Chin Chin Gutierrez is a lady with a mission – to change the world!

Taking to heart what Mahatma Gandhi said, that “if you want to change the world, you have to be the change you want to see in the world,” Chin Chin has been consistently spreading an urgent
message most often ignored in this country — take care of Mother Nature, now!

In her own way, she organizes workshops, discussions in schools, tree plantings and litter cleanups through her Mother Earth Foundation.

With her life’s work dedicated to save the environment, Chin Chin was hailed an Asian Hero, landing on the cover of TIME magazine in 2003.

“That Time magazine cover was just a big sign that told me this is probably something that I would do for the rest of my life,” she says.

Born Maria Carminia Lourdes Arnaldo Gutierrez, her mother was a former nun who became an artist, while her father is a botanist. Chin Chin started out to model when she was 16 and was immediately hailed as one of the most celebrated ingenues in the fashion and advertising circuit. She easily became a top endorser for major print and advertising campaigns in the country, as well as in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

She began acting for TV and film after graduating with a degree in Mass Communications from Maryknoll College. She won the first Best Actress Award from the first Asian Television Awards in 1996 and even successfully forayed into theater.

Strangely, stardom has eluded her. Blame it on the perception that there’s something a bit kooky about this artist, who has one of the most beautiful faces in showbiz. Amidst the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry, Chin Chin would rather spend a great deal of time on environmental advocacies, and on openly talking about her philosophy and spirituality. Hence, she was quickly labeled by some as an oddity.

But it’s not as if Chin Chin minds. “Hindi ito naging kultura natin na magmalasakit sa kalikasan. So natural, may mga mag-iisip ng ganun kasi hindi pa nila alam at lubos na naiitindihan yung kahalagahan ng kalikasan sa buhay natin,” she says matter-of-factly.

She went on a personal journey scouring the archipelago of enchanting rhythms and original lullabies. She released two albums -- “Uyayi: A Collection of Philippine Lullabies” and “Mater Vitae: Whispers of A New World.”

She is also set to showcase her talent in painting at an exhibit dubbed “Altars of Love” on Dec. 2 at the Le Souffle, in Makati. Her art, she says, isn’t about celebrity, it’s about feeding her soul. “This is my offering to my Creator, our Creator,” she adds.

Of late, Chin Chin has been a favorite in telenovelas, appearing as the incorrigible contravida, or the anti-heroine who makes life hell for the protagonist. But in real life, Chin Chin is no less than a hero who wears her conviction like a badge of courage, and puts forth her life-long passion to honor her roots and fulfill her mission to save the earth, no matter what people say. (Jaser A. Marasigan)

STUDENTS AND CAMPUSES BULLETIN (SCB): How did you get involved in this whole environmental advocacy? Was there one deciding instance in your life that pushed you into it?

CHIN CHIN GUTIERREZ (CG): Maybe it’s how I grew up. My mother was a former nun and my father a practicing botanist.

He would come from the field, show me a specimen, flowers, trees. Sometimes we’d discuss what’s good or bad, like how weeds could choke up other plants. But if you learn to discern the medicine from the poison, you will see that we can actually relate with nature in a very harmonious way. You cannot care for what you do not know. You cannot love for what you do not know.

SCB: Did your education also have something to do with this great awareness about Mother Nature?

CG: Well, I’m always in a quest for truth. My search for an absolute truth started in my college years. I was taking up Philosophy 1 in Miriam College and I was assigned to prove the non-existence of God. How about that? Can somebody be responsible for my soul while I’m at it! (laughs)

I was terrified. It was changing the whole structure of what we were taught. I started asking questions. By grace, I started to ask the right questions. Who am I? Why am I here? Why am I going? If I’m going anywhere, how do I get there? If you ask the wrong questions, you will be entering a different path. They’re not necessarily wrong, but if you want the quest for truth, you have to ask the questions
that will bring you to the truth. That helped me make the crucial decision to enter the entertainment business and be part of the performing arts.

