The Green Sanctuary:

When one hears of the word “sanctuary”, the first thing that pops into their head is a haven free from any sort of harm. It can be whatever definition floats their boat — For certain plants, it can be the forest. For people, it can be their homes or they can be like me, a sheltered individual who finds comfort in small groups or their beds surrounded by their favorite stuffs.

A sanctuary is basically a place where you find comfort, away from harm or under protection. A typical idea about that will be home itself. But what if your own home wasn’t exactly an ideal place of refuge anymore? The earth was supposed to be a sanctuary for us humans and creatures alike, but what’s going that makes it so different right now that people just describe life as ‘cruel’ or ‘unfair’?

Antonio Reyes Enriquez is an author of short stories and novels from Zamboanga City in Mindanao. Originally, he was supposed to study medicine in a university in Manila as per his parents’ wishes, but later on decided to return to Zamboanga without any college degree and continued his studies there. Later on, he tried to write for news or magazines. He also joined a surveying company in Cotabato, where his experiences built the story we now know as “Surveyors of the Liguasan Marsh”, otherwise known as the excerpt, “The Green Sanctuary.”

Mindanao has always been the, say, example, the ‘black sheep’ of the three big islands family in the Philippines. Unlike Luzon and Visayas, Mindanao is actually dominated by Muslims or Moros, thereby practically separating their culture apart from the latter two. The diversity of their culture was enough to grant them an authority of their own known as the “Bangsamoro”, or practically known as, “Bansa ng mga Moro.” It was later known as the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao due to the rebels sufficing within the region.

Antonio Enriquez’s words has been described as Mindanao-centric, where there is often love, faithfulness and unfaithfulness, conflict and death in most of his stories. Perhaps the reason why he wrote the Green Sanctuary was because he wanted to show how truly chaotic it’s really been down there, especially with forming rebel groups and all. He may have also wanted to show the Muslim stereotype of being terrorists, which is not only seen in the Philippines, but also with other countries due to the abundance of terrorist attacks done by other Muslims. It’s a dark side of our reality how men have begun to live in fear out of this stereotype.

The author’s works also contained deep perceptiveness seen through the portrayal of various different people — such as men fearing certain superstitions or people with all of their love and hates, ambitions and bitter memories. The culture seen in the story is also strong under a political and historical light, since it mentioned certain historical events like the Spaniards coming in Pikit, then moving onto the other city. It also shows the conflict between two religion, such as Christianity and Islam and how people have been fighting over it, which is practically the main point of the story line.

You may apply a historical approach since the events here takes place in situation that did and are still happening. Perhaps marxism can also be used here since it shows the gap between what a datu can do to a simple police officer. Lastly, psychological, since Datu Mantel drives people in fear and he rampages whenever he wants to.

Perhaps the only thing I liked about this book is how Datu Mantel became some sort of symbolism of people’s stereotypes of how Muslims are being described nowadays. Sometimes, when a person in a hijab walks in and does anything that may strike off as sort of violent, people suddenly shake in their knees, fearing that they may reveal a gun any time. It’s how dark and cruel how the reality has come.

I didn’t like the author’s messy timelines, though. One day, we’re talking about the past then all of a sudden, you jump back in the present without realizing when it happened.

I’d recommend this book to someone who’s into history or wars or enjoys Filipino literature with strong culture influence and anecdotes. But personally, I wouldn’t really recommend this book to just anyone since the book standards nowadays are completely different.

Lastly, I’d rate the literary piece a 7 our of 10. Mostly because I didn’t really enjoy the story that much, but it has themes that tackles the reality of our country today, which I find it interesting.

• What it is:

  The "Green Sanctuary" program is a process sponsored by the UU Ministry for Earth (UUMFE) where congregations demonstrate their commitment to environmental sustainability and justice through a rigorous self-assessment, planning, and project implementation. 

   
• How it works:

  To become a "Green Sanctuary," a congregation must complete a self-assessment, develop a plan for environmental action, and implement projects that demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. 

   
• Why it matters:

  The program aims to help congregations create healthier, more sustainable futures and participate in a broader movement for climate justice. 

   
• UU Ministry for Earth:

  The UUMFE is the organization that oversees the Green Sanctuary program and provides resources and support to congregations. 

   
• Examples:

  Many Unitarian Universalist congregations have achieved "Green Sanctuary" status, including the Unitarian Coastal Fellowship, Cache Valley Unitarian Universalists, and others.