Message from Manila

[Richard Anthony]

Message from Manila

Report on the 6th International Dialog 

Puerto Princesa, Philippines

Richard Anthony

 

November 2009

 

 

For the last few conferences (Rancho Mirage, CA; Nagoya, Japan; and Deven, MA) I have given a power point asking for new rules and then social marketing.  We went to the Philippines to attend the 6^th International Dialog on the Zero Waste Approach to managing resources and have witnessed this concept in action.  They have changed the rules there; have zero waste as their goal, and they are educating the leaders and the people.  This is a remarkable, true story.

 

Brian and I left San Diego at 6 AM Saturday morning for LAX.  From there we flew to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Manila.  We were part of five members from the United States (Paul Connet, Mark and Nancy Gorrell) attending the 6th International Zero Waste Dialog.  The conference site was in the City of Puerto Princesa, on the island of Palawan in the Philippines.  The other delegates were from UK (Maxine Narburgh, Mal Williams, Ralph Ryder), Spain (Joan Marc Simon), Italy (Paolo Guarnaccia, Patriza Lo Sciuto, Rossano Ercolini), South Africa (Muna Lakhani), India (Shibu Nair), Thailand (Somtag Haesakul), Australia (Gerry Gillespie) and the Philippines (Gerardo Calderon, Sonia Mendoza, Manny Calonzo, Uno Lim, Mila Andrade and Gigi).

 

It was late Sunday night when we arrived in Manila; we knew our hotel and got a ride there.  I found Manila that night very busy.  A dog sniffed our bags as we entered the Hotel.  Our room was ready and we went right up, we had been traveling for almost 24 hours and it was close to midnight Manila time.   A little later Ralph called, he had made the connection and was at the hotel and wanted us to know that Councilor Uno Lim would be at the hotel at 10 AM to pick up Gerry, Ralph, Brian I up and had arranged for us to talk to the Secretary of Environment and some school children.

 

Uno had attended the 5^th dialog in Naples along with Sonia Mendoza from Mother Earth and Gerardo Calderon from the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources. He helped “Mother Earth” (Sonia Mendoza, Tes Choa, and Sonia Roco) host the event.  Uno drove his personal vehicle to take us around Manila.  Thank God; Manila is energy in motion, with a lot of people in an urban setting.  The human collages are unforgettable.  That Monday, it took us a couple of hours to get across town.

Our first stop was the National offices where we met Jose Atienza the Secretary of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources.  He assured us that at the highest levels of the Philippine government supported the zero waste approach.  

At the School we met with the Principal, the PTA President, the Student Council and the addressed seven hundred children assembled to hear Councilor Lim and the visiting International Delegates talk about the new rules in Manila and why  Zero Waste.  Basically the new rules include required source separation and no littering; the fines are 1,000 pesos and a year in jail.  Right now the City is making the residents aware of the new rules before enforcement. 

That night we had an excellent Chinese dinner at one of Uno’s restaurants.  Jet lag sent us up to our rooms early but the next day we would all meet early and visit another school, City officials and then fly to Puerto Princesa where the conference was being held.

The next morning most of us had arrived at the hotel.  We were all loaded onto a bus and driven across town to another school.  We participated in another school assembly where the local students gave us a presentation in traditional dancing.  The delegates presented short speeches to the students explaining why we were in the country and the importance of Zero Waste and its impacts on their futures.  Over 700 students and PTA presidents from other local schools were in attendance.  Students lined the assembly and the nearby hallways listening to the speakers and Councilor Uno’s presentation.

After that, we were driven to City Hall where Uno had arranged to have a brass band meet us.  Many of the international delegates thought the band was for someone else and we had walked into it by accident. One of their songs was ‘I left my heart in San Francisco.’  We met with Mayo Alfredo Lim (no relation according to Uno), a real gentleman.  He spoke with us for almost an hour and seemed upset when his staff said we had to move on.  He posed for pictures and gave me, as head of the delegation, the key to the city.  I have a picture to prove it.  Uno said that less than five delegations have received the key to the City including the UN and UNICHEF.