SCB: Which came first, showbiz or your advocacy?

CG: Life just happened. I found myself auditioning for Noli Me Tangere and played the role of Maria Clara. That exposed me to a lot of directors and thespians. Two and a half months of talking to them about Philippine culture, evolution, revolution, filled my thoughts and the air I breathed, and I said yes, maybe this is what I would like to investigate for the next 10, 15 years. I would probably be able to contribute something to society, at least to ask the right questions, at least to challenge the myths about life.

Then I got an invitation to join an environmental concert organized by artists, painters, sculptors, dancers. I hosted it with Roy Alvarez, an actor who has been in the environmental field for a long time. And I was moved by the fact that people can come together from different sectors to address one goal or cause, which is to heal the environment.

A CRITICALLY-ILL MOTHER NATURE

SCB: How did you feel seeing all the devastation after Typhoon Ondoy?

CG: The effects of Typhoon Ondoy didn’t happen overnight. That is a direct result of our neglect. We have to double time. How can we understand global warming when there’s no more food, when you go to the grocery and you realize, you cannot eat money, even if you had it?

For decades now we’ve been warned by environmentalists, by scientists, that there’s another war, a fatal war that is looming. This is the war that people have waged against nature, a war which we will surely lose.

No one is speaking for Mother Nature and it is really in a critical condition. Imagine your mother almost skinned alive. We’ve lost almost all of our forest covers, there is no more hair left. Scars, deep holes from mining, she can hardly think anymore. And perhaps all the blood has gone out, and now only water is gushing out of her. But she’s alive, and she’s hoping that her children would hear her, to diagnose her in critical condition. She’s in a 50-50 situation! What do we do? We bring her to the intensive care unit.

Mother Nature has an accountant speaking for her too, who said we’ve already created an accounting tool, which is the ecological footprint. You can look it up, ecologicalfootprint.com, and you can assess
your personal ecological footprint or business ecological footprint. They’ll ask you some questions: do you eat vegetables, how big is your house, how many people live with you, and with all those questions answered, over and above the GNP, and the situation of your economic this and that, political and social factors, they can tell you what kind of lifestyle you’re living and how many planets it takes to support that.

Today, it will take five planets to support the average American lifestyle. These First World countries are the benchmarks that we Third World countries want to emulate. But their lifestyles are not sustainable!

We can be grateful in fact that we’re quite behind in industrialization, urbanization or modernization, globalization. We have enough time to change. We have enough space to adapt to this crisis.

SCB: When the word “sustainable’’ is used, what does it really mean as far as the environment is concerned?

CG: The United Nations gives us a very nice definition. Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own. We have to find a way to get what we need without compromising.

Now, how do we do this? We have the compass of sustainability, which the UN Environmental Program has adopted and has been trying to share. If you look at the compass, it’s North, South, West, East. Substitute the words, just keep the first letters.

N for nature. S is for society. W is for well-being. E is for economy. So whenever you buy a particular product, ask yourself, is this good for nature? Is the packaging recyclable? Will the content be recyclable or are they full of chemicals that will pollute or poison the earth or water. Is it resonant to society’s well-being?

SCB: But our laws are not being implemented, that’s the problem…

CG: We have a lot of wonderful laws. We have the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Ecological Solid Waste Act or the Republic Act 9003. You can find it very clear there, that every barangay is responsible for their waste. In fact, instead of just waste management, we ought to stop creating waste. The way towards zero waste, ‘yung walang aksaya, where our discards could be reusable, is if we learn how to segregate. Hiwalay ang mga nabubulok sa hindi nabubulok. Pero ginagawa ba natin? Kailangan na natin gawin. The less garbage that comes out of our household, the less problems our local government will have to collect and re-segregate them and find ways to compose
the biodegradable and send back to factories the non-biodegradable.

Tao ang problema, tao ang solusyon. Kailangan ‘yan baguhin. Huwag nang gumawa pa ng basura, basura ng pag-iisip, basura ng damdamin, pagiging maaksaya. We are being killed by our own basura.

