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Calawagan River, found in Paluan, Occidental Mindoro, was awarded several times as the cleanest river in the Philippines and a Hall of Famer (1996-1998) of the DILG National Award for the said category.

A fellow fieldworker and me visited the area unintentionally! Our meeting with the local officials of Paluan went smoothly giving us lots of time to spare before our trip back home. Thank God some of the officials suggested we drop by at their river while waiting for the public utility van. Whew!!! I almost missed another glimpse of nature's exquisite beauty!

The river brought me back to my early years in Mankayan (a town in Benguet) where kids used rivers as swimming pools and explored rivulets catching frogs, tadpoles, eels and fish. It also made me remember of other rivers slowly "executed" and people do not care at all. Why have we let Pasig and Meycauayan Rivers degenerate? When will we notice the suffering of the rivers?

A river has to pass through a lot of obstacles just to reach its goal - to be one with all the other waters in the world. It never aims for high places. It always choses the lowest spot to keep it going on its journey. When a river can not go under or around a blockage, it gathers force to crash the impediment. But this body of water also knows when it is not powerful enough to bring down a barrier, at such, it keeps on rising up and go over the obstruction. The river's determination to reach its destination enables it to overcome all the diversions and obstacles along the way.

But nowadays, many of the rivers are not reaching their goal, they are growing weaker and weaker. There are no more forests to calm their rage when rain falls and to cheer them up when they get dry. The plants and animals that made them healthy and inspired slowly vanished. In replacement are tons and tons of wastes choking them from time to time.

As I watched Calawagan's crystal clear water drift by, I wonder how long will it remain this enthralling. Downstream, I can hear the hammering of powerful machines dredging the river for farm irrigation. That made me shiver.