 

After meeting the Mayor we were led through a packed reception area to meet the Vice Mayor, Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.  Mr. Moreno confessed proudly to have been a waste picker at the landfill in his youth for 8 years. He said laughingly after a time he had been ‘promoted’ to using a bike to collect the discards. He is the youngest person ever to be elected to the Manila City Council.  He was sympathetic to our cause.

 

We had a boxed lunch and set off to the airport and Puerto Princesa.  Airport Security just had to see the key to the city. Once on the Island we had a group dinner at the hotel where a lot of catching up happened.

 

The next morning was free, the ZWIA meeting was set for after noon and then there would be a reception for us by Mayor Hagendorn.  We slept in and caught up with our e-mails, while others went for a swim in the pool (it’s a hard life).

 

The ZWIA meeting was internationally attended and unified.  The Puerto Princesa Dialog agenda was outlined by Sonia Mendoza and the flow of the program was discussed.

 

As far as governance for ZWIA, we agreed that all of the present international delegates would be on the planning board with the continuing members. We agreed that not voting would be considered a yes vote. 

 

As for Copenhagen, we agreed that ‘the soil was the solution” and that the most unifying message we could send to Copenhagen was to get compostable organics out of landfills and back to agriculture.  We had other discussions but in this we were all unified.  Paul Connett and a committee agreed to write the resolution to be delivered at the end of the three day meeting with a vote from the attendees. 

 

Finally, we talked about the next dialog and Rio, Bangkok and Cape Town were suggested.  For us, the key is that the host covers hotel and registration and food for speakers. After the meeting Mark Gorrell, who sits on the Berkeley Ecology Center Board, remarked that he had rarely seen so many different people agree on an agenda with so much, so quickly.

 

The dinner and presentation by the locals was spectacular.  The Mayor Edward Hagendorn started with a dramatic Power Point overview of the UN awards given to his city for environmental quality and indeed the town was litter free. Amazingly he started his work with just 25,000 peso's and enthusiastic helpers in the people of Puerto Princesa. He then brought out the singers and the cultural dancers whose costumes of breathtaking colors had to be seen to be believed. The Mayor then finished off the evening by taking the microphone and singing a local song called “Basura” (remember the Spanish influence in the Philippines).  These guys are Rock Stars and avid karaoke singers.  At the table he was open and interested in the Dialog and was proud to be the local host with Mother Earth. We were all moved by the obvious love surrounding him and the work he is doing.  He seemed like a real ‘man of the people’ from whom many western politicians’ could learn valuable lessons in humanity.

 

The next day the Dialog began.  The Mayors and their neighborhood organizers were on the floor along with government and NGO leaders.  We were told 20 mayors were in attendance and over 300 leaders including school teachers and planners.  In the stands were another 300 college students all looking smart in their school colors.  Held in a basketball arena, with no break out sessions, we stayed in session for two days.  Mother Earth made sure that there was coffee, tea, juice, water, two healthy snacks and a lunch, which after the first morning; we worked through, as we started late on both days.

 

The opening session on “Zero Waste for Zero Warming” by Manny Calonzo and the second session with Paul Connett  “ Twin Pillars of Zero Waste: Reducing Toxics, Increasing Sustainability“ got everybody’s attention and then the following international reports brought us together.

 

After lunch Gerardo Calderon from the National Solid Waste Management Commission spoke about the Philippines.  He said he attended “the Dialog” in Naples in February and wrote the zero waste plan for the Philippines after he came back home.  Following was skill shares on Financing Zero Waste and Political Will.   That evening, the International Delegates and Mother Earth had dinner as a group at a local restaurant and toasted zero waste.