SCB: Does it frustrate you that it always takes a tragedy to wake people up? We thought that when Ormoc happened people would realize how important the environment is…

CG: Ang cancer, cancer talaga. Jose Rizal diagnosed our society to have cancer. Ang cancer cells, tinatanggal. ‘Yan ang tinanggal ng Ondoy para mamulat tayo sa katotohanan. Ngayon it is up to those who are awake and aware now.

SCB: Pero ang mga Pilipino, ningas-cogon....

CG: No, don’t blame the young for that. The young haven’t been given a chance, the opportunity, or the exposure to the right way. We have not been a good example to them. Ano sinasabi ng bata ngayon? “Ang tao ay basura. Tanggalin ang tao, tanggal ang basura. Kung saan maraming tao, maraming basura. Kung saan walang tao, walang basura. Tanggalin ang tao, tanggal ang basura. Ang tao ay basura. Bow.”

Ano pa ang sinasabi ng mga bata ngayon? Dun lang sa village namin — “Sana bumagyo ulit kasi bumabait ang tao! Namimigay ng mga hindi na kailangan!”

‘Yun ang katotohanan ngayon. You can’t blame the young people today. It is our duty to double, triple time our change and offer them a better future. We never inherited the Earth from our parents, we just borrowed it from our children and our children’s children. We have to pay back that debt now in our lifetime, especially now because scientists are showing us that the deadlines are also within our lifespans.

SCB: Where will this world be?

CG: In 2025, one billion Asians will face water scarcity. Kaya ninyo ba ng dalawang araw na walang tubig na maiinom? Di natin kakayanin ‘yun. But today, we are the second country in the world that has the least potable water. We’re an archipelago but we don’t drink water from the sea, we get our water from our watersheds. Nasaan ang watersheds natin ngayon? We only have five percent of our forests covered, the last remaining would be Sierra Madre here in Luzon.

Dapat kapag summer, kapag tag-init dapat meron tayong tubig. But instead since wala na ‘yung mga forests, nagkakaroon tayo ng mga baha and water is just wasted and brought back to the sea and we don’t get to reserve, preserve potable water.

SCB: You said it is trendy now to be green. Are you afraid that it is really just a trend and that it will not be sustainable?

CG: I don’t think I have to convert more people because I think after typhoon Ondoy, a lot of people now get the point of what it means to change our lifestyles and become more ecological, more sustainable. In other words, simplify. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Mahatma Gandhi, a Nobel Prize winner for Peace, said that the world could supply all our needs, but not our greed. Allow me to quote him again — if you want to change the world, you have to be the change you want to see in the world.

SCB: How can ordinary people, some with their limited capacities, help in all this?

CG: I can cite an example. One Sunday, before going anywhere else, change your routine. Plant a tree. Go to your nearby parish and ask if they have extra land, or planting activity. In your villages, or organize a repair and exchange sort of place where households can submit things that they don’t need anymore and then have them exchanged, bought, sold, repaired. You can even create jobs.

The beauty of it is to create a feeling of community. The key to ecological and sustainable development is to activate relationships.

Mga kapamilya, mga kapuso, mga kabarkada, para sa kalikasan, para sa Diyos, para sa tao. Bakit hindi natin gawin ‘yun? Gamitin natin ang chismis natin (laughs). Gawin nating positive ‘yung pagiging chismoso’t chismosa natin and bring the gospel around. Then you create all the pockets of green good news, green victories. It becomes infectious. Suddenly people will start appreciating the beauty of working together.

SCB: It’s really a big task. It boils down to education din, because people are ignorant…

CG: The Earth is ending its own cycle. It will kill itself of global warming first, and then there’s global cooling, and then the Ice Age will come back if we do not address this imbalance sooner. So actually, we will be the next dinosaurs if we don’t do something about it, if we do not partake of this broken world and start to heal it because we were given that task as human beings. Why don’t we treat nature like our brothers or sisters and maybe we could heal our relationships with the Earth, our one and only home.

