Let the whale sharks swim free.

The Save the Sharks mural is a community street art project produced during the 3rd Shark Summit held in Bohol last November 12-16, 2018.

At the public consultation held in the Baclayon Cultural Center last Thursday, October 3 for the proposed municipal ordinance entitled “Providing regulatory guidelines for the conservation of whale sharks within the municipal waters of the Municipality of Baclayon” authored by Councilor Erico Joseph T. Cañete, the first stakeholder opinion was from a fisherman, and it was in opposition to the ordinance. His statement was brief, and but the gist of it is captured in this quip: “kay naa na man jud nang mga whale sharks, nganong di man na ‘nato pahimuslan”. (A fraction of the audience actually applauded to this; the nays had a contingent.)

Watch: Boholanos March for the Ocean

June 9, 2018 – Carrying hand-painted pro-ocean anti-plastic placards and hardy eco-warrior hearts, 67 Boholanos marched 19 kilometers from Tagbilarn City’s Plaza Rizal (Kilometer Zero) to Alona Beach in Tawala, Panglao to raise awareness to the worsening threats to the world’s oceans and seas. The March for the Ocean, locally dubbed “Baktas Alang sa Kadagatan”, was organized by Plastic Free Bohol and the Bohol Climate Walkers, with the support of 4Oceans and the Panglao LGU.

Boholanos march for the ocean on World Oceans Day weekend

June 9, 2018 – Carrying hand-painted pro-ocean anti-plastic placards and hardy eco-warrior hearts, 67 Boholanos marched 19 kilometers from Tagbilarn City’s Plaza Rizal (Kilometer Zero) to Alona Beach in Tawala, Panglao to raise awareness to the worsening threats to the world’s oceans and seas.
Locally named “Baktas Alang sa Kadagatan”, the event takes its cue from the USA’s “March for the Ocean”, (also set today and replicated globally) which advocates for the same intensified action to protect the oceans. The march echoes the call for the ban of single-use plastics, reduction of all forms of ocean pollution, corporate accountability for plastic pollution, and the protection of vulnerable coastal communities.

(99 kms, 99 quips) Eastbound: Roadside Ruminations

On November 27-30, I took part in the Bohol Climate Walk 2015, a 99-100 kilometer walk from Tagbilaran to Anda, to call for 100% clean energy in Bohol and the world and in solidarity with the People’s Pilgrimage to the Paris climate talks. (Two climate walkers have shared their stories, this past two Sundays.)

I made a similar trip by car, in 2007, which I wrote about in LifestyleBohol (“Go East! Chronicles of a Road Trip East of Bohol and Back”, 6 May 2007). While one was a leisurely holiday trip, this journey on-foot I made so I can keep living (and spending my holidays) in our island paradise of Bohol and elsewhere in our common home, the Earth – a meditation of sorts, each step a prayer, treading musings. Meaningful, mundane, riddled with expletives.

Eco-advocates walk 99kms from Tagbilaran to Anda for 100% clean energy

27 November 2015 – 16 environmental activists are going east-bound today – on-foot – covering the
99-kilometer coastal highway from Tagbilaran to Anda to echo the global call of the people’s pilgrimage for 100% clean energy.

The 3-day pilgrimage dubbed Bagtas Lunhaw: Bohol Climate Walk 2015 will begin in Kilometer 0 at the Tagbilaran Plaza Rizal on November 27 at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. They will have a sleepover stop in Loay on the first day, and in Garcia Hernandez on Day 2, November 28. Midday breaks are pinned in Dimiao and Duero, on the 1st and 2nd day, respectively. Brown bag sessions on climate crisis, the climate talks and papal encyclical Laudato Si will be held along the way.

Boholanos join People’s Pilgrimage for Climate Justice

Tagbilaran City – Some 20 Boholano environmental activists are taking a 99-kilometer journey on foot, from Tagbilaran City to Anda, Bohol on the November 27-29, 2015 to call for 100% Clean Energy and walk in solidarity with the People's Pilgrimage to the Paris climate talks.

The pilgrimage which the group calls Bagtas Lunhaw: Bohol Climate Walk 2015, will begin in Kilometer 0 at the Tagbilaran Plaza Rizal on November 27 at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. They will have a sleepover stop in Loay on the first day, and in Garcia Hernandez on Day 2, November 28. Midday breaks are pinned in Dimiao and Duero, on the 1st and 2nd day, respectively. Brown bag sessions on climate crisis, the climate talks and papal encyclical Laudato Si will be held along the way.