Aileen S.

Dizon

Ecocriticism of the Ibalong Epic

In the eyes of men, Baltog, Handyong and Bandong were great heroes. They were able
to bring peace, prosperity, and security to their lands. They hunted down ferocious beasts in
order to kill them or keep them far away. During the time of Handyong, they were able to
improve their lives through the plantation of rice and the invention of tools. With their
developing lives and successful battles against beasts, everything seems to be going well in the
eyes of these men. However, there was one enemy they were not able to perceivednature.
In the eyes of mother nature, they were disruptive and abusive creatures. They started
cultivating lands without being aware of the possible effects of it to the environment. This could
be related to the kaingin system which is still prevalent in the Philippines. Kaingin system was
able to improve the lives of many people because production of rice grew and the use of wood
become extensive . However, it also lead to the destruction of the environment specifically the
destruction of the forest and deterioration of soil fertility. As consequence, the inhabitants of
Ibalon suffered from natural calamities which shook their lands and flooded their homes.
The Ibalong epic was written centuries ago but up until now, the message still resonates
to us. This may be because we still continue to destroy the environment for the sake of our own
progress. While human civilization continues to advance, the environment also continues to
decline. Weve been trying to fill up our own needs without being mindful. Government officials
would trade the safety of our environment for wealth without considering that it might also
affect all of us in the future. Theyre trying to reason out that it is for the improvement of the
community but in reality, theyre selling our priceless resources in exchange of wealth. The
wealth they gain could not compensate to the possible destructions that calamities will bring to
us. The lives of people and different creatures are priceless and irreversible. Not all times we are
resilient. We could stop beasts from attacking our homes but we could not stop nature from
destroying our lands. These improvements weve all been doing could also be the destruction of
our lives.
These ecological issues have been an ongoing cycle. We abuse the environment and
then we suffer the effects. After that, we started realizing the message but we never fully act on
it. The resilience of the Ibalong people have been an admirable trait. However, this resilience
would now equate to the people getting used to calamities. After recovery, they build their
houses stronger in order to withstand calamities but we never really confront the main
problem. The problem is not whether or not your house could withstand strong calamities. The
problem is how could we heal the environment again in order to prevent strong calamities from
hitting us again. At the end of the day, we only care about our prosperity but how could we
prosper when nature keeps trying to destroy our homes and all our crops.