**1. Introduction**

Lynn White's article, which came out in 1967, made a controversial claim. According to White, the root cause of the environmental crisis is religion, specifically Christianity, which privileged the human person over animals and other nonhuman beings in the world (White 1967). Towards the end of the article, however, White discloses that the remedy for the crisis is also religious. After that, he cites Buddhism and St. Francis of Assisi as exemplars of a deep understanding of our connection with nature. The Filipino Catholic bishops in 1988 declare that a particular task, the stewardship of creation, was given to humans by God based on their reading of Gen. 1: 27–28. Stewardship points to an ethic of responsible managemen<sup>t</sup> or stewardship of these natural resources so that the next generations of humans can have continued access to these resources. The stewardship ethic is a response to White's claim that religion could offer remedies against the environmental crisis. It uses the language of conserving resources for future generations—an implicit acknowledgment of its usefulness to human beings. The 1988 pastoral letter refers to this notion of stewardship as an act of Christian duty.

For the Filipino Catholic bishops, stewardship is the approach for viable resource managemen<sup>t</sup> that aims to restore the beauty of the Philippine natural environment and serve the needs of the future generations of Filipinos. The environmental actions that the Catholic bishops have inspired manifested an anthropocentric dimension of stewardship, even though the environmental issues and concerns were massive, like mining and deforestation. In 1998, they called for the repeal of the Mining Act of 1995.

**Citation:** Peracullo, Jeane C., and Rosa Bella M. Quindoza. 2022. The Environmental Activism of a Filipino Catholic Faith Community: Re-Imagining Ecological Care for the Flourishing of All. *Religions* 13: 56. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13010056

Academic Editors: Pamela R. McCarroll and HyeRan Kim-Cragg

Received: 10 December 2021 Accepted: 4 January 2022 Published: 7 January 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

William Holden (2012) documents the Catholic response to large-scale mining in the Philippines. The global mining industry has taken note of the Church's opposition to mining. According to Holden (2012, p. 852), for the Catholic Church in the Philippines, environmental issues such as mining must not be seen as purely environmental issues, but also as human rights issues because mining not only disrupts the biophysical environment, but degrades natural resources upon which many poor people rely; it further impoverishes them.

In 1991, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (henceforth CBCP) convened the 2nd Plenary Council (PCP II). The "Church of the Poor" became the blueprint for the Catholic Church's renewal in the country. The Basic Ecclesial Communities (BECs) or Catholic faith communities in the rural areas of the country were instrumental in translating the ideas of being the "Church of the Poor" into concrete actions (Dagmang 2015). Some BECs widely interpreted one of the visions of the 2nd Plenary Council of the Philippines, "a Church is a community of disciples", as about a spirituality of stewardship (Picardal 2013). This interpretation enabled some BECs to incorporate environmental campaigns into their action platforms. However, it is worth noting that there is no provision in the Acts and Decrees of the PCP II, published in 1992, that specifically mentioned the environmental crisis (Peracullo 2020). The localization of efforts towards addressing environmental issues and concerns is sustainable because local Catholic communities and progressive groups are invested in these issues, specifically mining, deforestation, and increasingly by 2015, climate change. After all, these issues impact their vulnerable communities significantly.

The study participates in the conversation by reflecting on two questions: (1) Can care be re-imagined as a non-anthropocentric response to the environmental crisis? (2) What model for ecological care beyond anthropocentrism arises from the environmental activism of a faith-based community in the Philippines? The study examines Marinduque Council for Environmental Concerns (MaCEC)'s notion of ecological care. Moreover, the study investigates how the organization's concepts or ideas of care go beyond anthropocentrism. Finally, the study proposes a model of ecological care that promotes the flourishing of all in ecological communities. Cultural values such as *pagtutulungan* (service), *pakikiisa* (solidarity), and *pananampalataya* (faith) are features of the model of ecological care beyond anthropocentrism.

## *1.1. From Stewardship to Ecological Care*

Since its publication in 2015, *Laudato Si* (Francis 2015) became a model of doing theology that engages with the scientific community, the faithful, and the nonhuman members of the biotic community. Rolando Tuazon (2018, p. 198) claims that Pope Francis rejects the dominant view about environmental stewardship as dominion. *Laudato Si* provides a new way of regarding nature largely absent in many encyclicals in the past, even though those advocated for sustained economic and political justice towards the poor in society (Eballo 2018). For Wolfgang Sachs (2017, p. 2583), *Laudato Si* pillories excessive anthropocentrism and emphasizes relationships with nature, others, oneself, and God (Sachs 2017, p. 2580). This intertwining relationship calls for an integral ecology (Francis 2015). Integral ecology corrects that binarism or dualism (Canceran 2018, p. 9).

