The Lesson Hidden by Greed in Boracay ….michael a. bengwayan..

 The Lesson Hidden by Greed in Boracay

….michael a. bengwayan..

Wittingly or unwittingly,  late rather than later,  better safe than sorry, we are all learning  from the Boracay fiasco. It is happening in most beaches, cities, towns, mountains, rivers, forests, lakes and other beautiful natural sights frequented by tourists.

But rather than speak of the much ballyhooed spins in most publications like loss of income, I’d like to delve on the irreversible damage done by  human greed through tourisms on Boracay. It is paradoxical that throughout human existence we have relied on the oceans – for food, economic opportunities and recreation yet made it our waste dump, with no care in the world, without respect and reverence to other creation of God.

With almost half the Philippine population  living within 100 kilometres of the country’s  36,289 kilometer coastline, it’s not surprising that our activities are taking their toll.  But tourism has increased human activity in our coasts. Human impacts have increased along with our rapid population growth, substantial developments in technology and significant changes in land use.,  Worst, pollution is most alarming and  Boracay  is now feeling this self-inflicted pain.

The sea where Boracay shore is, has become a dumping site of sludge  and sewage from human waste and human activities commercial run-off and chemicals. Such marine pollution major threatens life in the sea at all levels.

 

Through bioaccumulation – the process where levels of toxic chemicals in organisms increase as they eat each other at each successive trophic level,  the food web is endangered.

All marine pollution has the potential to seriously damage marine habitats and life in the sea. The pollution of Boracay, kills marine life and places extra stress on organisms that are already threatened or endangered.

The worst effect is nutrient pollution iin Boracay’s bay which results to eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, ”dead zones,” fish kills,  shellfish poisonings, loss of seagrass and kelp beds,  coral reef destruction, and even some marine mammal and seabird deaths. Nutrient over-enrichment of  the coastal ecosystem triggers ecological changes that decrease the biologi- cal diversity of  BOracy’s bay and estuaries.

The marked increase in nutrient pollution of coastal waters was observed in Boracay, accompanied by an increase in harmful algal blooms..

High nutrient levels and the changes they cause in water quality and the makeup of the algal community are detrimental to the health of coral reefs and the diversity of animal life supported by seagrass and kelp communi- ties.

Eutrophication, the result of a particular type of marine pollution  being contributed by the pollution in Boracay. It is caused by the release of  nutrients in polluted water from the coasts of Boracay from restaurants, hotels, food stalls all dumping sewage in pipes leading to Boracay bay. These nutrients lead to excessive phytoplankton growth that results in ‘blooms’. When these large numbers of organisms die, the sharp increase in decomposition of the dead organisms by oxygen-using bacteria depletes oxygen levels. In most cases, this can result in the death by oxygen starvation of large numbers of other organisms such as fish.

Too much human activity due to the millions of tourists yearly  in Boracay is increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to rise dramatically in that area. This impacts on the marine environment as the sea  absorbs as much  CO₂ emissions in the atmosphere. This absorption of CO₂ causes the pH to decrease, resulting in the seawater becoming more acidic.

The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will result in higher levels of dissolved CO₂ in seawater. Even small changes in water pH can have big impacts on marine biology, causing ocean acidification as CO₂ is more soluble in colder water.

The fiasco of Boracay can have some redeeming value, if the people  of Boracay draw lessons from it and implement measures to insure that what happened there will not happen again, not just in Boracay but in all our resorts, they be along the shorelines, inland or mountainsides.

The situation in Boracay also took time to fester. Decay, after all, does not happen overnight and if acted upon with dispatch would never reach a point that assaults the senses and terrorizes the mind. Decay after decay piled on each other and created an intolerable condition. In fact, not until President Duterte intervened did the concerned government agencies and local businessmen were made to realize the state of decadence of that resort. Whoever tipped off the President did a civic duty to save the country’s vital resource.

