubo, where they believed Apo Namalyari dwelt.
Wherever they settled, they never stopped dreaming and hoping that they would return to the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo.
Aeta participants would draw details of this dream during the visioning exercises in the GLC – the Grassroots Leadership Courses run by ELF. That is where our life stories met.
I wasn’t in the Philippines when Mt. Pinatubo erupted. It was only in 1992 that I managed to return from an informal exile in Europe. That gave me the chance to set up the Education for Life Foundation with Girlie and activist-friends, using funds initially provided from Denmark.
Partly inspired by the ideas of Grundtvig on “education for life” and the Danish folkehojskole residential course, ELF’s core program was, and continues to be “grassroots leadership formation for grassroots community empowerment.”
We decided to start with participants from Central Luzon, because of the region’s history of militancy, and because our NGO partners like PRRM worked there.
We didn’t deliberately seek out the Aetas. NGO partners sponsored two Aeta participants for the first batch Unang Ani. In the succeeding batches, Aetas remained minorities among the mainly lowland participants of the GLCs.
But after a few courses, the Aeta leader-graduates requested for an All-Aeta course. We did, and that eventually led to the setting up of PBAZ – Paaralang Bayan ng Ayta sa Zambales – organized by Aeta leader-graduates of the GLCs.
Earlier the Aeta leader-graduates talked of starting an “Aeta Survival Folkschool.” The name reminded me of stories about Aetas training US soldiers in jungle survival skills during the Vietnam war.
Carling Domulot, the current president of LAKAS (the fifth in a series of elected leaders), is clear about what the Aetas need now and in the future: “We need to keep alive our indigenous culture and history, but we also need to acquire the knowledge and skills from the formal schools.”
Last week, we reminisced about our first encounters and the years of journeying together. He talked about a recent trek with a group of LAKAS and PBAZ leaders to the crater of Mt. Pinatubo, to develop a route for future eco-tourists who may want to climb from the Botolan side, rather than the existing route from Capas, Tarlac.
“We found clear running waters two hours from the crater,” he said. “It is in Yamot, the sitio of LAKAS before the eruption. That is where we can set up the nursery for indigenous trees, build huts and a community center, for our Aeta folkschool.”
In early 2010, the Aetas of Barangay Villar, Belbel, Burgos, and Moraza finally got their CADT – Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title – to over 15,000 hectares that include the crater of Mt. Pinatubo. Like other indigenous peoples communities that have acquired legal rights, the Aetas face the challenge of how to develop their ancestral domain.
There are denuded areas that need “rainforestation.” There are upland areas that are suitable for sloping agriculture. The twenty years since the eruption make the farm lands ideal candidates for organic agriculture.
But only a few families have settled back in their ancestral domain. Most remain in the resettlement areas. The older Aetas are eager to return as soon as we can build the ram pump that will bring water for drinking and irrigation to the chosen site for the barangay and their farms. But they acknowledge that many of the younger Aetas are ambivalent, wondering if they still want go back to the life their elders remember, before the eruption.
I asked Carling how he feels about what happened in 1991 and its aftermath.
“At first, I wondered what wrong we have done for Apo Namalyari to allow such suffering to happen to us,” he said. “But after 20 years, I think Apo Namalyari may have used the eruption as a way to broaden our world, and to learn new things that we need, so that we will survive.”
He enumerated the different people he has met, the different places he has visited, the different challenges he has met and different lessons he has learned. “Because of the eruption,” he added, “we have met. And I have learned a lot from you, and ELF, and those we have met through you.”
So did I, from Carling and the Aetas, and the learning still continues.
Looking back on the 20 years, I think of Soren Kierkegaard and his aphorism: “Life can only be understood backwards. But it must be lived forwards.”
Pahimakas
Pahimakas
(Para kay Dante Ambrosio)
I. Parola sa Malabon
Anak na sinisinta
ni Pedrong manggagawa
at Pacita Lacsamana.
Minumutyang kaputol
Nina Rollie sa Rusya,
At mas batang Anita,
Pati na ni Jun, bunso.