In the same way that we would care for our family members, why wouldn’t you care for the “other” family members of our home? If you’re a business person, make Mother Nature a partner, not a slave that you can just sell. Ang Pilipinas para siyang babaeng ibinibenta sa iba’t-ibang bansa. Hindi ba tayo naaawa sa kanya? Ina natin siya. Hindi lang siya Inang Bayan, kundi Inang Lupa. Hanggang dun na lang ba tayo?

NOT DIFFERENT, JUST PASSIONATE

SCB: You’re so passionate when it comes to the environment but some people misconstrue you as weird. How do you feel about it?

CG: That’s probably just a few people and probably the few people that can write about it.

SCB: They label you as such…

CG: I’m already coming from the fact that hindi ito natin kultura na magmalasakit sa kalikasan. So natural, may mga mag-iisip ng ganun kasi hindi pa nila alam at lubos na naiitindihan ‘yung kahalagahan ng kalikasan sa buhay natin. Wala pang lubos na pag-unawa so wala din ‘yung pagmamamalasakit at wala din ‘yung pagmamamalasakit dun sa mga tumutulong na at naiintindihan ko rin ‘yun.

SCB: You are the odd woman out…

CG: But the good news is, all over the world, there are so many people now trying to help heal this planet. Just imagine that the planet is your mother, pakikikinggan mo pa ba ‘yung tsismis na ganun? Eh nanay ko ito eh, gusto ko siyang hilumin. ‘Yun ‘yung mas importante ngayon eh, dahil ‘yung buhay ng kabataan at susunod na henerasyon ang nakasalalay dito eh.

Ito ‘yung misyon na ibinigay sa akin, inishi-share ko lang eh ayaw tanggapin nung iba. Siguro lahat naman tayo mabibigyan ng oportunidad ng Panginoon na mapukaw. Kanya-kanyang paglalakbay ‘yan sa buhay.

Ang buhay na mismo ng tao ang mismong huhusga sa sarili niya kung saan siya nagkukulang, kung ano ang dapat niyang punuin na patlang upang mabuo ang kanyang paglalakbay dito sa mundong
ito. Sayang naman, naisilang ka, namatay ka na nang hindi mo nakilala ‘yung sarili mo at hindi mo napuno ‘yung patlang na naihanda para sa iyo. Eh ‘yun ang mas importante sa akin dahil ‘yun ang ihaharap ko sa Diyos. Wala naman akong ibang haharapin kundi ang siyang lumikha sa akin. Ano’ng ginawa ko para sa kanya at sa kanyang mga nilalang, sa tao. Sa kahuli-hulihan, ‘yun ang kailangan
nating sagutin.

SCB: Are there still questions that remain unanswered in your quest for truth?

CG: God is my truth. And if there are any questions, it’s a process of always considering
what is God’s will for my life, and how shall I choose or decide. I realized that relationship with God is the most important.

He is the spirit of truth, no other truth can be greater than that.

If you really want to fulfill God’s will for you and for your life, and one of them is to bring back the integrity of creation, that dignity of what the Lord has given us, start with ourselves, our lifestyle, our ways to deal with people, our values, and that faith in each other, no matter what is in the middle.

BANKING ON YOUNG PEOPLE

SCB: Where are the young people in all these?

CG: Young people can’t wait until they have graduated and they can enter the profession. Our timelines have totally warped. Ni hindi nga natin alam kung kailan ang tag-init at tag-ulan. We don’t even have a summer. Summer has ended without having happened. Nag-18 ka na na hindi naman nangyayari dahil ang dami naman dapat gawin. Unfortunately, young people have to grow up faster. But the good news is, malalim magtanong ngayon ang kabataan. Don’t underestimate
our young people today. I’m not frustrated at all!

