By: Tricia Aquino for Interaksyon.com
A man stares straight into the camera, his head covered with a plastic-wrapped hat, a misty mountain behind him. A woman carries her child, whose closed eyes indicate sleep, or death, and with the still sea in the backdrop. On a pile of rubble, a young man sits with cigaret in hand, sunglasses over eyes, and clown wig on his head.
The ambiguity and the openness to interpretation were exactly what Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (iCSC) executive director and Agam book publisher Renato Redentor ‘Red’ Constantino was going for, he told InterAksyon.com in an interview. “These people could be any other Filipino. They could be the reader of the book. They could be you.”
“Agam” is Tagalog for “foreboding” and “memory.” The same word could refer to the state of the country today, said Constantino. “It’s not pretty good.”
The photographs are part of a series of images taken by photojournalist Enrique Soriano all over the Philippines as he tackles the topic of climate change, how it’s altering our landscape and how it’s affecting the lives of Filipinos.
Besides the work of Soriano, 24 poets and journalists have also collaborated with the publisher by writing their individual insights on the topic and as they mulled over Soriano’s sometimes poignant, often haunting images.
Constantino shared that the book project became a challenge for journalists to get their audience to care about climate change and the risks that natural hazards pose. How can they make abstract words like “adaptation,” “preparedness,” and “mitigation” concrete? How can they deliver messages that save lives? How can they move their readers, viewers, and listeners to act on facts?
Creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry in eight Philippine languages are contained in the work published by the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (iCSC), each piece a thousand words or less. The writers hoped to take over where the scientists and non-governmental organizations left off, after scientific and technical explanations have been made and relief has been given. This time, the writers took on the role of telling the people’s stories—especially those that have been silenced by floods, storm surges, and earthquakes.
With supertyphoon Yolanda still fresh in Filipinos’ minds, the book shares something more than recollections of the disaster that struck Eastern Visayas: the ever-present threat of another catastrophe.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warned last month that Metro Manila is surrounded by active faults, making it susceptible to earthquakes, which could in turn trigger tsunamis. At the same time, the Department of Science and Technology urged Metro Manila to prepare for another Typhoon Milenyo or Tropical Storm Ondoy this year, given that both occurred in El Niño years.
Despite these grim announcements, Constantino believed that there was an opportunity in disaster to build back better.
Proceeds from the sales of the books, for example, will go to iCSC’s RE-Charge project. “There will be seven this year, and 20 next year,” he said of the electric jeepneys (or eJeepneys) to be rolled out in Tacloban. Another fleet is already present in Makati.
Agam will be launched on June 24, Tuesday, at Victorino’s restaurant in Quezon City from 3 to 6 p.m. Another book launching event will be held in Tacloban City in Leyte. In the US, book launches will be held in San Francisco and New York this month and the next. It will also be unveiled in Washington D.C. in September.
Editor’s Note: This article is re-posted from Interaksyon.com.