REREFLECTION ABOUT PHILIPPINES ENVIRONMENT

From the environmental point of view, Philippines has a lot to do. Although many Philippians seem to be aware of climate change, their explicit wish for consumption signs there is a lack of understanding about the interrelation through individual demand and it's impacts; just same as most of industrialized and developing countries inhabitants. 

In towns, a lot of vehicles

The Philippines cities we visited now seem very much like many occidental ones with regards to atmospheric, sound and visual pollution. Towns are crowded, jammed and dirty - we even recommend masks.

Little tinny island, over-crowed with houses with very poor sanitation conditions.

However, some aspects of culture preceding the western invasions remain, e.g., food. Philippians eat a lot of rice and fish.

Intercity bus: sharing the seats with buckets filled up with alive crabs.

Motorbike are used to move all sort of odd items.

All our luggage on a motorbike!

Bike included in the guesthouse rate (USD 13.00 for double bed  room). But breaks maintenance  is to be carried  by the guest. Fun anyway.

Moving away from urban centers, traditional building technics are predominant, mainly on bamboo and palm leafs.  The nature is still exuberant, even though a relevant part or forests had already felled or, dynamite fishing is tolerated.

There is a population explosion happening here. About 100 million people live in Philippines and they're mostly young. This is more than 340 people per sq km (880 p/sq mi) spread among the 7000+ islands. Impressive. Even though Philippines is a Island country, we did not spot any local sailing boat or canoe. All passengers and cargo transportation are based on fossil fuel vehicles. Fast boat fares are normally pricy, so a common choice is to fly through islands.

On the other hand, another view of transportation in Philippines should be highlighted. We did travel a lot using as much as possible the most popular means. Jeepney is one of them. It's an extended jeep - legacy of the world war II: jeeps were left behind and soon enlarged to fit much more people - with entry by the back of the vehicle, two long alongside seats and wide windows, coverable with tarps. Very common. We enter one jeepney, payed USD 0.50 for about 40 km, and bet there was room for about 12 passengers. When the driver stopped collecting people, there was 32 inside! Shrank? A lot! But it was so much fun! It isn't rare to make good friends when these things happen.

Tricicle: can "fit" twelve people and a couple of bags.

We were so lucky and met Infinity's Captain Clemens and his family in Cebu Island! And of course, we adventured a tricycle ride together, on the way to some springs!

This is a Jeepney. We couldn't count how many on this one.

We were among 32 people in this jeepney! And made good friends during the journey! 

Tricicles: we could count up to 12 people in (and on!) a tricicle in Cebu City.

Also very common are the tricycles. A seats/trunks/roof-baggage sidecar attached to a motorcycle, in general a 125 cc. Again, we estimated, at first glance, a 4 people load vehicle. After a while, it's not difficult to spot 12 ( T - W- E - L - V- E ) Philippians in (and on) a single tricycle. Maybe some bags too.

Although all this seem to be dangerous, specially when traffic rules are "honk written", during our 2 months stay we did't witness any accident. Majority of drivers are careful and do not rush. At the end, the "overpacking" scores positively to Philippines on the way to refrain greenhouse gas once people give up comfort in benefit of energy usage.

Tricycle ride with Rhian, Infinity's Captain Clemens and Sage's daughter, the girl who was born  in May, 2011, in the deck of Infinity! She is amazingly cleaver and healthy! 

Garbage is an issue. Disposables utensils and excessive packaging for small fractions are largely used for any purpose. Little of disposed plastic is recycled. Every kind of food come packed in plastic bags; plastic gloves on to eat as many don’t use cutlery, plastic sausage to serve drinking water, plastic bag to cover the plate, plastic straws for every drink, plastic, plastic and plastic... argh!. Although typhoons and floods are more frequent every year, authorities keep postponing climate discussions and people stay consumption-driven.


When snorkeling in Malapascua we noted lots of plastic, algae and crow-of-thorns outbreaks, as the natural enemy is over-harvested.

Crown of Thorns outbreak - natural enemies over-harvested

Crown of thorns eat corals twice their size a day, what drastically threats coral reefs eco-system. Micro-particles of plastic mix to the plankton affecting all the sea food chain. Dynamite fishing also destroys a lot of the sea life. 

Now we are on a ferry heading to Bohol, island of chocolate hills, rice terraces, pristine beaches and the tarsier - 10 cm tall, the smallest primate in the world. Gotta see...