Looc Fish and Marine Sanctuary (Looc, Romblon)

        

        Looc Fish and Marine Sanctuary is located in Looc, Tablas Island, Romblon, Philippines. It is a protected marine area in the middle of the bay at Looc town, Tablas, Romblon. It was officially inaugurated on January 12, 1999. Prior to this, the community of Looc, Romblon began a four (4) year process of intensive education, community organizing and participation in a new coastal resource management project.

Located at the center of Looc Bay, the fish sanctuary host diverse species of tropical reef fishes, hard and soft corrals, sea grass beds, marine turtles, octopus, eels and seabirds. Close to the floating bamboo raft is over 500 pieces of multi-colored giant calms which are naturally regenerating. The bamboo raft serves as a home to fish wardens patrolling the bay and sanctuary. It can accommodate 20 to 30 visitors per scheduled trip. This area has become the main tourist attraction in the town. Snorkelling, diving and fish feeding are allowed in the sanctuary with minor supervision.

Together with my cousins, we visited and enjoyed the Fish Sanctuary last June 4, 2011.

Since the start, Looc fish sanctuary has grown to a considerable size, with over 1,500 giant clams, many beautiful corrals, fish of many species, and now hosts a great feeding platform, a big family favourite. Wide variety of multi-colored tropical reef fish, hard and soft corals formations, sponges, sea-grass beds, giant clams, marine turtle, octopus, eels, occasional pelagic fishes, dolphin and seabirds.

There is an office at the Looc pier where you pay the P100 per head for entrance fee and boat fare to the sanctuary. You can also rent a mask, life jacket and snorkel. It’s a 5-minute boat ride to the permanent floating shelter at the sanctuary.

The floating shelter has an opening in the middle where there is no floor and you can see straight down into the water. This allows you to see the fish very well without even having to swim. If you want to see a lot of fish, be sure to bring some bread to feed them. Floating covered viewing platform inside the sanctuary has tables and seating to accommodate group seminars and field trips. February through May is the best months to visit the Looc Bay Marine Refuge and Sanctuary. The sea is at its clearest and calmest during this time.

To get up close and personal with the fish, don a mask and snorkel and jump into the clear waters. The most abundant fish life is immediately around the shelter, you will find a reef with some other interesting formations and marine life, including giant clams, enormous sea cucumbers and starfish.

Hard Times do not Last Forever

Comfort is what you have when God gives you the victory. Then, you can pass it on to others. ~ Raye Adkins

Maya Angelou writes, "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

Life is a winding road and it takes us places we do not plan or want to go. While on it, we will find ourselves faced with challenges that test our endurance and belief systems. We will have our ups and our downs. The good news is that troubles can encourage or prompt us to discover some of the greatest successes of our lives.

Before exploring ways of getting through the struggle, I will start with the end in mind and some possible outcomes. Trailblazers often emerge as the result of a crisis they have successfully navigated.

Troubles teach us things we did not know and help develop new levels of awareness. As the metamorphosis occurs, you achieve what did not seem possible.

And on the other side of the experience, you may be transformed and better able to meet new challenges. Pioneers have found in themselves what I hope you will discover--- the new you. The new you will be changed, able to make it through the difficult times while experiencing some unexpected successes.

As we look at getting to the other side of trouble, there are some stages. Initially, we ask ourselves, "How am I going to get through this?" or, "Why am I going through this?" There is of course, the give-up, "I refuse to do this--I can't." The breakthrough comes when you trust that difficult times are the backdrop for "growth spurts".

Growth spurts happen without warning and are for an undesignated period. Like troubles, they disappear as quickly and unannounced as they arrived. Your goal is to figure out how to get through the tough times. Critical to your success is keeping a winning attitude.

Believe that you will get to the finish line. Hard times do not last forever. If you think, "this will take forever", you can be certain that it will. When you recognize that the crisis has a stop sign, you have taken an important step. Remember, you are greater than your circumstances and the greatest power is within you.

Avoid focusing on the problem. Do a rollback and reflect on blessings or successes from your past that you are thankful for. As you recall them, write each one, remember how you felt and what got you through it. During the day and the last thing at night, focus on victories. Plan to open your eyes each day in the manner you ended the night before, with positive thoughts that remind you of the best from your past.