It does not take a genius to know who is to blame and these should be made accountable under our laws. Unless they are punished, the fiasco in Boracay will be repeated elsewhere.

The government must learn too from this fiasco, primary of which is that negligence catches up in the long term. It is like a disease ignored, a cancerous cell that will eventually spread throughout the body to extract its price.

We hardly learn...

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Rise Up With The Sun, Letting Yesterday Go ….michael a. bengwayan

Rise Up With The Sun, Letting Yesterday Go
….michael a. bengwayan

Many wake up clueless at what lies ahead. Others have nary a care at all. But there are those who rise up every morning with a purpose. Yet are lost of focus. Just to rise up would be enough for most of us. Perhaps half in jest with hopes of casting away dark shadows and hoping for good luck to the rescue.

The tokens we've carried from childhood whenever we awake have never left us-- when we were careful never to step on a crack in the walk, or pick up a pin, the silly poems that fascinated us-- should follow into adulthood even when the laughter is long gone.

How then should we rise up daily?

We rise up with the sun letting yesterday go. We rise up with gratitude in our hearts for being alive.....for the opportunity to glean from our mistakes and with hopes that something will take us far over that place if ever we pass it again. We know that fate must have a promise to turn up something rather than waiting for something to turn up.

And yes, we are blessed to have love to give and the ability to receive it. We have faith in good. And no small amount of peace when we think not how lucky we are, but how blessed.

Good morning!

Sunday and Woodlice ……michael a. bengwayan, ph.d.

Sunday and Woodlice
……michael a. bengwayan, ph.d..

“I have need of skeletized leaves for my molecular biology class”, my last child Frances texted Friday. having that in mind, i trudged to the garden and poured over the leaves carpeting the ground. carefully brushing aside the brown and yellow litter, i saw several leaves without their tissues, their venation magically left, beautifully carved out from what used to be chlorophyll-packed and organized epidermis, lignin, mesophyll and vascular tissues.

  I texted Frances back that the nature’s gifts were just there waiting. but I didn’t see her enter the garden gate that day. or the following day. it was her sister Abigail, having heard of the same need uttered, who went to choose several deveined beauties.

  Ihad no feeling of urgency to help…it was a simple thing to do…but which gives a boundless joy of discovery. i looked at my compost pile, wondering, knowing and aware of what caused the venation. i am quite adept about it, having taught the knowledge to countless farmers many years.

The venation is caused by century bugs…to be more precise, woodlice or woodlouses. these are nature’s primary decomposers. we have three common woodlice stamping the Cordillera forests and soils; first we have the sowbug, by far the most common woodlouse underneath the wood. it has a smooth texture and has a wide flat oval like shape. when disturbed it tends to freeze before moving off. this sowbug is usually brown to black in colour and is spotted with yellow or white.

Then you have the second most common woodbug, the common rough woodlouse . the most obvious difference with this woodlouse is the textured surface and colouration. this species is a dark flat-gray with a bumpy, tubercle covered back. looking a little closer you’ll notice that it has three distinct lobes at the front of the head instead of two that you’d find on the sowbug.

And most likely that you’ll discover is the common pill-bug. You can separate the pill-bug from the sowbugs and woodlice by the fact that it curls up into a perfect ball when threatened. the colouration is somewhat similar to the sowbug in that it is slate gray with some mottled yellow markings. however, when unrolled it has a smoother, rounded look to it and lacks the prominent tails that make it different from the sowbug.

  I have thousands, perhaps millions of these bugs in my garden. they’re friends. our friends, farmers’ friends, life’s friends. so i patiently on Sunday scraped-off humus to show to my two year old grandson Chadlos (Seth). i wanted him to see and even understand that those crawling bugs fleeing for their lives when touched, are harmless friends.

It was a quality time spent with him.

