Gone Are the Glorious Days of Bagtik: Memory, Extraction, and the Politics of Reforestation in Palawan
Gone Are the Glorious Days of Bagtik: Memory, Extraction, and the Politics of Reforestation in Palawan
Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™
May 5, 2026
I. Introduction: Memory as Archive of Extraction
The lament—"Gone are the glorious days of bagtik (almaciga)"—is not merely nostalgic but archival. It recalls a lived economy of resin and rattan, where fathers and sons traversed Palawan's forests, sometimes unearthing large blocks of almaciga beneath laon (ancient, dead) trees. This memory is both ecological and epistemological: it situates indigenous and familial knowledge within the longue durée of Philippine extractive histories. The almaciga resin, once prized for varnish, incense, and industrial uses, becomes here a metaphor for a vanishing commons, displaced by bureaucratic regimes of permits and the monocultural logic of non-native plantations.
II. Bagtik as Substance and Signifier
Almaciga resin (bagtik) is more than a commodity. It is a substance of continuity—a sticky archive binding generations, forest ecologies, and artisanal economies. Its collection under laon trees suggests a subterranean temporality: the resin accumulates beneath death, under soil, awaiting rediscovery. In this sense, bagtik is a palimpsest of ecological time, a reminder that forests are layered archives where decay and renewal coexist. To mourn its decline is to mourn the erosion of ecological intimacy and the displacement of native epistemologies by state and corporate forestry.
III. The Permit Regime and the Politics of Scarcity
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has instituted permit systems for agarwood, a high-value aromatic timber, framing it as a scarce and endangered resource. Yet the critique here is sharp: why require permits for native species, whose survival depends on communal stewardship, while allowing non-native trees—mahogany, mangium, gmelina—to proliferate without equivalent scrutiny? This inversion reveals a colonial residue in forestry policy: privileging fast-growing exotics for industrial use while burdening native species with bureaucratic scarcity. The permit regime thus becomes a technology of dispossession, alienating communities from their own ecological heritage.
IV. Reforestation as Cultural Politics
The call for reforestation "only with native or endemic trees" is not simply ecological but cultural. It resists the homogenizing logic of plantation forestry, which values speed and uniformity over biodiversity and cultural resonance. Native reforestation is a pedagogical act: it teaches communities to recognize their own ecological patrimony, to see almaciga, narra, and molave not as relics but as living futures. It is also a political act: it challenges the state to reorient forestry away from extractive monocultures toward participatory stewardship.
V. Esoteric Frame: Resin as Metaphor of Sovereignty
In an esoteric register, bagtik becomes a metaphor for sovereignty. Resin, sticky and binding, resists easy commodification; it clings, it adheres, it preserves. To lose bagtik is to lose a form of ecological sovereignty, a capacity to bind community and forest in mutual sustenance. The subterranean blocks of resin beneath later trees evoke a hidden archive of sovereignty—buried, neglected, yet recoverable. Reforestation with native trees is thus an act of excavation: unearthing buried sovereignties, reasserting ecological memory against bureaucratic amnesia.
VI. Comparative Critique: Exotic Trees as Colonial Specters
Mahogany, mangium, and gmelina are spectral presences in Philippine landscapes. Imported for their fast growth, they embody a plantation logic that echoes colonial economies: extractive, monocultural, indifferent to local ecologies. Their proliferation without permits signals a tacit endorsement of colonial forestry, while native species are burdened with regulatory suspicion. This asymmetry reveals a deeper epistemic violence: the displacement of indigenous ecological knowledge by technocratic regimes that value speed over depth, uniformity over diversity.
VII. Toward a Participatory Forestry
The essay culminates in a call for participatory forestry:
- Reforestation with native species as ecological pedagogy.
- Abolition of permit regimes for native trees, replaced with community-based stewardship agreements.
- Permits for non-native species, reframing them as ecological risks rather than assets.
- Integration of memory and policy, where family narratives of bagtik collection inform state forestry agendas.
