Club Serena Resort, an upscale beach hotel in Moalboal, Cebu province, led the recent International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) Day along the Tañon Strait, one of the top beach and dive destinations in Cebu.
Held at the famed Basdaku Beach in Bgy. Saavedra, the environmental event is the town’s first private sector-led multi-sectoral and collaboration with 105 participants from the municipal government, public safety officers, and tourism stakeholders, who hauled 200 kilos of trash.
The ICC-held annually on the third Saturday of September-was introduced in 1986 by the Texas-based Ocean Conservancy, and has since gained global popularity around the world, including the Philippines, which boasts of hundreds of thousands of participants nationwide.
Volunteers included employees of AppleOne Properties Inc. (API), Barangay Saavedra officials, personnel from the Philippine National Police, Philippine Coast Guard, Bureau of Fire Protection, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and Moalboal Municipal Tourism Office, owners of beach establishments, and One Root Hospitality, which owns and operates Club Serena.
Moreover, scuba divers from Savedra Dive Center, Cebu Fun Divers and 7 Seas Dive Center did underwater cleanup.
‘Club Serena’s leadership in this year’s ICC is our public statement on sustainability even as we pursue property and tourism development in the countryside,’ says API Vice President for Hospitality Samantha Manigsaca, who hatched the local version of the global movement.
‘Our mother company, AppleOne Properties Inc., has been implementing earth-friendly measures across our group of companies, and the ICC is part of our bigger journey towards corporate social responsibility and sustainable tourism,’ Manigsaca adds.
She noted that the multi-sectoral participants wrote specific pledges after the cleanup to create synergy for Tañon Strait, which AppleOne and Club Serena will help take to the next level of environmental advocacy in the coming years.
The third Saturday of September has been declared in the Philippines by Presidential Proclamation 470 in 1994 as the International Coastal Cleanup Day enjoining government agencies and sectoral organizations.
This year’s theme is ‘Clean Seas Against the Climate Crisis, Tayo ang Solusyon [We are the Solution],’ which highlights the need to sustain the coastal and marine ecosystems as the natural shields to extreme weather conditions.
Regarded as the country’s biggest protected seascape, which is known for its rich marine and terrestrial biodiversity, Tañon Strait is a 160-kilometer long body of water located between the provinces of Cebu, Negros Oriental, and Negros Occidental, embracing 42 municipalities and cities.
It has a spread of 8,408 hectares of coral reefs with 41 common coral genera, 4,108 hectares of mangrove forests with 46 known species, and is habitat to nearly half of the archipelago’s cetaceans, and 12 of the country’s 16 seagrass species.
It is also home to the sardine run, a world-famous dive site because of the thousands of sardines swirling near Panagsama Beach and Pescador Island, a limestone islet which has been declared a marine park and fish sanctuary.
A simultaneous public sector cleanup was also held in the coastal areas around the town proper led by Moalboal Mayor Inocentes Cabaron and municipal government officials and civil servants.
‘The annual ICC Day brought together people from all walks of life to care for the sea and celebrate our love for nature and culture,’ says the local chief executive.
He noted that public and private entities do regular coastal and underwater cleanups which involve the townsfolk, fisherfolk, and all tourist stakeholders to ensure environmental health of Moalboal and their portion of Tañon Strait.
Cabaron added that this year’s event is a part of the town’s year-round commitment to protecting one of the country’s best beaches and underwater world.
Located along Cebu’s southwestern corridor, Moalboal was selected as a finalist in the top destination category in the recent Philippine Tourism Awards by the Department of Tourism.