Taun-tao’y may taning
pusong pigil sa sinta
Hanggang beinte singko lang.
Hanggang maging singkwenta.
At may bonus pang siyam.
Gumiya sa pamilya,
Tulad mo ay parola.
Parolang umiilaw
Gabay ng mangingisda
Nagbigay ng pag-asa,
Batilyo sa Boulevard,
Tumigil sa paghila
Isdang banye-banyera.
Sasampu’y naging laksa.
Lakas ng manggagawa.
II. Taliba ka ng bayan
Sa tangang pluma’t papel.
Nagmimeograph sa newsprint,
Ng demo,martsa, welga.
Sa kasaysaya’y titik,
Bawat salita’y saltik.
Talahib kang may hagkis
Masa’y iyong binigkis.
Bandilyo kang bandilyo,
Taliba kang taliba.
Malalapad na palad,
Kay Abadillang pompyang
Hinding-hindi umubra.
Abadilla: “Taga-Philippine Science
High School ka?”
Dante: Walang sagot.
Abadilla: “Torres High School?”
Dante: Walang sagot.
Abadilla: “Atenista ka?”
Dante: Walang sagot.
Abadilla:”Taga-UP ka?”
Dante: Walang sagot.
Abadilla: “Ah, aktibista!”
Dante: Walang sagot.
Abadilla: “Komunista?”
Dante: Walang sagot.
Abadilla: “Bagsak ka!”
Dante (Buo ang tinig,
Kamao’y nakakuyom):
“Laging pasado ang tres!
III. Bahagharing nagtulay
Kulay, hiwa-hiwalay
Sa ‘king kaliwang-kaliwa.
O sa gitnang kaliwa.
O sa kanang kaliwa.
O nagrelihiyoso.
O sa nag-RX (relaxed),
O sa pinanawan na
Ng pagkilos, pag-asa.
Pula: Araw sa umaga
Kahel: Pumanatag ka
Dilaw: Ituloy, laban
Luntian: Buhay, masa
Bughaw: Di magsasawa
Indigo: Pagbabago
Lila: Lahat kasama.
IV. Bayani kang bituin.
Sinaunang kaalamang
Etnoastronomiya,
natuklasa’t binansagan.
Sa ami’y ipinakita
Ang pagkundap sa langit,
Moroporo, Balatik.
Tatlong Maria, Tres Marias
Sa sintang iniibig.
A, B, C? Pawang di pwede.
J, K, L? Bigo, basted.
S, T, U? Bitui’y sungkit.
Bituin kang bituin,
Kumikislap sa langit.
Sa kasaysayang baya’y
Bayani kang bayani.
Hayaan mong ihatid
Ka namin sa balangaw.
Landas patungong langit,
Masigalot, matarik.
Patunayan mong muli:
Payapa at tahimik.
Humayo, magliwanag.
Kaisa ng talampad.
Salamat at paalam,
Bayani kang bituin.
Padayon, Dante!
(Gloria Esguerra Melencio)
http://philippinehistory.ph
Pagpupugay sa Historyador ng Bayan
Nagluluksa ang http://philippinehistory.ph sa pagpanaw ni Propesor Dante L. Ambrosio, pangunahing founder ng website na ito. Pagpupugay sa Historyador ng Bayan. Maraming-maraming salamat. Hindi ka namin malilimutan.
UP History prof, pumanaw na
Pumanaw na ang propesor sa Kasaysayan na si Dante L. Ambrosio ng Unibersidad ng Pilipinas noong Hunyo 4. Namatay siya sa Philippine Heart Center matapos ang mahigit sa isang buwang pagkakaospital sanhi ng sakit sa puso.
Itinaguyod ni Propesor Ambrosio ang Kasaysayang Bayan bilang pagkilala sa kontribusyon ng mga karaniwang mamamayan sa lipunang Pilipino.
Naiwan niya ang kanyang mga kapatid na sina Rollie, Anita at Jun; hipag na si Fenny at mga pamangkin na sina Jason at Adrian.