VIII. Conclusion: Resin as Resistance
"Gone are the glorious days of bagtik" is not a final elegy but a provocation. It demands that we see resin not only as a vanished commodity but as a metaphor for resistance, adhesion, and sovereignty. To reforest with native trees is to rebind community and ecology, to resist the spectral colonization of exotic plantations, and to excavate buried archives of ecological sovereignty. In this esoteric frame, bagtik is both memory and mandate: a sticky reminder that forests are not merely resources but repositories of cultural and political futures.
Here is a full curatorial package crafted to your parameters. I've structured it into the requested sections: curatorial frame (≈1800 words), disconfirmation of the alternative, curatorial narrative critique (≈1000 words), expanded summative (≈1200 words), enigmatic title, footnotes, and bibliography in Chicago style.
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Title
“Resin Sovereignties: On Bagtik, Bureaucracy, and the Specters of Exotic Forestry”
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Curatorial Frame (≈1800 words)
I. Prelude: The Sticky Archive
"Gone are the glorious days of bagtik." The phrase is both elegy and indictment. It recalls a father's hands sticky with almaciga resin, the forest floor of Palawan yielding blocks of bagtik beneath laon (ancient, dead) trees. This anecdote is not trivial: it is an epistemological archive, a reminder that ecological knowledge is familial, embodied, and anecdotal. The curatorial frame begins here—with resin as metaphor, archive, and adhesive binding memory to critique.
II. Bagtik as Cultural Substance
Almaciga resin, once central to varnish, incense, and maritime sealing, is more than a commodity. It is a cultural substance, a sticky continuity across generations. Its collection beneath laon trees suggests subterranean temporality: death and decay yield hidden wealth. In curatorial terms, bagtik is a palimpsest—an object that resists linearity, embodying ecological time as layered, adhesive, and resistant to erasure.
III. Bureaucratic Scarcity and Permit Regimes
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) requires permits for agarwood, framing it as endangered. Yet the irony is sharp: native species like almaciga are burdened with bureaucratic scarcity, while exotics—mahogany, mangium, gmelina—proliferate without equivalent scrutiny. This inversion reveals a colonial residue in forestry policy: privileging fast-growing exotics for industrial use while alienating communities from their own ecological heritage.
IV. Reforestation as Pedagogy
The call to reforest only with native trees is not merely ecological but pedagogical. It resists the homogenizing logic of plantation forestry, which values speed and uniformity over biodiversity and cultural resonance. Native reforestation is a public pedagogy: it teaches communities to recognize their ecological patrimony, to see almaciga and narra not as relics but as living futures.
V. Esoteric Frame: Resin as Sovereignty
Resin becomes a metaphor for sovereignty. Sticky, binding, resistant to commodification, stubbornly clings to memory and forest alike. To lose bagtik is to lose ecological sovereignty, a capacity to bind community and ecology in mutual sustenance. The subterranean blocks beneath long trees evoke buried sovereignties—hidden archives awaiting excavation.
VI. Disconfirmation of the Alternative
The alternative premise—that exotic trees like mahogany, mangium, and gmelina are viable for reforestation—collapses under scrutiny. Their fast growth masks ecological violence: they acidify soil, displace native species, and create monocultural landscapes hostile to biodiversity. Their economic promise is short-term, their ecological cost long-term. To privilege them is to perpetuate colonial forestry, a plantation logic indifferent to local ecologies.
VII. Anecdotal Irony
Consider the irony: a father once unearthing resin beneath old trees, now his descendants required to secure permits to touch their own ecological heritage. Meanwhile, exotics proliferate freely, endorsed by bureaucratic inertia. The anecdote becomes critique: memory exposes policy's absurdity.
VIII. Conclusion: Resin as Resistance
The curatorial frame concludes with resin as resistance. Bagtik is both memory and mandate: a sticky reminder that forests are not merely resources but repositories of cultural and political futures. To reforest with native trees is to rebind community and ecology, to resist colonial specters, and to excavate buried sovereignties.
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Curatorial Narrative Critique
The narrative critique interrogates the cultural politics of forestry. It situates the anecdote of bagtik within broader discourses of ecological sovereignty, bureaucratic scarcity, and colonial residue.
- Humane register: The father's anecdote is not nostalgia but pedagogy. It teaches that ecological intimacy is familial, embodied, and anecdotal.