We looked under pieces of wood and stones on the ground. we discovered all sorts of bugs and watched them scurry from the newly exposed surface for the safety and moisture of the dark underside of the wood and other debris. It was quite fascinating to watch these crowds of “bugs” hurrying for cover. a few rolled up into balls in an attempt to protect themselves. since they’re mostly detritus eaters, feeding on dead leaves and decaying material (and sometimes each other) means that they’re not really harming garden plants. they’re definitely very cool creatures.

Bugs… Chadlos was not minding them a bit, he appeared awe-struck, poking at them with a stick. grayish marvel monsters, raking up dead leaves and spitting on their meal to soften it with chemistry. little-noticed mass of grounded beauty, whether created by science or God. most likely by God..to be explained by science.

Will these be obliterated too by man’s stupid notions? Most likely. I wanted to stay longer in the garden to get some answers. but squinting at the last woodlouse scurrying for dear life from Chadlos’ threatening stick, I knew our time in the garden was up. I promised myself a run. it was becoming hot, a perfect time to break a sweat.

Hoisting Chadlos with my left arm as he struggled and bawled for more time to scrutinize the bugs, I closed the garden gate. we will visit the century bugs some other day again. for me to seek my own answers.

And to let Chadlos seek his

With Frogs, Who Needs Dengvaxia? By Michael A. Bengwayan, Ph.D. Environmental Resource Mgm’t

With Frogs, Who Needs Dengvaxia?

By Michael A. Bengwayan, Ph.D. Environmental Resource Mgm’t
Earth Times

Humans never learn.   All of nature by God’s design  is medicine.  But we chose to kill our frogs with pesticides then make some 800,000 children as guinea pigs. All for sake of money.

For that  the Philippines is faced by a nightmare from a medicine  called Dengvaxia,  falsely trumpeted by its past leaders as a silver bullet against dengue. 

Today, Dignay (not his real name) and twelve other children are dead. All took the questionable vaccine. The fate of thousands of children more hangs in the balance. 

But who needs  Dengvaxi when we have frogs?

Vanishing Frogs

Unfortunately, frogs, the best defense against mosquitoes, are struggling to stay alive in this world.

Dengue is a tropical disease caused by a virus of the mosquito Aedes Aegypti These mosquitos were traditionally controlled by frogs.

As rains hover, and the temperature  is going up, dengue once again rears its ugly head[E1] . The carrier of the deadly virus, Aedes egypti, is multiplying by the millions;  and scientists and  local communities, racing against time, want to turn back to frogs for help after man-made medicine is failing.

Saving the Frogs an Uphill Climb

“Many communities now realize they have to be a part of nature and not apart from it to exist today given all the diseases and ailments that are occurring,” Dr. Grace Taguba Bengwayan, BSU professor told this autho while observing the large crowd that participated in the International Save the Frogs Day.

“But it will be a long fight to bring back the once-plentiful frog population,” she lamented.

Her statement stems from another scientist’s discovery that not only frogs but all the amphibian population in the Philippines is on the verge of being wiped out.

Philippines’ amphibian specialist, Dr. Letecia Afuang, said the Philippine amphibian population have drastically gone down in the past twenty years.

Afuang, a professor at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB) and in charge of the assessment of conservation status of Philippines amphibians said that there is a lack of awareness in the broader Filipino community of Philippines amphibians and their relevance, leading to the destruction of the creatures.

She noted with approval the efforts being launched by BSU and the communities around it in saving the frogs, but equally warned there is grave danger of an outbreak of diseases in other places in the Philippines where many amphibians and reptiles are becoming extinct.

This is because the population of disease-transmitting insects and vectors is increasing and spreading while their traditional predators are dwindling in number.

“As a result, mosquitoes, including the malaria-transmitting Anopheles and the deadly dengue-causing Aedes Aegypti, are multiplying in great numbers further endangering the health of thousands of not only Filipinos but Asians,” Afuang said.

Bengwayan and Afuang believe bringing back the frogs which used to abound in the land with the communities’ help.

Dr. Luciana Villanueva, former BSU’s vice president for research and extension pointed out to this author, “We have no other recourse but to turn back to nature for help. The frogs are our most effective allies in the fight against the fearsome Aedes egypti mosquito.”