Initially, starting each day with only positive feelings may be difficult. If so, write them out and read them as soon as you rise in morning. The goal is to flood the mind with hopeful messages and totally replace any self-defeating thoughts.

Now you are on the path to peacefully overcoming troubles and despite new challenges; you will make it to the finish line.

Inspired by Raye Adkins, an award-winning former public school principal turned nonprofit executive, expert on caring for children facing loss and poverty, and author

One Inspiring Story

Stanford University

This is a true story that had happened in 1892 at Stanford University. It's moral is still relevant today.

A young, 18 year old student was struggling to pay his fees. He was an orphan, and not knowing where to turn for money, he came up with a bright idea. A friend and he decided to host a musical concert on campus to raise money for their education.

They reached out to the great pianist Ignacy J. Paderewski. His manager demanded a guaranteed fee of $2,000 for the piano recital. A deal was struck. And the boys began to work to make the concert a success.

Ignacy J. Paderewski

The big day arrived. Paderewski performed at Stanford. But unfortunately, they had not managed to sell enough tickets. The total collection was only $1,600. Disappointed, they went to Paderewski and explained their plight. They gave him the entire $1,600, plus a cheque for the balance of $400. They promised to honour the cheque soonest possible.

"No." said Paderewski. "This is not acceptable," he tore up the cheque, returned the $1,600 and told the boys "Here's the $1,600. Please deduct whatever expenses you have incurred. Keep the money you need for your fees. And just give me whatever is left." The boys were surprised, and thanked him profusely.

It was a small act of kindness. But it clearly marked out Paderewski as a great human being. Why should he help two people he did not even know? We all come across situations like these in our lives. And most of us only think "If I help them, what would happen to me?"

The truly great people think, "If I don't help them, what will happen to them?" They don't do it expecting something in return. They do it because they feel it's the right thing to do.

Paderewski later went on to become the Prime Minister of Poland. He was a great leader, but unfortunately when the World War began, Poland was ravaged. There were over 1.5 million people starving in his country, and no money to feed them.

Starvation in Poland

Paderewski did not know where to turn for help. He reached out to the US Food and Relief Administration for help.

Pres. Herbert Hoover

The head was a man called Herbert Hoover - who later went on to become the US President. Hoover agreed to help and quickly shipped tons of food grains to feed the starving Polish people. A calamity was averted.

Paderewski was relieved. He decided to go across to meet Hoover and personally thank him. When Paderewski began to thank Hoover for his noble gesture, Hoover quickly interjected and said, "You shouldn't be thanking me, Mr. Prime Minister. You may not remember this, but several years ago, you helped two young students go through college in the US . I was one of them."

The world is a wonderful place. What goes around usually comes around.

Note: This is a wonderful inspiring story I've read from the blog of Jay Jaboneta of Facebook Groups. I’d like to share this story to inspire us. The original author is unknown. “All our actions truly create ripples” -JJaboleta

How One Governs Filipinas by Dr. Jose Rizal

In sum, all agree that the machine isn't working as it should.

The causes that the bad government and slow death of that country’s life are attributed to, vary depending on who studies them. Most of those who went there as functionaries or governors, those men who perhaps have a bad conscience because they have not fulfilled the duty imposed on them by the salary they received, these men shout and lay the blame for everything on the indio, perhaps to distract the public’s attention toward some other object and thus their faults will not be discovered; perhaps to convince and make their conscience believe things that by themselves cannot be believed, the way many cowards infuse themselves with valor through speechifying, the way many liars do who end up believing their own lies after repeating them countless times.

In contrast (what a parados!), those who have conscienciously fulfilled their obligations and have done everything they had to and could, within the country’s perplexing administrative labyrinth, inhibited and threatened by a capricious tyrant, who, from one mail ship to the other, can propose their removal or send them back – these blame the disorganization on the system of government, the personnel, the lack of job stability in the positions, intrigue, etc.