A majority of our population now is so ripe to be used. You, young people have to forge a new way of living on the planet. If your forefather or your parents have dismally failed, you can’t keep on blaming the older generations because we are now going to inherit whatever is left of it now. We will have to forge new ways, just like our national heroes, who hardly reached 33 summers. Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio! Buhay ang naging kapalit ng kanilang pagmamahal sa bayan. At such a young age they were able to forge a nation. Now we have the freedom that has been fought for us by our forefathers’ blood, what are we doing with it? That was just 100 years ago! Ang bilis naman nating makalimot.

SCB: You conduct talks in schools. Do you find young people as equally passionate as you are in what you do?

CG: Yeah. They are aching to be used, to be a benefit to the society. You just have to give them a chance, give them the wheel! Give them the ways and means to express their talents and their potentials because it’s their world now. Malay natin, gusto pala nila ng simpleng buhay but we still feed them with advertisements that would make them think that they want or need something.

A lot of young people I’ve talked to said that they would love to be in the mountains, to live in the farm, to grow trees, to swim in the seas. They don’t even know what fireflies look like! Some of them said, “Hay, hindi pa ako nakakakita ng alitaptap, ano ba ‘yun?” Isn’t that unfair? I think we really have to stand back and listen more to young people.

SCB: How can they make themselves heard?

CG: Young people, express yourselves especially when it comes to the environment and in the coming elections. Express what kind of leadership you expect and want, and desire. Most importantly, we know the whys, the hows, in terms of dealing with environment issues but you have to have a vision of a sustainable world. Can you paint that world? Can you imagine that world that you want?

SCB: What are the qualities of the president that you are looking for?

CG: What? (laughs) Let’s not talk about that…

SCB: The coming elections are very important…

CG: I would like to emphasize the criteria, not the candidates – look for a servant leader, look for a spiritual leader, for leaders who want to sustain life, have an environmental platform. But not just a green platform but who really has shown a long record of protecting the environment.

Huwag na natin kasi pagbayarin ang mga kandidato, kasi kapag sila ang nag-gastos, we are allowing them to be our next oppressors.

SCB: Did you ever consider politics?

CG: No. Politics is the art of compromise and in the environment, we cannot compromise.
Iisa lang ang batas ng kalikasan, iisa din ang pangako ng kalikasan. So I’d rather stick to that promise of a new world than to compromise the world.

WALK THE TALK

SCB: You’re a vegetarian right? How hard it is to be one?

CG: How easy it is (laughs)! I started 11 years ago. Being a vegetarian is adopting a different
lifestyle totally. So hindi dapat maging sakripisyo iyon kung nauunawaan mo kung papano mo tatanggapin ‘yung pagiging vegetarian mo.

I started in ‘98 but it took me two years to study first what vegetarianism is, the concept, the idea, and I started to read about other people, Shakespeare, Einstein, these people’s philosophies and conviction.

I started for simple health reasons, I wanted to be healthy for the rest of my life. I didn’t want to get sick, have cancer or diabetes. I also went through how Filipinos eat and the way we cook our food, kasi top killers are diabetes, heart attack, why will I continue? I’d rather eat what is more alive than what is dead. Why would you allow yourself to be a cemetery for dead food, whether it is canned, processed, or cooked?

And then I realized, it’s not just the health factor. You can really help the environment because our forests are cleared to plant crops to feed the cattle, not the hungry. It’s so embarrassing that a lot of countries have hungry people and a lot of people are wasting so much food. That’s so embarrassing.

They say that if you can decrease your meat intake by 10 percent at least a week or a day, you are allowing more people to be fed, there are statistics. And spiritually also, not just physically kasi kapag vegetarian ka, you can last long hours of work and your skin is better maybe. Spiritually also because you can meditate longer in terms of your will. It’s not just when you’re praying or meditating but your spiritual threshold, your patience, endurance, tolerance, are there when you adopt a vegetarian lifestyle.

OUR HERO

SCB: Did being named an Asian Hero by Time magazine come as a surprise?

CG: Oh yes, that was a big surprise!