“We are rallying communities not to kill the frogs by not using insecticides for the fourth successive year and positive results are showing,” she added.

Villanueva informed that BSU team encourage locals to make ponds for frogs to naturally set in. They are also distributing pairs of male and female frogs to farmers and hobbyists.

Villanueva led scientists, community leaders, citizens and students last April 30 to celebrate and strengthen the annual International Save the Frogs Day which coincided with Earth Day.

BSU has set up a very large frog pond to increase frog population. “The population of frogs in the Philippines has decreased because of pesticides that destroyed large tracts of frog habitat”, she stressed.

“It must be brought back by urging communities to care for the remaining frogs, maintain a clean environment and through the passage and implementation of strict frog conservation laws,” Villanueva hoped as many students exhibited several ways in saving the frogs through posters, essays, poems, slogans, video and graphic illustrations..

Global Warming Increase Mosquitoes and Kills Amphibians

The highly proactive  environmental NGO Cordillera Ecological Center (CEC) based in the province on the other hand said through a statement released on Earth Day last year that the issue of Aedes egypti mosquito population increasing is due to global warming and death of its natural enemies..

CEC stated “Dengue epidemic in the Philippines occur annually in the later half of the year following onset of rainfall and increasing temperature.  It becomes more pronounced on El Niño periods.”

“It is then important to have a moving average temperature (MAT) index yearly so that it becomes a signal or early warning device to the public  that dengue will not only be a possibility but  will be widespread in nature,” CEC explained.

“Unfortunately, the rapid rise of Aedes egypti’s population is being aggravated by the disappearance of many mosaquito predators like  frogs, lizards, spiders, salamanders and other beneficial small wildlife, “ CEC said.

The CEC won the World Bank Environmental Award in 2008 for being able to determine the onset and spread of dengue-carrying mosquitoes by studying temperature increases.

“The rise of temperature favors disease-carrying insects while equally threatening beneficial small wildlife like amphibians and reptiles that prey on insect pests. For instance, four frogs are now extinct in the country. Global warming and chemicals have destroyed their habitats,” CEC emphasized.

The Declining Amphibian Population Task Force (DAPTF) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) supports CEC’s revelation, saying ionizing radiation of ultraviolet B resulting from ozone layer depletion has something to do with the decline of amphibian population.

The decline of amphibian population  worldwide, is overly evident in the Philippines.  IUCN named the Philippines as one of the world’s top twenty biodiversity hotspots because of numerous extinct and vanishing living species.

And if the frogs aren’t saved, they may just end up in the long list of IUCN’s Red Handbook of extinct animals.

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 [E1]Hyperlink your source.

'I Want a School for the Lumads' …michael bengwayan

I Want a School for the Lumads

…michael bengwayan

One working morning  in the hinterlands of Marilog, Davao in 2014, I watched the boys bring down the basket we raise on a high bamboo pole that contained our cellphones (to be able to get signal). One of the youngsters handed me my phone saying  “Sir, may message po kayo”

The message was from the Vice President for Environmental Operations of Aboitiz Power , Socorro Patindol. It said, ”Big Boss Erramon I. Aboitiz,  Chief Executive Officer and Director of Aboitiz Power wants you to join him for dinner tonight”.

Now I work in the mountains of Namnam, some three  and a half hours away from the city center and evenings, one can get stuck in Davao city’s traffic. I have to hike some two hours to get to the Bukidnon-Davao (Buda) highway in Marahan, meet my driver at Nanay Soleng Duterte’s (mom of PRRD) farmers’ training center  (put up by the gov’t of Brunei) where most of my things are.  It meant  I had to start going back  that very morning to Davao city to my hotel if I am to scrub and be clean for dinner.

I bid my cats, chicken, trees and vegetable plants goodbye…be going back to Baguio the day after , “see you guys after a week”. I left my shanty open. It is always open to welcome anyone.

