By HENRY EMPEÑO | September 19, 2021

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — Aside from health problems among people and adverse effects on livelihood and business activities, the Covid-19 pandemic is also taking a heavy toll on the environment here, particularly the waters of Subic Bay which is important to both maritime trade and tourism.

In last Friday’s coastal cleanup organized by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), it was found out that face masks, which are mandated for wearing in public places since the onset of the pandemic last year, are one of the most common wastes washed on shore.

“The face masks are something we didn’t see during the previous coastal cleanups, but it’s all over the Subic shoreline now,” said Rosselle Abuyo, a division chief at the SBMA Ecology Center, which supervised the cleanup drive.

Abuyo, who headed a team that collected wastes at the secluded Tago Beach here, said face masks have been found along with other common flotsam like plastic wrappers and caps, and rubber slippers.

The same situation was observed by a team led by SBMA labor Department manager Melvin Varias, which was assigned along the shoreline of San Bernardino Road near Subic’s container terminal.

Among the unusual finds in that area were a broken guitar, an intact beer bottles case, some rubber prophylactics, and yes, face masks, too.

Ecology Center manager Amethya dela Llana said the trash collected by the various teams were sorted out and recorded to further study the extent of pollution along the coast and on Subic Bay.

The Ecology Center will collate the data from all the volunteer teams that fanned out to eight points along the shoreline here on Friday and all the information will hopefully present an insight on the state of pollution in Subic Bay, she said.

Dela Llana said that volunteers were grouped into 10-man teams and deployed at onshore cleanup points along Waterfront Beach, San Bernardino Road, Triboa Bay Boardwalk, Tago Beach, and Nabasan Beach. Others were dispersed to river deltas, while some underwater teams also dived on the bay to take out trash.

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the coastal cleanup is an annual event here among stakeholders in line with the International Coastal Cleanup Day celebration, but was cancelled last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This time we allowed it but on condition that the activities be undertaken with strict observance of health and safety protocols,” Eisma stressed.

“Despite the pandemic, there is still a need to protect the environment because a healthy environment is proven to be a big factor to the healing process, and we need that now more than ever,” she added.

The coastal cleanup on Friday also served to conclude the weeklong celebration of this year’s Biay Dagat, a mini-festival launched in 2019 to promote environmental protection and engage stakeholder support in ecological action. ~