Quezon tragedy victims turn to wood sculpting for survival

They create and rebuild — sculpting the wood that destroyed their homes and all they had almost a year ago, when huge hardwood logs rushed down a mountainside, borne by landslides and floods.

"Overcoming tragedy, seizing opportunity, unleashing opportunity," is the slogan printed on a shirt worn by Arnel Rebate, one of the survivors of the landslide and floods that swept through the provinces of Quezon and Aurora in late November 2004.

The slogan expresses the turnaround in Rebate’s life, which had been devastated by the tragedy.

Before four successive typhoons and the landslide the rains spawned destroyed his home in Barangay Banglos in the town of General Nakar, Quezon, Rebate depended on the sea to feed his family.

When the landslides and flooding struck, the raging mud and roiling floodwater drove huge logs into the town, destroying all things that stood in their path and leaving desolate wasteland in their wake.

The same logs that destroyed Rebate’s home now provide him with livelihood. He sculpts the detritus of hardwood logs — kamagong, maruhat, malabayabas, narra, katmun, molave, ibano and apitong — into furniture and ornamental pieces.

Rebate, a father of two, is the chairman of the Banglos Sculptures Multi-Purpose Cooperative (BSMPC) and he has developed a passion for wood sculpture.

"What happened to us is saddening and it was really difficult," he said in Tagalog. "But it is also true that, on the other side of hardship there is hope and relief."

With the support of Smart Communications, the Gawad Kalinga Foundation and the Haribon Foundation, 50 people in Barangay Banglos underwent 10 days of training under renowned sculptor Rey Paz Contreras.

Rebate said the wood he and his neighbors carve into tabletop and functional art pieces was taken from the logs that floated on the floodwaters and landslides that destroyed their homes.

Initially, these logs and loose planks of wood would have been burnt to make charcoal, "but, with the help of Smart, we saw the opportunity for a turnaround and it is better, more meaningful and engaging," Rebate said.

From his daily take-home pay of P300 as a seasonal fisherman, Rebate now manages to earn enough to save for his children’s future education and send them to school — as well as meet the basic needs of his family.

For each piece of sculpture sold by the BSMPC, 50 percent goes to the sculptor and 50 percent goes to the BSMPC for use as working capital.

The cooperative’s accumulated funds are also divided among its members in the form of shares. The BSMPC has also earmarked funds that will be used for loans to its members.

The BSMPC has 51 members, but only 21 are sculpting full-time — most of them women.

Smart Communications provided BSMPC with P10,000 in initial capital and tools, with which the cooperative members made their first inventory stock. Now, Smart helps them market their wares.

Smart, Gawad Kalinga, Haribon and Contreras are also working with Barangay Banglos residents to rebuild homes destroyed by the storm, flooding and landslides.

The sculpting lessons taught the people of this community to use their imaginations and give their inspiration creative expression.

The people of Barangay Banglos also learned to discern what type of wood best suits a given product and how to sculpt wood both manually and mechanically.

Coming from a village of fisherfolk, Barangay Banglos’ sculptors first efforts at sculpture focused on fish and creatures of the sea, as well as small wooden bowls.

These sculptors now make wooden farm animals like ducks, birds and horses and simple furniture. They express their sense of family with wooden mother-and-child pieces.

Rebate has even managed to sculpt his own version of "Diana," an impression of a woman’s torso from a piece of narra he had found while bathing in the river.

"I slipped into the river while I was bathing," he said. "I thought it was a rock I had slipped on but, when I dug in the riverbed with my hands, I found a piece of wood. It already had this shape and I immediately thought of making a ‘Diana’."