Environmental Advocacy Garbs The City in a Forest

By: JOSE F. SARSOZA JR.

Much has been written about the phenomenal story of the City in a Forest and the man behind its success. So this article is but a footnote to the stories already
written. Still, it is a footnote loaded with both timeliness and significance, because as the man himself—Puerto Princesa Mayor Edward Solon Hagedorn—puts it,
“This feature on Puerto Princesa in your magazine is just right because it is within the last phase of the voting for the entry of the St. Paul Subterranean River National Park to the Seven Wonders of Nature.” This 8-kilometer long river is believed to be one of the longest navigable underground rivers in the world.

It’s now almost 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and the Mayor is having his lunch while fielding questions. Beside him is his wife, Ellen Marcelo-Hagedorn, who makes sure his plate is not empty even as she sheds light on questions pertaining to her activities as First Lady of Puerto Princesa. The teamwork spawned in the home is enhanced in public life as Puerto Princesans pool their efforts in making their
city a standard of excellence in environmental protection, cleanliness and discipline.

Normally, February 14, or Valentine’s Day, is celebrated by lovers in a quiet and intimate atmosphere complete with roses, chocolates, drinks and what have you. Families or groups of friends also observe this day with lots of fun, games and eats. But in Puerto Princesa, this day is an occasion for 200 or 250 couples to seal their love for each other—and manifest the same for Mother Nature—after which they intensify the spirit of merriment by heading toward a designated place to plant mangrove saplings, a way of enhancing concerns for the environment
which sustains and nourishes them.

Mayor Hagedorn explains: “This is an annual program we call ‘Love Affair With Nature,’ where we have mass wedding—and I officiate the ceremony—and we provide them their wedding gowns and give them tokens, and then after the ceremony all of them, still dressed in their wedding attire, plant mangrove saplings. Every year the number of couples gets bigger and the event gets stronger, and there are even visitors who come from different parts of the world to witness this event.”

“Love Affair With Nature,” as conceived by the Mayor himself, and has been covered by national and international media, is in line with the city’s program of environmental protection—environmental advocacy in governance being the centerpiece of Mayor Hagedorn’s administration.

“In other parts of the Philippines,” the Mayor notes, “you’ll find yourself at odds with miners and loggers and other groups, but here our main thrust is to safeguard the environment.” And he adds with emphasis, “I think we’re the only city that makes a good balance between development and environmental protection.”

Listening to him expound his environmental advocacy program, I see the Mayor’s steadfast and unyielding commitment to the cause of environmental protection. It is a cause that has not only endeared him to his constituents, it also earned for
him the respect and recognition of three past presidents of the Philippines. Klow
with Salvaña in Hagedorn The Man and The City in a Forest, express it so well: “The Man [Hagedorn], then, it can be said, cruised through three presidents and remained in high esteem in the eyes of all three executives of the republic, not because he assiduously courted their favors, but because he relentlessly pursued only the good of his City in a Forest. Flawed he may be, yet the Man’s love for the city’s environment and its constituents is so pure that Presidents Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo could not but be supportive of him because of the knowledge that Hagedorn’s success also means the success of their respective administration.”*

His relentless pursuits in making the city clean and green can be seen in the many projects he has undertaken such as the city’s sanitary landfill and the Baywalk project, to name a few. The Baywalk, a 10-kilometer stretch, is reminiscent of the baywalk in Dewey Boulevard in Manila. “This is a very ambitious project,” the Mayor says, “but it can be done. I think we will be able to finish it by 2013.”

My host, Don Miraflores and wife, Dr. Ruth and other friends, drove me to this place after our dinner the night before, and what a delight to smell, once again, the envigorating smell of the sea. Chatting with my host and admiring the sight, I spot a little boy heading toward the garbage bin to dispose of his trash. That is discipline, I mutter to myself, and continue my conversation with Don and Ruth. I talk about the huge green eco-waste bins that I see everywhere, and Don quips that it’s a matter of discipline that makes the people here throw their garbage in eco-waste bins. “It seems that I only see this thing here in Puerto Princesa,” I tell them, referring to the eco-waste bins, “and I hear they came from Germany.” Don nods his head in agreement and proceeds to relate an incident. “I was in Manila a couple of weeks ago,” he says, “and a friend handed me a candy as we were conversing and instinctively I put the wrapper on my pocket as I couldn’t locate the garbage bin. When I arrived here sometime later, I found the wrapper still on my pocket.”

That reminds me of what Cynthia Faigao, another friend, told me while we were having breakfast that morning. “It took about two years for the people here, especially the students, to learn how to dispose of their trash in garbage bins,” she says.

So how did this thing become a habit here, I ask the Mayor. “That’s her work,” he says, smiling and gesturing to his wife with his thumb. “We go around schools and teach the students cleanliness,” Mrs. Ellen Hagedorn says, “It’s a huge task going to all these schools, but my sister (the wife of the Vice Mayor) helps me along with other friends. We tell them to put their trash in the trashbins. We talk about hygiene and cleanliness—cleanliness in physical, mental, social and spiritual matters.” And she adds that at the opening of classes in June “we give them notebooks, toothpastes and other things.”

As our talk about cleanliness, environmental concerns, volume of passengers, mostly tourists, who visit Puerto Princesa City and the province of Palawan  Mayor: “We used to have 2 or 3 flights a day but now we have 11 flights a day,”) and other matters comes to a close, the Mayor declares that “the biggest achievement of our administration is the level of awareness of Puerto Princesans that makes them participate in the projects we undertake, because they know such projects will benefit them.”

Of the many pictures I have seen about the Mayor—as a working man doing manual work with garbage workers, fishermen, street sweepers, visiting his constituents, you name it; or as head of his city welcoming dignitaries; or as a social being expressing his happiness by singing, or clowning—one of my favorites is the portrait of his family. Here his wife, his children and grandchildren appear in their Filipiniana best, smiling. Notice, too, that he is putting his arm around one of his grandchildren and the boy does the same to his granddad. To me, the picture epitomizes his spirit of friendliness, sincerity and camaraderie. In an abraciete (that’s what my grandfather’s era calls it) fashion, he is telling Everyman you and I are friends and we have a common cause to achieve, so let’s work together. My success is yours and yours is mine.

Mayor Edward Solon Hagedorn, in being asked how he wishes to be remembered as a Mayor of Puerto Princesa, simply says, “As a man who tried to make a difference and as somebody who would sacrifice everything for the  welfare of the population.”

Jose F. Sarsoza Jr. is editor in chief of Health & Home.