From Coral Triangle to Verde Island Passage where the largest concentration of marine life can be found

 People of the Coral Triangle // James Morgan // 1080p from James Morgan on Vimeo.

From the Coral Triangle to its peak, the Verde Island Passage Marine Corridor where lies Marinduque 

(Original post on this blog, Jan. 9, 2013)

The Coral Triangle is known as the world’s center of marine biodiversity. The boundaries of this region are defined by scientists as covering the economic zones of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. A multilateral partnership called the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF) was established. 

This initiative safeguards the region’s rich marine and coastal resources through protection from overfishing, destructive fishing practices, unsustainable coastal development, pollution and impacts of climate change. On the other hand, at the heart of the Coral Triangle, the center of the highest concentration of marine biodiversity in the world is an area accounting for 50 percent of the world's coral species. 

Within this center of the highest concentratiion of marine biodiversity is the largest concentration of marine life with a recorded 1,736 overlapping marine species in a 10 by 10 kilometer marine habitat. This is situated within the Verde Island Passage between Batangas and Mindoro, northwest of Marinduque. 

The Verde Island Passage Marine Corridor covers portions of the coastal waters of Batangas, Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, MARINDUQUE and Romblon.

Amoingon Beach, Boac, Marinduque. Photo: Alex Fellizar

Jhayr Labrador of Boac plays for the Philippine Men's National Team!

PH unveils roster for Asian men's volleyball championship

ALL POWERED FOR VOLLEYBALL ACTION. The Philippine Volleyball Federation today introduced some of the players of the Men's PLDT HOME TVolution Team; the national men's squad that will represent the Philippines in the 2014 PLDT HOME Fibr Asian Men's Club Volleyball Championship on April 8-16. Photo by Josh Albelda/Rappler

The Philippine Volleyball Federation has announced the lineup for the PLDT Home TVolution men's national volleyball squad that shall compete in the Asian Club championship from April 8 to 16. The games will be split between The Arena in San Juan and the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig City.

In light of the country' historic hosting of the 2014 Asian Men's Club Volleyball Championship, the PVF revealed the roster in a press conference on Thursday, March 13 at the SM Aura in Taguig. Rappler

Shown in photo, second from right (front row) is Jhayr Labrador of Amoingon, Boac, Marinduque.

Marinduque still unaffected by Typhoon Pablo

Yesterday morning’s view of Cawit Port and barangay Bunganay from Amoingon beach. Marinduque remains unaffected by Typhoon Pablo as it hits Northern Mindanao and Eastern Visayas.

 Typhoon “Pablo” (international name is Bopha), caused thousands of people to be forcibly evacuated in Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Davao and Caraga region as it headed towards land.  Pag-asa reports that it is the strongest tropical storm to hit the Philippines this year with gusts of up to 195 kph.

Pablo is said to be stronger than Typhoon Sendong that killed some 1,500 people in Mindanao last year, 2011, but as of noontime today media has reported only one confirmed death. This is probaby due to the fact that learning from the Sendong experience, thousands of residents in Mindanao’s easternmost provinces were evacuated to safer ground hours before Pablo’s landfall.

Pablo is moving west-northwest and is expected to move out to the South China Sea by Thursday.

The 75% full moon appears as a tiny dot in
the sky in this photo also taken yesterday in Amoingon beach.

Time for starfishes, tun shells and angel fishes

It's sem-break. Some local college boys are bent on spending their three week vacation to explore places they've never been to. After camping out last weekend in Mahinhin, they were thrilled to discover a lesser-known waterfall in Mogpog, then a couple of days later, they decided it was time for the beach. Like little children they searched for marine life in Amoingon beach and found blue starfishes, living tun shells and angel fishes (above).

Amoingon beach in Boac with shallow coral gardens.

Time for spending hours away from textbooks and exams.

Habagat season

At present, habagat, southwest monsoon continues to affect Luzon and the Visayas region.  
Just a week ago the salty sweetness of the sea was all there was. 

These days small boats of the fishermen of Amoingon just have to hug the shore.

They don't shoot dogs here anymore

Two boys enjoy swimming on the beach of Amoingon while a stray dog watches.

They no longer shoot stray dogs here as was the case many years ago when many television viewers were horrified to see such dogs being shot mercilessly in the streets of Marinduque. It was to prevent the spread of rabies, yes, but the method adopted at that time angered many citizens.

Dog killing programs appear to be disappearing gradually now and are being replaced with more humane strategies to eliminate rabies. Initiatives have been undertaken by the Bureau of Animal Industry under the DA to reduce and eventually eliminate canine cases in many island provinces including Marinduque. These include intensifying information campaigns, promoting the spaying and castration of dogs and increasing dog vaccination coverage. There were no reported animal rabies cases in Marinduque in the years 2010 and 2011 according to a recent report from the BAI/DA. 

