“Do not pollute our bay!”
City Environment and Natural Resources Officer of Puerto Princesa, Atty. Carlo Gomez echoed this message on Monday, April 22, during the International Earth Day celebration in a gathering held at NCCC Mall.
The activity participated by secondary students, and representatives from participating government agencies and private sector such as the community and provincial offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), Pilipinas Shell Foundation, including DENR CENR Officer Alexaner Mancio, DENR PENR Officer Felizardo Cayatoc, PCSDS Information Officer Forester John Vincent Fabello, Municipal Trial Court Judge Rohima Sara, and other stakeholders.
Gomez addressed the message to residents of the city’s coastal area most of them are informal settlers, emphasizing that getting rid of solid wastes from coastal waters and maintaining the cleanliness in its surroundings help protect the coastal waters, and the city’s natural environment.
He said that portions of the bay has been already occupied by informal settlers, who are migrants from the different parts of the country, but already settled in Puerto Princesa as early as 1940s. But as of the present, these ballooned to 9,000 families already which based on the latest estimate of the City Government of Puerto Princesa reached 25,000 individuals.
Gomez explained that Puerto Princesa was pristine and spotless before migrants’ shanties started mushrooming the coastal area, therefore, they should not pollute it, being their newfound home.
“Tinanggap namin kayo na maluwalhati sa aming malinis at luntiang bayan. Sana naman po ay suklian ninyo ng paggalang at pag-respeto sa pamamagitan ng kalinisan sa inyong kapaligiran. Kayo po na piniling manirahan ang aming mahal na Puerto Princesa. Yan po ang aming hiling” he said.
In a published study, Co-Management of Marine Fisheries and Coastal Resources in Palawan, Concepts and Experiences, J.M. Abarquez said that over the years, Puerto Princesa has attracted migrants and settlers from different parts of the country, notably fishermen from Visayas. In fact, some punong barangays in Puerto Princesa are originally from the Visayas provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Negros or Panay.
Today, the common sights in Puerto Princesa’s coastlines are shanties and houses on stilt that replaces mangroves, shelf break and seagrasses. The worst is, underneath these stilt houses in the coastlines, are trashes of any kind such as single-use plastic bags, PET bottles, soiled plastic “labo”, sachets, diapers, tin cans or even cigarette butts.
Former Punong Barangay and now Kagawad Gerry Abad of Mandaragat, one of the urban areas with coastal informal settlement said that he is hopeful that this scenario will change.
“Hindi pa po ako opisyal ng barangay, ay ito na ang hitsura ng coastal area. Ang mga basura na nasa silong ng ating mga bahay ay hindi po nagbabago,” Abad said.
But despite with what is happening in Puerto Princesa’s coastal areas, the Office of the City ENRO is pushing for the continuous bioremediation in the city’s coastal area as natural healing to the degraded coastlines.
Bioremediation is a waste management process using live organisms to neutralize or remove harmful pollutants from contaminated areas. It has an effective microorganism solution that breaks down toxins and consumes bad bacteria in the water.
The throwing of EM mudballs has become a regular activity of the City ENRO to improve water quality of the coastal waters in Puerto Princesa Bay.
Puerto Princesa is one of the pilot sites of the Clean Cities Blue Ocean (CCBO) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) since 2022. CCBO is USAID’s global flagship program under the Save Our Seas Initiative to address the 11 million metric tons of plastic that flow into the ocean each year. By enhancing circularity in urbanizing areas of developing countries, targeting a major source of ocean plastic pollution.
On April 22, coinciding the Earth Day, Puerto Princesa residents led by Mayor Lucilo Bayron together with city officials and employees, barangay leaders, representatives from participating government offices and private companies, youth and students, civil society organizations and volunteers helped in cleaning a coastal community, collecting trash and other debris.
This was the 8th episode of the Save the Bay activities that started in the middle of 2023, a bold move of the City Government to rid its coastal areas from solid wastes.
The city government’s Oplan Linis Program headed by Andrew Manlawe said that they have collected 433 tons of solid wastes underneath the houses in coastal areas during previous save the bay activities.