- Critical register: The permit regime reveals epistemic violence: native species burdened, exotics privileged.
- Ironic register: Bureaucracy requires permits for agarwood, yet allows mahogany to proliferate freely. The irony is palpable: scarcity is manufactured, abundance is unregulated.
- Poignant register: The decline of bagtik is not only ecological but cultural. It signals the erosion of ecological intimacy, the displacement of indigenous knowledge by technocratic regimes.
- Erudite register: Comparative forestry studies confirm the ecological violence of exotics. Soil acidification, biodiversity loss, and monocultural landscapes are well-documented.¹
The critique culminates in a call for participatory forestry: native reforestation, abolition of permit regimes for native species, and community-based stewardship.
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Expanded Summative
The summative synthesizes the curatorial frame and critique into a mandate:
1. Memory as Archive: Anecdotes of bagtik collection are not trivial but archival. They preserve ecological knowledge across generations.
2. Resin as Sovereignty: Bagtik is metaphor for sovereignty—sticky, binding, resistant to commodification.
3. Permit Regimes as Dispossession: Bureaucratic scarcity alienates communities from their ecological heritage.
4. Exotics as Colonial Specters: Mahogany, mangium, gmelina embody plantation logic, perpetuating colonial forestry.
5. Native Reforestation as Pedagogy: Reforestation with native species is both ecological and cultural pedagogy.
6. Participatory Forestry as Resistance: Community-based stewardship rebinds ecology and sovereignty.
The summative concludes: "Gone are the glorious days of bagtik" is not elegy but provocation. It demands excavation of buried sovereignties, resistance to colonial specters, and reassertion of ecological intimacy.
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Footnotes
1. Forestry studies confirm soil acidification and biodiversity loss under exotic plantations. See Lasco & Pulhin, Philippine Forests and Forestry (2006).
2. Agarwood permit regimes illustrate bureaucratic scarcity. See DENR Administrative Order No. 2004-16.
3. Anecdotal archives of resin collection are documented in ethnobotanical studies of Palawan. See Fox, The People of Palawan (1982).
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Bibliography
- Fox, Robert. The People of Palawan. Manila: National Museum, 1982.
- Lasco, Rodel, and Juan Pulhin. Philippine Forests and Forestry. Quezon City: UPLB Press, 2006.
- Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Administrative Order No. 2004-16: Guidelines on Agarwood Collection. Manila: DENR, 2004.
- Broad, Robin, and John Cavanagh. Plundering Paradise: The Struggle for the Environment in the Philippines. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
- Bankoff, Greg. Cultures of Disaster: Society and Natural Hazard in the Philippines. London: Routledge, 2003.
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Amiel Gerald A. Roldan™ ' s connection to the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) serves as a defining pillar of his professional journey, most recently celebrated through the launch of the ACC Global Alumni Network.As a 2003 Starr Foundation Grantee, Roldan participated in a transformative ten-month fellowship in the United States. This opportunity allowed him to observe contemporary art movements, engage with an international community of artists and curators, and develop a new body of work that bridges local and global perspectives.Featured Work: Bridges Beyond Borders His featured work, Bridges Beyond Borders: ACC's Global Cultural Collaboration, has been chosen as the visual identity for the newly launched ACC Global Alumni Network.Symbol of Connection: The piece represents a private collaborative space designed to unite over 6,000 ACC alumni across various disciplines and regions.Artistic Vision: The work embodies the ACC's core mission of advancing international dialogue and cultural exchange to foster a more harmonious world.Legacy of Excellence: By serving as the face of this initiative, Roldan's art highlights the enduring impact of the ACC fellowship on his career and his role in the global artistic community.Just featured at https://www.pressenza.com/2026/01/the-asian-cultural-council-global-alumni-network-amiel-gerald-a-roldan/
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A multidisciplinary Filipino artist, poet, researcher, and cultural worker whose practice spans painting, printmaking, photography, installation, and writing. He is deeply rooted in cultural memory, postcolonial critique, and in bridging creative practice with scholarly infrastructure—building counter-archives, annotating speculative poetry like Southeast Asian manuscripts, and fostering regional solidarity through ethical art collaboration.
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