BY MOJE RAMOS-AQUINO, FPM

Put those wrappers inside your bag lest the Mayor get angry at you,” a woman admonishes her son as he was about to throw some thrash unto the street. And that is why Puerto Princesa, despite the swirling dust is very clean and orderly.

My wondering feet brought me to Puerto Princesa with friends from the Institute of Climate & Sustainable Cities, composed of Renato Redentor Constantino, Yvonne Palomar-Castro, Reina Garcia and Jerome Palomar. Indeed a very lean, talented, creative and committed organization that makes things happen. One of their successful advocacies is the e-jeep in Makati.

They are lucky to start a partnership with Mayor Edward Hagedorn of Puerto Princesa a staunch defender and protector of the environment. “When you take care of nature, it will take care of you,” Mayor Ed has put environmental concerns as number one in his list of governance priorities.

Puerto Princesa is a recipient of the Hall of Fame Award for being the cleanest and greenest city in the Philippines, and of the “Peace Award” for being the country’s most peaceful city. It is the home of exotic islands, unspoiled beaches, world-class diving sites, lush virgin forest, endemic flora and fauna, refreshing waterfalls, medicinal hot springs and the world’s longest navigable underground river—Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, a World Heritage site. Puerto Princesans are gentle and hard working at the same time. With their vast natural resources—bountiful fishing grounds, fertile soils, clean water and a diverse profusion of minerals—one doesn’t need to really exert much effort to live in the city amidst the forest, but Puerto Princesans toil as hard as those in the Metro Manila.

In this scenario, we had a grand time celebrating “Love Affair with Nature” last Valentine’s attended by hundreds of thousands of volunteers who went (by foot, truck, jeepney, tricycle and private vehicles) to the site on their own. Volunteers came as groups and families. For a Manilan, this is big. Here in Metro Manila, to get people to “volunteer” in government projects, you need to pay them or, at least, feed them.

As early as 4 a.m. volunteers trooped to Barangay San Jose to plant a variety of mangrove trees in its coast. Parts of the program were the mass wedding of two hundred couples and aerobic dancing.

I planted my own bakawan laki and in no time at all, it will become a favorite habitat of different varieties of fish and will protect the powdery sand from erosion. It was a Valentine’s to remember.

From there, Mayor Ed drove an e-jeep, followed by an array of electric vehicles and bicycles, to the dumpsite to launch of the construction of a $2 to 4 million biodigester which can provide up to 1-MW of power to fuel the city’s growing electric public transport fleet and other public energy needs. The historic event brought the city closer to completing what has been dubbed as the first full climate-friendly green loop in Asia.

Designed by the Philippine-based Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (iCSC), the project will reroute the city’s biodegradable waste streams from sources such as wet markets, food establishments and the city slaughterhouse towards the biodigester.

Based on a build-operate-transfer scheme, the biodigester will promote the decomposition of the city’s biowaste, feeding methane to a gas turbine that will power zero emission eJeepneys, and eTrikes, creating what the iCSC calls “a complete green circle”. Puerto Princesa is at present considering local bank and financing options for a multi-stage replacement of its fossil-fueled public transport vehicles, including around 4,000 polluting tricycles.

”Local governments are taking action despite the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks. We applaud Puerto Princesa’s leadership for demonstrating the kind of determination necessary to make the climate solutions of tomorrow available to Filipinos today,” said Red Constantino.

The non-burn biodigester is in Barangay Santa Lourdes, where the 2.7 hectare Puerto Princesa Sanitary Landfill is located. The initial electricity potential of the plant is 350kW based on a daily collection of 21 tons of organic waste, constituting the first phase of the project. Phase two includes activities that can increase electricty generation up to 1-MW.

”Today, we can plan the further growth of commerce, such as an increase in hog farms which before we had to limit because of the city’s limited waste absorption capacity. But we can now consider more sustainable industrial development, which means more revenue for the city, more jobs and a greater ability to deploy more electric transport,” said Mayor Ed.

”The iCSC calls this Green Nationalism, and Puerto Princesa embraces it,” said the Mayor. “Green nationalism means self-reliance in solidarity with nature. It is the promotion of a type of independence anchored on what Puerto Princesa has tried to practice over the years: to make do with what we have, to live within our means and to develop our industrial capabilities as best as we can without harming ourselves and our surroundings.”