The friars have another system: the country’s ills are all attributed by them to the Liberal ministers, who, because they are Liberals, must be ignorant. On the other hand, the little good that there is, they attribute to themselves. Retrograde ministers, or the ministers from their convent, who by the sole fact of being such are wise, neither do good nor evil – their correct action consists of consulting them and obeying them, and this is what they communicate in lengthy telegrams that the Manila newspapers who are loyal to them publish in big letters.

As for the Liberal peninsulars who are in Filipinas, they blame the friars for the backwardness of the islands, and in their case they have more reason, since, the islands being governed as they are by the convents, the fault of the malfunctioning must fall upon the latter.

However, these Liberals forget the part they play in the dysfunction – if they were to refuse to be governed and did not serve as instruments as often happens; if they were to refuse to make concessions concerning many things that offend their convictions out of fear of losing their appointment; if they had more fortitude, more faith in their ideals, if they studied the country more and set themselves the firm objective of ending the monastic guardianship that the country is vegetating in, then the friars would not be governing Filipinas, nor would modern ideas be asphyxiated the minute they touched the beaches of Manila.

The Filipinos in general blame their country’s malaise and misery on everything above – on the friar, and on all the centuries-old elements that do not stand out for their great character, for a manifest love for the country and her inhabitants, and for a more-or-less entrepreneurial initiative in the question of reforms. The Filipinos, like the Liberals we have spoken of – and to whom they are very similar – also forget the responsibility that falls on their shoulders in their current situation, since, if the saying is true that “where the boss is in charge, the sailor isn’t,” so is the other saying that each country has the government it deserves.

The national spirit makes heard its first screams like a newborn. Before there was only the sentiment of the family or tribe; barely, just barely, that of the region. In consequence, senseless measures did not provoke strong protests from public opinion, but only among those whose relatives were more-or-less directly harmed. As far as the country is concerned, each Filipino thinks in this way: let her fend for herself, save herself, protest, fight – I will do nothing, I’m not the one who has to fix things; I’ve got enough on my hands with my interests, passions and caprices. Let others take the chestnuts out of the fire, and then we can eat them. The Filipinos seem not to know that triumph is the child of struggle, that joy is the flower of many sufferings and privations, and that all redemption presupposes martyrdom and sacrifice. They believe that by moaning and groaning, then sitting with their hands folded in their laps and letting things follow their course, they have done their duty. Others, it’s true, try to do a bit more and offer pessimistic or discouraging advice – they recommend doing nothing. There are, however, those who begin to see clearly and who do as much as they can.

The foreigners, among whom we place in the Chinese in the front line, laugh at everything that happens and take advantage of the lacks and defects of the governed and the governors, to use them. They are the happiest ones – they come over when they want, they stay as long as they please, and they leave when it’s convenient for them to do so. They are not bound by any duty toward the country, nor do they care whether the Government is more or less responsible, or the people more or less enslaved. Like the locust they strip the fields without bothering about the sower or the land. The saddest of all is that there are peninsulars and Filipinos who are like locusts in their manner of thinking and acting.

We believe that everyone is, in part, right. The parties can pass the buck to each other, the peninsulars to the Filipinos, the Filipinos to the peninsulars, the friars to the Liberals and the Liberals to the friars – we believe that even the Chinese themselves have a right to laugh at the Government and the country; it is finally a justice that we all deserve – but above all these instances of meanspiritedness, above this awful disconcertment, there is the principle that the Government in its origins is vice ridden, defective, absurd, uncommitted.

”

Commentary:

 We have tried different arrays of leaders, from the dictatorship of Marcos down to the Economic approach of Arroyo. In 60 years of presidential form of government we haven’t sailed towards progress. What is wrong with us? The System or form of Government is the menace in our Society. Our Constitution marks a major breach in political continuity, a means of establishing a new political order following the rejection, collapse or failure of an old order. As the title suggests, Rizal lays out an ideal vision of what an ideal government should and should not do, with the hope that it will motivate readers to work toward that end.

This blog post is dedicated to our National Hero in the celebration of his 150th Birthday.

Jose Rizal, How One Governs Filipinas (translated by Elizabeth Medina), La Solidaridad, December 15, 1890.