Rough coastal waters

Children in Amoingon beach curiously watching the coastal waters as they got rough yesterday .
This was brought about by moderate to strong winds blowing from southwest Philippines.

More children are drawn to the beach to listen closely to the sound of the waves.

Amoingon beach colors

Just a few meters away from the pebble-strewn beach in the quiet coastal barangay of 
Amoingon in Boac are coral gardens still home to a variety of tropical fishes, 
seahorses and marine mollusks.

Clown fishes have returned to the reefs. This was one of the beaches affected by an accidental mine spill that occurred over a decade ago, one that also affected certain estuaries that, somehow, 
have managed to clean themselves and slowly come back to life again, including this area. 

Angel fish are still among the fish varieties that could also be found in the shallow waters.

Railroad vines that help control erosion are allowed to bloom on this beach.
Seashells mingle with pebbles and semi-precious stones washed up ashore that any 
first-time visitors could find themselves picking up interesting ones to bring home as souvenirs.

Amoingon is just over a mile away from the Port of Cawit in Boac.

At low tide, part of the coral reefs emerge, signalling some residents 
to find mollusks to cook and sea urchins to savor right away. 

Chateau-du-Mer is among the few resorts found in Amoingon with 
a beach house ideal for short vacations. 

"Walang Tamad" and roadside maintenance boys

The “Walang Tamad sa Quezon” billboard in Sariaya installed by media practitioner and publisher Billy Andal many years ago, has inspired the “Walang Tamad sa Bahi” sign and other “Walang Tamad” signs in many towns and barangays in the region to promote the value of industry and self-help.

But this one, I saw in Brgy. Amoingon says something fair and just seemingly in response to those familiar signs, and for all and sundry to know: “WALANG TAMAD NA TAMBAY BASTA’T MAY UPA”.








Small wonder then that just across the street, even as the rain was pouring this morning, men in orange uniforms and caps, the roadside maintenance workers of DPWH Marinduque Office were busy caring for roadside trees to promote healthy trees, and promote unobstructed and aesthetically pleasing highways. The workers also prune the trees to avoid contact with telephone, cable-tv and electric power lines; they clean the roadside canals of mud and debris; and pave road shoulders with surface materials. They do look happy while working, while singing in the rain.

Highway cleared, trees pruned. Taken in the vicinity of Chateau du Mer, Amoingon.










Road shoulders paved with surface material, canals cleaned up.





















DPWH truck collects tree limbs and all pruned material

















Clearing to avoid contact with power lines and other charged wires

Chateau-du-Mer in Brgy. Amoingon

(The Conference Hall, venue for seminars, weddings and anniversaries)

Chateau-du-Mer is a small resort located in the island of Marinduque, Philippines. It is located in Barangay Amoingon (Boac), and is less than 10 minutes driving either from Cawit Port or from the Marinduque Airport. It has a well-designed beach house, a spacious garden, a conference room that has been used for regional meetings, and is a popular venue for wedding receptions, anniversaries and family affairs.

(The Beach House. Sea within your reach)

Recently, a beach wedding was held there. While fairly new, the owners are now considering more refurbishings in the area, apparently encouraged by similar public and privately-marked efforts to pursue the island-province's potential to be a byword among eco-tourism destinations in the Philippines.

(Blue Orchids. One of rare flowers found in the garden)

Marinduque continues to be bruited about by developers as one of the next hottest tourism hotspots in Asia in view of its proximity to Manila, unspoiled island beaches, some of which could rival Boracay, and the establishment during the last couple of years of the 6-star Bellarocca Island Resort and Spa.


See: http://chateaudumer.blogspot.com

Tiwanak and the Sunset

A singular shutter and the setting sun is suspended upon the horizon along with this silhouette of dried tiwanak bamboo washed helplessly ashore. Its stalky stems reflect the likeness of constantly opposing ideas, twists and turns all around us, so like life on the island of Marinduque – harmonious now, discordant the next, with the neutral sun watching, merely impressing upon us the eternal truth that there’s simply no shortcut to attaining peace, freedom and happiness for our people.

Yet none could ever suppress the reality that great ideas in their various shapes and forms could also soon merge according to the laws of nature, balance and proportion where the good is raised, the wicked, so wicked ones forgiven or simply cast away far into oblivion, such that fresh, new Hope unfolds her wings that it comes naturally for us, as we do now, to wish for everyone PEACE, PROSPERITY AND HAPPINESS IN THE NEW YEAR!