 

The next day had more participation from the locals, discussions on the details of getting to zero, and testimonials to Mother Earth and specifically Sonia Mendoza.  After skill shares on problems like plastics and residuals, there was a long session on soils as the solution.

 

In the end Paul read the resolution.  It was acknowledged by acclimation from all in attendance that the message to Copenhagen from this Dialog is that “the “soil is the solution”. 

 

At nearly 7pm on a Friday evening the majority of the delegations and most of the students were still in the arena.  After acclimation of the message for Copenhagen, we all posed for a group picture. We then invited the students to join us for some pictures resulting in an hour long picture shoot due to their enthusiasm to be a part of the zero waste scene. The students, attendees and delegates all wanted pictures to document the event.

 

The next day we took a field trip through the countryside (tropical jungle) to the sea and curtsy of Mayor Edward Hagendorn visited the site of the underground river.  We landed on a beach that looked as if it had come straight out of the pages of a holiday brochure. The underground river is certainly one of the wonders of the world with its stalactites and stalagmites looking as if they had been carved by artists but are natural phenomenon.  After a gentle ride on the river with an excellent wise-cracking guide, warning us “if something hits you from above and its cold -its water, if its warm its bat dropping – so don’t ‘look up with your mouth open,” We then took a leisurely walk through the jungle spotting some monkeys in the trees looking very appealing and hoping for some food from the visitors. We then had a very nice meal by the sea and drove back to the hotel. 

 

We learned that afternoon that some of us were flying back to Manila that night as Uno had arranged a ‘surprise’ package for us. The next day (Sunday), Uno picked us up and took us shopping and then to lunch.  The only time there is no traffic in Manila is during a Pacquiao fight (Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao was given a rock star reception in his home country after becoming the newly crowned world welterweight champion) and Sunday morning during church.  With Uno as our driver we saw the monuments, churches, a mid-eastern bazaar, lunch on the sea and some of the museums.

 

Uno left us free on Sunday night to greet the other zero wasters back at the hotel and get ready for Monday where he had lined up two school presentations for the remaining international visitors.  Both schools were packed with what Ralph described as “such beautiful, happy children” and we all agreed that was just what they were. The children were eager to listen to their visitors and their understanding of the concept of zero waste was remarkable. The remaining International Delegates, Gerry Gillespie, Ralph Ryder, Muna Lakhani, Brian and myself tried different speeches and had great success in having the children repeat the three R” or respond to the prompt “How much waste are we for, with a loud resounding call for “Zero Waste”. 

 

 

Two of the schools have very active journalism classes with pupils asking searching questions of the international delegates. We all commented on the poorly stocked libraries and vowed to help them get more up to date publications.  Anybody who wants to adopt a school library in Manila and send discarded reference and children’s books contact me ASAP. We also suggested starting zero waste clubs within the schools and got a great response.  The first job for the club will be managing the resources at the school and then the neighborhood. 

 

After a good bye dinner at Sonia’s house, another great Manila traffic jam that evening helped us decide to give three hours to get to the airport the next morning.

 

We left the next morning at 5 Am and caught our planes and made our connections all the way to LA.  On the plane to Tokyo I sat next to an American born Native American /Philippine woman coming home to the US after visiting family.  We had a great talk about the Native American Tribes up north and the environment.  On the last flight, I sat next to Benny, a Philippine builder who was working on construction projects in the Philippines although he was raised in Southern California.  We were from the same neighborhood and we agreed on the potential of the Philippines, sustainability and green building, and the need to get a bean and cheese burrito after we landed in LA. 

 

Driving home on the 405 to San Diego, Brian and I were pretty happy to be home in Southern CA recognizing that people are pretty much the same everywhere and thinking what could be done if everybody knew it  

 

It’s all about getting the word out. 

 

 

Rick Anthony

With edits from Brian, Ralph and Sonia

November 2009

Richard Anthony
3891 Kendall Street
San Diego, CA 92109
richardanthonyassociates.com
rican...@aol.com