Originally posted at http://mlq3.tumblr.com/

KALAYAAN 2011

              Ipinagdiriwang natin ngayong taon ang ika-113 anibersaryo ng ating araw ng kalayaan. Ito ang dakilang araw upang gunitain ang kabayanihan ng mga Pilipino na nakibaka at nagbuwis ng buhay upang makamit natin ang tinatamasang kalayaan. Ang kagitingan at mga pasakit na ito ang dahilan kung bakit ang Pilipinas ay isang bansang malaya.

                Ang Pamamahayag ng Kalayaan ng Pilipinas ay ginanap noong Hunyo 12, 1898, kung saan idineklara ng mga Pilipinong rebolusyonaryo sa pangunguna ni Heneral Emilio Aguinaldo ang soberanya at kalayaan ng Pilipinas mula sa Espanya matapos matalo ang mga ito sa labanan sa Look ng Maynila sa Digmaang Espanyol-Amerikano.

              Kung ating susuriin sa ating kapanahunan,  ano nga ba ang tunay na kahulugan ng kalayaan? Oo, totoong malaya na tayo sa maraming aspeto ng pamumuhay at lipunan. Malaya din tayo laban sa mananakop o anumang impluwensyang banyaga. Malaya nating naipapahayag ang anumang saloobin na walang bahid ng  pag-aalinlangan, freedom of expression ika nga. Pero kung kalayaan sa katiwalian, kahirapan, pang-aabuso at pananamantala ng mga namumuno at kapwa Pilipino ang pag-uusapan, isang malaking katanungan ang nakahuma sa ating harapan.

                Sa aking pananaw, wari’y nawawalan ng saysay ang mga ganitong okasyon sa iba nating kababayan dahil sa mga katiwalian at kahirapan sa ating bansa. Maraming Pilipino ang hindi man lamang naramdaman ang diwa ng pagdiriwang na ito dahil sa mga balakid na kanilang hinaharap sa pang-araw araw na buhay. Nakakalungkot ang ganong tanawin. Ano kaya ang masasabi ng ating mga bayani kung mabubuhay pa sila sa ating panahon? Nawa’y magsilbi itong hamon sa kinauukulan. Hamon din ito pra sa bawat Pilipino na patuloy na magsikap upang makamit ang sariling kalayan sa pansariling kapamaraanan.

                Gayunpaman, dapat pa din tayong magpasalamat sa anumang kalayaang tinatamasa natin ngayon, maging positibo sa lahat ng bagay. Pangalagaan natin ito at huwag hayaang maagaw pa ng sinuman. Ipaglaban natin ito laban sa mananamantala sa anumang kaparaanan. Higit sa lahat huwag tayong magmalabis upang hindi tayo masadlak sa anumang uri ng kasakiman na siyang humahadlang upang makamit ntin ang tunay na kalayaan.

              Maligayang Araw ng Kalayaan, Pilipinas. -shernan

You don't Need Money to have a Good Time

With our Pets, Negra & Doggie

Growing up we didn't have much money and I didn't have many toys like other children, but that situation never stopped me from having a good time. When I was 8 years old my father got me my first pocket knife.  I'd go out in the field to find the perfect fallen tree branches to carve art crafts, toy guns and swords. When I was 10 years old, I wanted to construct playing house for my siblings, but knew better than to ask for a set. Instead, I borrowed my father's axe and hand saw and went out into the woods. I cut down 3 or 4 young trees, divided each trunk into 6 foot sections and notched them out like lincoln logs and then built a great little fort with them. I used the tree branches to complete the roofing and even got it mostly water proof. My younger siblings enjoyed our playing house until the leaves dried out anyway. 

You don't need money to have a good time, just a little imagination and some basic tools.

With Mangyan Kids

Life is too short, but just long enough

Life is too short to be spent regretting about the past, things you don't have, things you haven't done and places you haven't seen. Life is too short to spend it throwing negativity out into the universe; it only comes back to you. Never be awful to anyone, that person you were awful to may teach you the most. Life is too short to be spent holding grievances against one another, finding fault in your neighbors and brother, counting the wrongs done on you. We speak of a short life, but compared to eternity, who has a long one?