For the CBCP (2019, par. 23), echoing Pope Francis, there is a need for a paradigm shift to reestablish our sacred relationship with nature and not just for a token of environmental protection and stewardship. The Catholic bishops seemed to underscore the language of care from the language of stewardship. Nonetheless, the language of care still evokes anthropocentrism because, as Wickman and Sherman (2020) emphasize, the scope of the Anthropocene is essentially planetary. Whatever it means, it refers to the enormous influence of human beings upon the entire terrestrial system and thus the historical emergence of the *Anthropos* as a geological agent. Anthropocentrism refers to the idea that only human beings possess inherent worth and moral standing. Anthropocentrism's literal or etymological meaning is "human-centered". This concept asserts that the human being—as

an individual or species—stands at the center of existence in descriptive and normative modes (Beever 2018, p. 39).

The influence extends to the kinds of response to the environmental degradation that is largely human inflicted. Sally McFague points out: "It is hard to care for the Earth when one has never cared for a piece of it" (McFague 1997, p. 155). In using the analogy of a gardener, McFague points to the gardener who cares as pragmatic, practical, immersed in trying to look for local solutions to make the garden flourish, and in so doing, able to distinguish suitable interventions from bad ones in gardening.

Caring for a garden is a case of making the personal political (McFague 1997). McFague argues that this particular activity of caring can motivate groups of gardeners to lobby for inner-city parks where poor people in urban areas can commune, appreciate, learn to care for the environment; to work for a community where people and nature can co-inhabit; and lastly to advocate for a simpler, limited lifestyle, in which a sense of community, a high literacy rate, the emancipation of women, preventive medicine, and ample green space are considered the good life. She cites examples of such communities, both rich and poor.

The ecological ethic of care suggests relating to nature-appreciation and not domination. For McFague (1997), the former is the crucial point we have missed from Genesis. God appreciates what God created, and as beings made in God's image, our attitude toward nature should also be valued. She also points out that this attitude toward nature is in keeping with the commandment to love God and neighbor. McFague (1997, p. 166) puts it this way:

"God is the ultimate Subject: we love God (or should love) because God is God and deserves our adoration. We love our neighbor (or should) because we see human beings as ends in themselves, as valuable. After all, they are. A human being is good, period. Gen. 1 says that we should extend the way we relate to God and neighbor to nature: nature is good, period."

For Pamela McCarroll, though, McFague's recommendation belongs to the efforts in religious ethics and systematic theology "to replace the image of the human as "master", and maker of history with the image of the human as caretaker, steward, custodian, and fellow creature upon the Earth, created to love, reverence and care for the planet, its animals and processes" (McCarroll 2020, p. 35), and this can be problematic. McCarroll continues that "until the living web of humanity can be conceptualized within the more extensive live web of creation, our research and practice cannot help but serve human-centric ways of being in the world. Ultimately, it re-inscribes and normalizes human-centricity, the fundamental cause of the environmental crisis (McCarroll 2020, p. 36).

#### *1.2. Small Island Communities in the Philippines*

The Philippines' archipelagic nature and its location in the most disaster-prone region in the world and the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' make it even more critical for this calamity-prone country, particularly for small island communities. The Philippine Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) enumerates the following factors to describe small islands: (1) Physical dimension, e.g., the land area of less than 10,000 sq km; (2) distance from the mainland; (3) geo-physical profile; (4) substrate or origin; (5) population density; (6) resource limitations, usually resulting in food insecurity and chronic poverty; (7) dependence on the mainland; (8) lack of access and links to market institutions and technology; (9) political/social marginalization due to the existing governance structure; (10) lack of alternative sustainable livelihoods to complement farming and fishing; (11) direct exposure to climate-related hazards, especially typhoons and storm surges; (12) lack of risk assessment, early warning, and search and rescue capacity; and (13) isolation, especially when disasters hit (CCS et al. 2011, p. 3).

Thousands of small islands with fragile ecosystems and populated by communities heavily dependent on natural resources are highly exposed to natural and human-induced hazards. As such, these small islands become the most vulnerable to risks because they face multiple threats and the possibility of isolation from the mainland (CCS et al. 2011, pp. 125, 130). Nevertheless, these communities most susceptible to environmental challenges and climate risks also have the most potential to advocate a response concretely and appropriately, and act on these risks and challenges.