Photo by Rudy Mariposque.

Of Beach Games and Coastal Clean-ups with the Kids

Friends Nestor, Rudy and myself decided to laze the day away in a fisherman's kubo, hut as the overcast skies seemed to confirm there was nothing much to do when the year was about to end. Then a group of 17 children aged 4-10 taking a break from school and apparently finding the beach the right place for their shrieks and laughter startled us with their noise - the elderly having siesta at this hour couldn't hurl invectives from a distance, the kids thought of ways to while away the lazy afternoon perfectly for themselves.

What kind of games could they play on the beach? Rudy, who overheard the kids' conversation, suggested "Lungkot-Manok", a parlor game he remembered playing as a growing boy in Tanza. Only a few among the children were familiar with the game so Rudy explained how it was done:

Boys together, girls together, they sit on a straight line like chicken laying eggs. Both groups assign a leader, 'mother hen' ('father rooster' in the case of the boys), who'd give a magic stone to one among their group. The leaders would then exchange places and make a guess, by the behavior of the chicken, who among them is hiding the magic stone. This involves touching the ear of the sitting chicken, as it is believed that the one hiding the stone who must be feeling guilty and nervous, had the coldest ear.




A correct guess entitled the group to a single jump forward to a finish line. The game is repeated until one of the two groups reached finish. The boys won here but it was a close fight.

Next was the 'magdala dini', bring me, game. With boys and girls competing as a group, they had only one minute to search around and bring to me any object I'd ask for that are found on the beach - red stone, white stone, bottle caps, cigarette butts, and finally, rubber sandals or whatever footwear washed ashore. Grass grows about 15 meters from the highest tide here. In just one minute the kids were able to find 40 rubber slippers and shoes altogether hidden under the grass and debris. The girls found 16 pieces, the boys found 24. Could they have been owned by passengers of capsized vessels, you wonder.


Nestor treated them to Coke and biscuits, and for the fun of it everyone was declared winner with each happily receiving a crisp twenty peso bill (equivalent to just about fifty cents).

We ended the surprise interaction with an agreement that next year we'd invite more participants to the same venue, on Ninos Inocentes Day, for the holding of the same games, with additional ones added, to this evolving "Traditional Parlor Games with Coastal Clean-Up Twist", who knows.

Soon, the sun set on the Mindoro horizon and the windy day was over.

NOVEMBER METEOR SHOW

"Meteor Show on Marinduque Beach". How's that for a tourist come-on?

Many years ago, one moonless night, my friends and I camping out atop the mountains of Mahinhin, central Marinduque, were amazed to see a spectacle of meteors shooting in different intervals that lasted until dawn... with some lull in-between.

Little did we know that each year at about the same time on Nov. 17-18 there’s really something called the Leonid meteor shower occurring. Yet it was quite an experience to be on an open space with the sky all around us putting on a unique show of stars shooting and no one could explain why.

Starting tonight, I’ll be on the beach in Bahaghari, Amoingon to find out what will be up in the sky this time, shooting stars falling down in dramatic bursts or just a few one could count on his fingers. Maybe one occasion, this, when one wished there'd be a brownout again so the stars wouldn't be drowned out by the lights.
From news.yahoo.com: "We're predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Other astronomers who work in the nascent field of meteor shower prediction have put out similar forecasts.

“Urban dwellers and suburbanites will see far fewer, as the fainter meteors will be drowned out by local lights. The best viewing will be in rural areas. Get out of town if you can. If you have local lights, scout a location in advance where the lights are blocked by a building, tree or hill.”

From Space.com: “The Leonid meteors are debris shed into space by Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which swings through the inner solar system at intervals of 33.25 years, looping around the sun then heading back into the outskirts of the solar system. With each visit the comet leaves behind a trail of dust in its wake.”

Nov. 18 early a.m., Asia/India/Indonesia.

"The "Main Event" in 2009 is expected to take place when the Earth has rotated about 12 to 14 hours after passing through the first round of comet dust from 1567. Astronomers Jeremie Vaubaillon (France), Mikhail Maslov (Russia), David Asher (Ireland), and Bill Cooke and Danielle Moser (NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office/MEO) are all in agreement that material that was ejected from the nucleus of Tempel-Tuttle during the years 1466 and 1533 will likely produce a very strong meteor display over much of Asia, India and Indonesia."

So, cheers to the meteors we'll sing to and catch on the beach!

(Photos courtesy of Brian Scott & Chip Griffin. Space.com).

Yesterday's Sunset at Amoingon, Boac