Rousing start for IYO

CEBU CITY, February 17 -- February 15 turned Blue Hearts Day -- of the happy sort -- as the Philippine celebration of the 1998 International Year of the Ocean (IYO) kicked off to a rousing start at SM City Cebu, a sprawling mall that’s become a favorite hangout of this city’s residents. An exhibit called "Our Seas, Our Life," which will run until March 15, opened a few minutes after the regular Sunday morning mass. The exhibit features underwater photographs, screening of films about the ocean, marine artifacts from Silliman University in Dumaguete, information panels detailing the state of our oceans and ongoing efforts to save them, winning entries to an on-the-spot painting contest for children, and a computer corner featuring CRMP’s website, http://www.oneocean.org.

The occasion also served as the launching pad of the "I love the Ocean" movement, an organized action for sustainable seas that CRMP intends to bring to other parts of the Philippines. "Through this movement and the exhibit, we hope to get the general public involved in the movement to save our seas," CRMP Chief of Party Catherine A. Courtney said in a press conference last Saturday.

"There is a large segment of the population that may not be as connected to the ocean environment as the fishers are, people who may not be directly affected by whatever is happening to our marine resources but who nonetheless can influence national policy and want to help. These are the people we want to reach with this type of activity," Dr. Courtney added. Visitors, numbering about a thousand at the height of the celebrations, made a beeline for membership forms, filling up several pages of the exhibit’s registry and adding in their own comments about ocean issues: "Save our ocean," said one. "I want to help," wrote another. Children, some as young as three years old, seemed to be the most enthusiastic group, begging their parents, "Please, can I be a member?"

Another major highlight of the day was Cris Villonco’s debut performance of "Ang Dagat ay Buhay" (The Sea is Life), the movement’s theme song. Villonco, a 14-year old recording and performing artist of BMG Pilipinas, primed the crowd with her rendition of popular songs and soon had them singing along to the easy-to-follow melody of "Ang Dagat ay Buhay", a Vehnee Saturno composition.

An even livelier program capped the day’s events as Banco Filipino’s Happy Savers Club took centerstage for the awarding of winners of Saturday’s on-the-spot "Save the Ocean" painting contest. Villonco joined Camille Prats, another young performing artist, and Viva Record’s Butch Montejo in entertaining a crowd of mostly young people and their proud parents.

The launching was attended by Cebu City’s First Lady Ninette Garcia; USAID Deputy Mission Director Priscilla Del Bosque; former Environment Secretary and now Commission on Higher Education Chairman Angel Alcala; Mike Yates of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) Director Marlito Cardenas; regional officials of the DENR, the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Tourism DOT; and friends of the ocean from CRMP’s NGO partners, schools, the business community, the media and various other concerned groups.

The exhibit and other IYO-related activities organized by CRMP are a joint undertaking with the National Committee on Marine Sciences (NCMS), the national focal point of UNESCO and lead agency responsible for the celebration of IYO in the Philippines.

Would you like to be a member of the "I love the Ocean" movement? Send us an e-mail and request for the "I love the Ocean" Membership Guidelines. Or download the Guidelines from this site. All members of "I love the Ocean" must live by the following Ocean Creed:

The IYO Creed I believe that the ocean harbors life, life that I must respect I believe that the ocean is mankind’s greatest common heritage I believe that the diversity of the ocean is important to sustaining human life I believe that I am part of but one ocean, and that everything I do affects the delicate balance of life on Earth I believe that it is my duty to protect the ocean I believe that, by protecting the ocean, I help protect the future. Therefore, I pledge to always live in harmony with the ocean.