#### *1.3. Profile of the Island Province of Marinduque*

Marinduque is situated about 170 km south of Metro Manila at the eastern portion of Luzon, Philippines. Tayabas Bay on the north, Mongpong Pass on the northeast, Tayabas Strait on the southeast, and the Sibuyan Sea on the southbound Marinduque bound the province. It comprises the main island and 17 islets and spans 959,000 sq. km. Approximately 83% are hills and mountains, while 17% are coastal, swamps, and marshy areas (UP PLANADES 1999; Province of Marinduque 2011, p. 2).

It has pristine biodiversity and ecosystems of natural forests, agricultural fields, seas, coastlines, thirty-two (32) river basins, and copper, copper concentrate, copper metal, iron, manganese, limestone, gold, and silver. The region is primarily agricultural. The sector provides 48% of employment, while approximately 53% of the total land area is devoted to crop production, mainly coconut and copra (Province of Marinduque 2011, p. 5). Figure 1 presents the location map of the island-province map of Marinduque.

**Figure 1.** Location map of Marinduque Philippines. Original image from ©Maphill (2011) distributed under license CC BY-ND.

Historical studies on disaster pointed to several environmental, tragic, and climate risks faced by the island province (Magalang 2010; Formilleza 2010). Marinduque's geographical feature makes it an earthquake-prone area. It is home to a dormant volcano, Mt. Malindig, located in the municipality of Buenavista, and is situated along the Boac River Fault line. The island province is considered the 7th landslide-prone province in the country, with the heavy disturbance of its mountains' physical base caused by large-scale mining operations. According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Mine and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB), the province has a high risk for landslides during earthquakes and large-scale flooding. Marinduque's location in the country's typhoon belt means that it is either directly hit or affected by an average of twelve typhoons each year which caused devastating damage to properties, infrastructure, agriculture, livelihoods, and living conditions (Province of Marinduque 2011, p. 7; Magalang 2010).

For over 30 years until 1996, the Marinduque Copper Mining (Marcopper) operations served as a source of livelihood for some residents. However, the mine operations have

caused innumerable threats, particularly health, environmental problems, and risks. Mining has polluted waterways, killed fish, and flooded agricultural fields. With poverty incidence moved from 12.5% in 2015 to 10% in 2018, almost 24% of its population is still under poverty, even after hosting mining operations for three decades (PSA 2020, p. 45; Salvacion and Magcale-Macandog 2015, p. 28).

A cumulative effect of the mine tailings dumping occurred when the Mogpog and Boac Rivers overflowed the banks during a typhoon in 1993. On 24 March 1996, the pit, which used to hold the wastes of the Marcopper, failed and caused a massive spill of mine tailings into the Boac River and other bodies of waters traversing three towns. The mining spill destroyed a significant water artery in the capital town of Boac that brought about further environmental, health, social, and economic problems. In addition, flooding in the island-province's coastal and flood plain areas aggravates the increasing effects of sea-level rise due to climate change and climate variability.

The flow of mine tailing deposits from impounding pits that collapsed in 1993 and 1996 placed many communities along the riverbanks and low-lying areas vulnerable to flood-related risks. The possible collapse of at least six abandoned and unmaintained mine tailing dams located up in the mountains and above the primary fault line and still contain contaminated liquid and solid materials pose a severe disaster threat even after the close of mining operations in the province (Magalang 2010; Province of Marinduque 2011, p. 10).

Moreover, water quality and hydrology analysis in Boac River indicates that "water conductivity is higher than the acceptable values for a freshwater body and that concentrations of arsenic, lead, mercury, manganese, and copper with the first three as highly toxic are 'above their threshold limits'" (Cruz et al. 2020, p. 152).

One of the many Basic Ecclesial Communities that mainly attend to environmental issues is the Marinduque Council for Environmental Concerns (MaCEC) that Rev. Rafael M. Lim, the first bishop of the Diocese of Boac, established in 1978. The initial advocacies of MaCEC focused on the struggle of the fisherfolks against the surface dumping of mine tailings at Calancan Bay and Boac River by the Marcopper Mining Corporation (Magalang 2010). With support from national organizations such as CBCP's National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA), Luzon Secretariat for Social Action (LUSSA), and *Lingkod Tao Kalikasan* (Service, People, Nature), the struggle took the form of pressing legal and administrative charges against the mining firm. However, the environmental disaster due to the mine tailings spill in 1996 brought together residents of the province, non-governmental organizations, local Church organizers, and local public officials in a collective and integrated advocacy and action (Quindoza 2015).
