Beach yields same dirt volunteers had cleaned

LUCENA CITY—The multitude of volunteer coastal cleaners, who descended on the beach of Tayabas Bay here on Saturday, were dismayed by the same sight of trash in the beach that also greeted them last year.

“It seems the villagers were not concerned with the sight of their dirty beach,” said a government employee, who joined the annual coastal cleanup that coincided with the celebration of International Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept. 17. September has also been declared by Malacañang as national cleanup month.

The employee, however, requested not to give her name so as not to offend the residents of the coastal village of Dalahican, about 4 kilometers from this city.

Marcel Magadia, Dalahican village chief and president of the city’s Association of Barangay Councils, said most of the trash along the beach were only washed ashore by the tide.

“Most of the garbage being picked up by the volunteers was not thrown by the villagers. The litter came from other places and some from passing ships and sea voyagers and these were only washed ashore,” he said.

Magadia said the villagers have been successful in their year-long cleanup campaign. “It just so happened that trash thrown into the sea always found its way to the shore,” he said.

Elaine Valderama, a sophomore of the Gulang-Gulang National High School, said it was her second time to participate in the coastal cleanup.

“My classmates and I want to do our share of taking care of our fragile environment. But we also hope that the villagers will also do their own share,” she said.

She appealed to villagers to regularly clean the coast even if the garbage did not come from them.

The students also complained of human waste that littered the beach.

Early in the morning, convoys of several vehicles carrying volunteer cleaners—students, government employees, members of civic organizations, military and police—arrived in Dalahican.

Armed with brooms, rakes, spades and forks and plastic trash bags, the coastal janitors combed the over 2-km coastline of Dalahican and picked up every kind of garbage along the way.

In just a couple of hours, the coastal cleaners were able to fill up several plastic bags with assorted litter such as plastic wrappers and empty bottles, styrofoam containers, sacks, ropes and discarded fishing equipment.

Rommel Edaño, Quezon provincial administrator and concurrent environment and natural resources officer, said the provincial government decided to adopt a new strategy in coastal management.

He said his office had scouted several coastal villages in the province to turn it into model areas for coastline cleanup starting next week.

“Coastal cleanup should not only be a one-day event. Every coastal resident should commit to maintain the cleanliness of their beaches yearlong,” Edaño said over the phone.

Gov. David Suarez earlier said he had instructed his tourism officials to capitalize on the long coastline of the province to lure local and foreign tourists.