But, human life is just long enough to see everything turn upside down. Life is just long enough to enjoy the beauty of a sunrise the smell of blossom of the earth and the sound of laughters. Life is long enough for everything to be tried at least once. Life is just long enough to practice compassion and generosity, to comfort the grieving, to lend strength to the fainthearted, and direction to the lost. In God’s plan every life is long enough and every death is timely.

A LONG LIFE MAY NOT BE GOOD ENOUGH, BUT A GOOD LIFE IS LONG ENOUGH. -Shernan

Deforestation

Deforestation affects us all. Deforestation is a major cause of flooding, landslide and climate change according to Greenpeace International.

Deforestation

           Illegal logging, slash and burn farming (kaingin), land clearance and charcoal mining (pag-uling) have damaged millions of hectares of Philippine forests. According to studies it takes more than 100 years to rehabilitate them. The destruction affected the country's rainforests and other biological ecosystem. People involved in these activities justified themselves and based their arguments on their economic status.

Uling  House

Open pit use for burning woods

Two years ago, I had a conversation with a local public official in Mindoro and I quoted what he said “Ang mga mamayan dito sa lugar natin ay nakadepende lamang sa pag-uuling at sa pagputol ng mga punongkahoy, maaring mawawalan sila ng kabuhayan oras na ipagbawal na ito.” After two years, charcoal mining (pag-uuling) is strictly prohibited in our municipality in Oriental Mindoro but people can still produce and trade “uling” if they acquire special permits released by DENR and local government. Pag-uuling is still rampant in our area.  I can present many evidences regarding this claim.  Ang pagpapatupad ng total ban sa pag-uuling ay hindi gaanong nagagawa dahil madali lang naman kumuha ng special permit lalo na kung malakas kanf koneksyon. Nakakabahala ang bagay na ito sapagkat laganap na naman ang mga pagbaha, tumitindi ang problema sa climate change at landslide na patuloy na naranasan dahil sa unti-unting pagkakalbo ng mga kabunduhan at pagkaubos ng likas na yaman.

Deforestation

Discoloration of Swamp (may be related to climate change)

Deforestation

I hope that the good governance of the President Noynoy Aquino will cover issues on deforestation and pay attention at least on climate change issues related to forest degradation as he address global agenda for climate change. - Shernan

The Joy of Giving

      We often think that success depends on focusing on ourselves. But this simply isn't true.

One of the seven Rivers we crossed to reached the Village

       Last January 3, 2011, an opportunity calls for us to have a visit in an underprivileged community of Sitio Matucao, in Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro for a gift-giving activity. The village is a 45-minute to 1-hour walk away from our home. We all trekked our ways up the hill to Mountains and crossed about seven rivers.The Keep Hope Alive team (composed of my siblings, cousins and friends) was able to view gift-giving in different angles, especially of the fun and adventure. The trip was uneventful, just beautiful scenery, great people, sun, laughter, and gentle camaraderie. We may fail to give the villagers something for the long run but we achieved our purpose in sharing our blessings and showing a minute act of gratitude for the year of blessings and provisions. Our giving is never to people or things but rather it is to God. Giving is not something you do when things are going well but it is a lifestyle.

The Team

The team with my supportive father

First stop: Uncle Judy's house

Holding young coconut trees to be planted by my father

      Also, it was very fulfilling to see families appreciated our gifts as they had with them their smiling faces. It’s a very innovative way to mobilize personal resources for worthy activities without the conventional tedium of donation and fund-raising.

      I realized giving takes you out of yourself and expanding beyond your limitations. You cannot give with joy if you have not first given yourself to God. And when you go around planting blessings, you harvest blessings yourself! They grow and multiply.

Mangyan beneficiary

Cousin Apple and John

A local villager doing her laundry works beside the clear river.

Siblings with their house in the background

A local farmer handed gifts by Ptra. Eve

Checking a mother with her daughter.

      The joy of giving means that I give purely because it is my way of expressing my passion and love for the things I believe in and my gratefulness to the God who made me a steward over His resources. - Shernan

Mother Carabao with her charming daughter

“Sometimes the joy of giving has the amazing potential to surpass even the most strongest of feeling known to humans. Because when you give, you love; and love, I’ve experienced in my life is the purest of emotion.” – Gulab Ram [1960 - May 14, 2004]

TATAY (Father)

         Whenever I would come home every vacation from Manila, I would always find my father waiting at the bus terminal to pick me up; ready to bring me home. He would always extend his warm regards with his hands. Most of the time, however, his efforts went unnoticed.

