PASASA, BUKSAYA, BIYAYA: Responding to a Culture of Pollution, Waste and a Throw-away Mindset Fr. Vitaliano “Chito” Dimaranan, SDB, MTL, CAS, PhD Introduction I would like to begin with a prayer: May the words of my mouth, And the meditations of our hearts in this place – Our thoughts, our notes, our tweets, our Facebook and Instagram posts – Be acceptable in your sight, O God, Because you are our Rock and Redeemer. Amen. (Rev. Jason Chestnut) A word, among many, that gains popularity nowadays is the term “disconnect.” No, I am not talking about dropped calls or spotty wi-fi connections in the Philippines. I am definitely not referring to PLDT’s over promise and under delivery – “keeping you in touch” (or so they claim!), whatever that means. I refer to a glaring incapacity of our society to put two extreme but opposing claims together into one meaningful, acceptable and truthful whole, as in (and here I quote Otto Scharmer & Katryn Kaufer, 2013): 1) a disconnect between the financial and the real economy; 2) a disconnect between the infinite growth imperative and the finite resources of Planet Earth, and 3) a disconnect between the haves and the have nots, to mention only three in their list of 8 glaring and undeniable “disconnects.” Plenteous, Plentiful or Pitiable? The title of my talk adds further confusion to this world of disconnects. Pasasa … We seem to live in a world of plenty. Just make a day trip to Corregidor and you will see what I mean, right on the port of the famous island. Trash created by Metro Manilans, carried to Manila Bay by the Pasig River and which by a curious stroke of nature, are “gathered” at the little harbor of Corregidor will surprise you. The Bureau of Tourism spends millions yearly just collecting the throw-away trash stashed scandalously by the currents which the authorities are helplessly dealing with at least two times a day, without let-up, every single day of the year. Pasasa is a modest word. Pope Francis was more direct when he referred to the earth as fast becoming a “pile of filth” in many places. Sagana tayo sa basura, even if, mind you, the word basura is not even Tagalog, but Spanish. But ever the optimist that generous mother nature has made us Filipinos to be, we see nothing negative about wallowing in trash. The amount of trash,