Puerto Galera celebrates ‘Earth Day’ in a cultural way

CALAPAN CITY – The tourism town of Puerto Galera in Oriental Mindoro has celebrated Sunday (April 22) the “Earth Day” highlighting the rich cultures of the Mangyan natives in Mindoro Island as it preserves the nature’s ecological balance.

With a theme “Belongingness to Nature,” ethnic songs and dances of the Mindoro Island’s indigenous peoples highlighted the day-long “Earth Day” in the said town while experts from different sectors talked on alternative sources of energy, marine conservation and eco-tourism, biosphere reserve, solid waste management and the lifestyle of Mangyans as they contribute in protecting the environment.

According to French expatriate Hubert d’Aboville, the lead organizer of the event there, they highlighted the rich cultures of the Mangyans in celebrating “Earth Day” because they want the world to emulate the lifestyles of the said Mindoro aborigines who, in protecting and conserving the environment in their own way, they feel that they belong to nature.

D’Aboville, a French businessman who established his family and residencies in Manila and Puerto Galera, is the man primary responsible for declaring Puerto Galera Bay as “one of the most beautiful bays in the world.”

In cooperation with the municipal government of Puerto Galera, headed by Mayor Hubbert Dolor, D’Aboville led the participants during a whole day program in his demonstration farm at Mount Malasimbo, the town’s highest peak.

There, they featured rituals, songs and dances of the Mangyans, held a community mass before conducting environment-inspired on-the-spot drawing contest, and awarded the winners of the morning biking contest.

Last Saturday (April 21), or a day before the actual “Earth Day,” D’Aboville and his “environment-awareness” partner and former Puerto Galera Councilor Daniel Enriqiez led more than 400 individuals such as local fishermen, municipal officials and employees, and policemen in mangrove planting activity at Hondura Bay, a fishing area in the said town.

The said French environmentalist promised there that the Earth Day celebration will now become an annual occasion in Puerto Galera to create environmental awareness among the locals in the municipality.( By JUANCHO R. MAHUSAY)