           I grew up in a remote area in Mindoro. When I was a kid, there was no electricity except the generator that worked for three hours every night. Fresh clean air, blue skies, clothes drying in the sunshine, peace and quiet, seclusion away from the hurried "what can we go buy at the mall?"-type of life.  Not the life for everyone. But it was for us and all our critters. I wouldn't want to miss a single day of it. During weekends or harvesting time, me and my siblings were going to the farm riding our carabao and "karusa" (cart) to help my father and play in the haystack afterwards.    If someone were to ask me what experience has shaped my life and personality the most, I would say, without hesitation, growing up on a farm. 

           They said I was one of his favorite sons, because he's always talking about my achievements, but I was never close to him. I spent most of my childhood days without him at my side. I was a little bit uncomfortable whenever he was around. He was also a silent-type but disciplinarian.  I have experience a lot – physically and emotionally, whenever I would commit mistakes or silly things that made him mad.  I never heard him saying a lot of words, as my mother always do. He’d rather sit at the corner and calculate on papers or fix something with his machinery tools. 

       When I was in High School, I never told him how I did in my academics, the name of my teachers nor my classmates, nor my crushes and love interests. I thought they would not interest him at all. That was what I thought then. I never tried reaching to him because I feel awkward to do so. Those were the days before I realized his sacrifices and hard-works.

(Farming with SUKOB, Our favorite carabao)

(My Father with his brothers and friends during one of their typical drinking sessions)

       One afternoon, when my father became drunk after an occasional drinking session with his fellow farmers after his usual rice field routines, I heard him telling his friends how proud he was to have a son like me. He almost narrated all my academic and extra-curricular achievements. I heard all those stories directly from his mouth. From that day, my perception about my father started to change.

(The usual weekend day with my siblings back then)

        No other experiences this world can offer even come close to watching the sun set over the mountains while carrying harvested coconuts with my father, smelling blooms as they drift up from the dike bottom or saving a baby goat from sure death. These are things you can't appreciate until you've experienced them. These are the things life on a farm with my father is made of.

(Our Backyard Rice fields)

       One day, while watching TV show about farming. I urged to ask him about the show, which I think he knew a lot. He eagerly and earnestly shared what he knows. Each time I ask him questions, he never failed to satisfy my curiosity. His eager countenance changes as he briefly recounted his experience in farming. That afternoon talk made a vivid impact in my memory.

(My father's Hand Tractor)

(My father)

As years passed, my father exerted silent effort to prove his being father to us. He was both a quite ordinary and yet, remarkable man, hard-working father who spent so much time in farming to provide us with foods and other necessities. I commit mistakes or do bad thing sometimes, but I never heard anything from him, not an angry look or a harsh word. His understanding and acceptance mean a lot to me.

        Before I graduated college, I finally realized how much my father means to me. I was a Sunday service – a father’s day special. That day I learned that he was suffering from hyperthermic attack for several days. I was anxious of his condition because I knew how much he worked hard in the farm every day. I was afraid because I knew I had never done any significant thing for him. I never fully expressed my appreciation and love for him. On that moment, I promised myself to give my best effort in showing how much I owe him. I made a phone call for him for the first time and asked about how he was doing and his condition. From that day, I always bring something for my father; material things or anything that would make him feel valuable. Last Barangay election, despite my loaded work schedule I chose to go home to support my father’s candidacy. Thank God he won.

        Now, whenever I would come home, I would find myself holding something for my father as he looks out at the bus terminal to pick me up - things that cannot be replaced by any possessions or riches in this world. More than the material things I have for him, the love and the warm embrace are worthless expression of how much I love and appreciate him. Perhaps, the wall between us is completely torn down, and I can finally say to ORIE FADRI GAMOL, “I Love You, Pa”. You are my hero and my secure foundation. Happy Birthday.

(ORIE FADRI GAMOL, my beloved father)