Marine Conservation and Sister Cities

The Mabuhay Guides were quite busy today. Eight Mabuhay Guides were deployed to handle two seemingly disparate groups of guests: Yael Fernandez, Bryan Ocampo, Candie Cobiao and myself had the task of guiding for marine conservationists who are in Manila to track the migratory pattern of a particular type of shark. Helen Aranda, Jeff Velasco, Chito Tayag and Lovely Reinoso were handling the entourage of San Francisco mayor who are in town for an event that further enhances the relationship between Manila and San Francisco as sister cities. Unfortunately, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was not able to join them on this trip.






This is a significant and fortuitous event in that both groups will, in the long run, benefit the Philippines in more ways than one.

My group was at the Heritage Hotel very early this morning. We met with the organizers of the Marine conservation conference to conduct a tour of Casa Manila and Fort Santiago. The conservationists been here since Saturday and welcomed the trip to Intramuros as a healthy break from their activities which will last till Saturday 13 February, 2010.

Their stay in the country was meant to thresh out policies that would aid the country's continued marine biodiversity. Unbeknownst to some, the Philippines is a hot spot in terms of continued biodiversity. Continued demands on wildlife threatens to rob our nation of precious marine resources.

The Philippines is sitting in the Pacific Rim of Fire giving us the sole blessing of numerous marine species present in our seas and giving us the distinction of being the center of endimism not only in asia but the entire world. Simply put, that's a whole lot of fish for a little archipelago. We have the most number of fish species that can be found only in our waters and we have the highest concentration of species per unit area. notwithstanding our smaller land area compared to the size of Indonesia. That beng the case, the demands of overpopulation and overfishing in our abundant oceans are taking its toll on our marine life.

Our guests were from different nations. Majority were from Africa: the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tanzania, Liberia, Erythrea, Algeria, Egypt. Some were from Europe: Norway, Spain, UK, and Croatia. There were also Latinos from Spain, Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Ecuador. And the rest were from Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Paris. Only one was American.


The party of seventy or so participants enjoyrd their tour of Manila thoroughly periodically asking questions regarding the commentaries. We found them to be the most inquisitive group so far. All of them were trying to understand what makes the Philippines and the Filipino tick.

The other set were handling the tour group of the San Francisco mayor's entourage. They were also set to go around Intramuros and eventually had lunch with Secretary Ace Durano. Manila being San Francisco's twin city, their presence would only mean that Manila would benefit from it in some form through mutual cooperation and accord.

The mood was jovial and light and the participants from each set were extremely left in awe of Manila's rich cultural past. Later in the afternoon Helen Aranda, Yael Fernandez, Jeff Velasco and Bryan Ocampo were interviewed for the April issue of Town and Country. The photo shoot was done at the Fort Santiago grounds. There was also one shot of the Mabuhay Guides that was taken inside, of all things, a cable car!

Now that's what I'd call... surreal!