I know nothing of restaurants, of expensive food and menu I could hardly spell or pronounce so when my driver Anthony said we were to meet Don Ramon  Aboitiz in an expensive Japanese restaurant , I was as naïve as a sheep to a slaughter.

The top brass of Aboitiz Power were there,  big names, powerful and elite. I kept mum most of the time. I was seated next to the Big Boss himself.  All of a sudden , amid the cacophony of discordant conversational voices and food fit for kings,  he asked me, “Dr. Michael, what would you want the Lumads in your area to immediately have?”

I  thought of the barefoot young girls and boys,  taught by a volunteer  under a torn canvass and dilapidated GI  sheets that barely can protect them from the tormenting heat and rain. Children deprived of education because the nearest school was destroyed by an earthquake and landslide, the next nearest school some 16 km. away.  I thought of those kids.

“I  want a school for the children. Build them a school”, I told Don Ramon Aboitiz.

Aboitiz turned to one high ranking Aboitiz Mindanao officer whose name escaped me. “Build them that school,” he ordered. “In less than a year”,  he stressed.

In 2015, nine months after the dinner, the two million pesos worth of school enough for 40 children, complete with a farmers’ storeroom, kitchen, toilets  and powered by solar energy to energize lights, a computer set and  generator was completed.

I looked at the school and the apprehensive school children. It was a good day. 

God is good.

Okay, so let’s plant pine trees. ..michael a. bengwayan, founder, PINE TREE

Okay, so let’s plant pine trees.
..

..michael a. bengwayan, founder, PINE TREE

The pine trees endemic to the Philippines are Pinus kesiya/insularis otherwise known as Benguet pine that grows in Benguet, Mountain Province, parts of Abra, Kalinga and Ifugao, Nueva Vizcaya and some parts of Bangui and Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte; and Pinus merkusii that grows in Mindoro and Mindanao, otherwise known as Sumatran pine as it is native of Sumatra.
The Agoho or Casuarina equisitifolia or Christmas pine or common ironwood is often mistaken as a pine tree. It is not. It belongs to the Casuarina family. Pine trees are coniferous trees and belong under the genus Pinus, in the family Pinaceae.
Since 1980, Benguet pine was also introduced in Davao and Bukidnon and lately used as landscape in Tagaytay .
Worldwide, there are about 115 species of pine trees , although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species. Pines are native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. Pines are evergreen and resinous trees. The name pine comes from one of the three chemical contents of the resin called e-pinene.
HOW TO GROW PINE TREES
1. Get seeds only from mature pine cones on pine mother trees, not those that fell to the ground from months October to December.
2. Carefully remove the seeds from the cones and air dry, not sun dry for at least a week, remove damaged or insect-infested seeds.
3. Test the seeds for germination vitality. Pine seeds are 80 to 85 percent germination viable, meaning 7 to 8 seeds will germinate out from ten.
4. Prepare soil media with ratio 1:2:3 of fine sand, compost, top soil, respectively. Put soil media in wooden box at least 12 inches deep.
5. Sow your seeds, after soaking them in water for 24 hours,at a depth of half inch, one inch apart per hill
6. Cover with soil half inch deep.
7. Water lightly with a fine sprinkler that won't uncover or wash away the soil you used as cover.
8. Ants usually run off with your seeds so watch out.
9. In ten to twelve days, sometimes earlier, your seeds will germinate.
10. Water 2x a week in the morning, never in late afternoon.
11. Transplant in plastic pots measuring 6 inches by 8 inches 3 weeks after sowing by individually CAREFULLY uprooting each seedling using a pencil thick stick, and transfering to a plastic pot with soil media already holed also with a pencil-thick stick, carefully making sure the taproot of the seedling is placed inside straight and completing the process by pressing the soil at the base of the seedling.
12. Water the seedlings after planting them. Place under direct sunlight if in cool climate.(Cordillera Ecological Center Photos)

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