I was called for an interview and they said, “Ok, you will have a pictorial because you have been chosen as one of the Asian heroes.” I took it matter-of-factly in the beginning because I was supposed to show what the program in Banahaw was all about, the reforestation, the environmental
projects. It was only when the cover actually came up that I realized that “Hey, I’m on the cover of Time.”

I was proud that other people were proud that our country was highlighted for its environmental movement. It’s not just about me. The choice I guess was left to Time to decide and the only thing that I could reflect on was, “Well, they have chosen an actress…” The message that was sent to us is that you can be anyone, you can have any profession, and do something about the planet because we really need everybody’s help.

SCB: Personally, what did it mean for you?

CG: It was really God’s signal kasi I was wondering, should I continue this? Is this really the Lord’s will? That was just a big sign and this is probably something that I would do for the rest of my life. It was recognized by a collective — because I believe that God speaks through people, through countries, and through other cultures. And this was a panel of judges that are not Filipinos, they don’t know me, they were very objective…Time!

SCB: What do you do in your free time?

CG: If I have? Now, I don’t really have free time because I’m doing an environmental play and it’s called, “Panaginip, Pangarap o Bangungot: Isang Operetang Palaisipan.” Isinulat at sa direksiyon ni Roy Alvarez and we’re rehearsing it and probably, we will be able to perform in different communities and parishes. You will find it on Facebook. When I’m not rehearsing for that or when I’m not taping, sometimes three times or four times a week, I’m painting in preparation for an exhibit, which will be launched on December 2. I called the painting exhibit, “Altars of Love” and there’s a quote there, which says: “Heavenly Father, make my life a sacrament of your love” and this is my offering to my Creator, our Creator.

SCB: Where is this gonna be?

CG: At the top of Citibank, Le Souffle, in Makati.

SCB: How many paintings?

CG: Like 30 (laughs). Some were done since last year and some this year, on going. It’s a process also, it’s a journey. My mother was a painter before. And she gave me the paintbrush first before the toothbrush (laughs)!

SCB: You started painting at what age?

CG: At four years old! Kaya nga I said paintbrush first before toothbrush because I learned to paint even before I could brush my teeth on my own (laughs). I remember one of my very first paintings, it was a watercolor of several children holding hands. I wish I could have that again but I can’t find it.

SCB: What medium do you use?

CG: Now, I do pastels to paint portraits, or landscapes. For me, my focus now is being an altar of love, really, offering myself to the Father, letting God do what He wants with our life, letting Him perform completely His will on this altar of life, of love. And I feel that if we stand back and let God work in our life, then we only have to do our little part.

SCB: Are you the type who would confront somebody if you would see him or her throw a piece of garbage anywhere?

CG: Well, I would not confront in a very aggressive way but I will be assertive. But it would happen very instinctively.

One time, we were at the airport and were coming down the airplane and walking through that long lane to get our luggage.

One of the passengers threw a candy wrapper on the floor — on that freshly, newly cleaned carpet. And then I said, “Hey, hey, hey. Look, look, look!” I didn’t want to say pick it up. But then the passenger said, “It’s okay.” And I said, “No, it’s not okay!” (laughs). And I said, “No, it’s not okay, pick it up.” And then he picked it up and placed it in a garbage can. I just realized later on what I made him do! (laughs)

SCB: Buti di ka napapaaway?

CG: No, hindi. May mga natutuwa pa nga e. They will say, “Ay, sorry, environmentalist ka nga pala.” Siguro it’s because I’m consistent and I do my own thing. I don’t bring this around like a trophy, you don’t throw your weight on everybody because you were once ignorant (laughs). Parang pakiusap lang, marunong naman tayo eh. Kapag Pinoys, we know how to engage people to do things without having to make them feel uncomfortable. At saka nasa lugar naman. It was just by grace and it happened so fast and I didn’t even think (laughs). So ‘yun, sa set, minsan I will tell, “Uy, pakiusap naman ‘yung mga tissue natin, i-gather na natin ‘yan para…” Ayun, ganun lang.