PUERTO GALERA, Philippines — Shore It Up, Metro Pacific Investments Foundation Inc.’s flagship program, is celebrating another year of elevating environmental awareness and conserving aquatic life in coastal municipalities through this year’s Shore It Up Weekend.
After commemorating its 10th year, Shore It Up has chosen to revisit and deepen its commitment to Puerto Galera, an old SIU community partner and the center of marine biodiversity.
Known as a designated UNESCO Man and the Biosphere reserve and the Number One hub amongst dive enthusiasts in the country, Puerto Galera boasts of over 30 dive sites that have been and are still popular within the diving community. Divers from across the country and the world travel to experience the one-of-a-kind diving experience in this municipality.
Non-diving tourists also frequent this area for the beaches and nightlife, guaranteeing that Puerto Galera never runs out of visitors even during lean seasons.
145 volunteer divers prepare for the underwater cleanup
As is the case with popular tourist attractions, Puerto Galera is not immune to pollution and ecological malpractice that harbors negative effects to both underwater and coastal living. As a means to augment this, Shore It Up has dedicated specific efforts as well as sustainable programs that benefits not only the environment but the local community of Puerto Galera as well.
Similar to other Shore It Up weekends, a provincial-wide coastal and underwater clean-up were done towards servicing the seas and shores of this high-density tourist destination. During the underwater cleanup, 145 scuba diving volunteers collected around 616 kilograms of garbage, which were then segregated and counted by over 50 non-diving volunteers.
Plastic bottles, glass bottles, construction materials such as pipes and metals, soda cans, and fishing lines were the top five types of trash collected in the surrounding areas. Unusual finds such as a bicycle, a Barbie mermaid doll, and an earring were also found within the Puerto Galera seas.
As a long-term commitment to the municipality of Puerto Galera and the most significant highlight of this year’s SIU Weekend, MPIFI president Melody del Rosario and Municipality of Puerto Galera Mayor Rocky Ilagan signed a Memorandum of Understanding that memorializes the beginning of the Marine Protection, Inspection, and Conservation (MPIC) Guardians Program in their area.
“Shore It Up is steadily making significant impacts in coastal areas by increasing community involvement in environmental awareness and providing programs for sustainable ecotourism,
marine protection and conservation,” says del Rosario.
“Communities that adopt SIU’s programs and sustainable practices have seen and recorded economic gains and increased food security as early as one year after implementing it.”
Segregating over 600 kg of collected trash composed primarily of plastic bottles, glass bottles, construction materials, soda cans, and fishing lines.
MPIFI is committing P1.5 million over three years to provide local Bantay Dagats, with the technical knowhow, uniforms and equipment such as Global Positioning System, VHF communication, underwater action cameras and search lights among others, to better protect and conserve the aquatic natural resources that set Puerto Galera apart from everywhere else.
“The municipality of Puerto Galera is very much pleased that Shore It Up and the MVP group decided to implement their MPIC Guardians Program here in our community, so that these men can be in authority to better patrol our seas and heighten the protection and conservation efforts in our area,” says Mayor Ilagan.
MPIFI collaborated with the Puerto Galera Local Government Unit in engaging and mobilizing almost a hundred volunteers from One Meralco Foundation, PLDT-Smart Foundation, Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation, Light Rail Manila Corporation, the Shore It Up movement, and the community of Puerto Galera.
This year, the MVP Group became an even stronger partner in the program’s efforts.
"I am glad that we have institutionalized collaboration among our member companies and with different stakeholders from government, academe and civil society – to rapidly respond to crisis, as well as to proactively support activities towards community development," says Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan.
With its current success, Shore It Up still looks forward to more years of growth and evolution in championing nature, anchored on a shared commitment of making a positive impact on the
environment and pursuing the bigger challenge of attaining sustainability.