by Unodaw

Recently a relative and a close friend were fatalities of accidents in Buhi.

Their untimely demise focus on the longtime lack of an equipped emergency transport unit as well as trained emergency caregivers in our hometown.

Buhi, a remote town, is almost two hours away from tertiary health facilities. Therefore, the need for such service is imperative and is a gauge of the priorities of the municipal administrators.

Health care is a necessity for progress.  Investors favor areas with pro- active governance that promote enterprise in a safe and healthy environment.

We hope that this urgent need will be addressed promptly by the mayor in time for face lifting during the coming election.

***

(submitted by BOL’s Bay-Area Contributor Ms. Stella Dasmarinas-Roig)

Lake Buhi is dying    

By Rudy A. Fernandez (The Philippine Star) Updated May 10, 2009 12:00 AM

Lakeside Public Market with no waste-treatment facility.MANILA, Philippines – Bicolandia’s Lake Buhi is dying.
And it is but a matter of time before this internationally known “pride of the Bicol region” reaches its “ecological doom.”

That is, if nothing is done now – and fast – to save it from the degraded state that it is in today.

Fact is, this 1,707-hectare inland body of water in Buhi, Camarines Sur, which is home to the world’s smallest commercial fish species (sinarapan), is now “highly polluted” and in a “stage of eutrophication.”

Eutrophication is an increase in chemical nitrogen or phosphorus compounds in an ecosystem, often resulting in an increase in its primary productivity (excessive plant growth and decay), in turn leading to lack of oxygen and severe reduction in water quality, fish, and other animal populations.”

The rapid decadence of the lake has been attributed by a research team of the Camarines Sur State Agricultural College (CSSAC) to the following:

• A number of commercial swine raisers operating along Lake Buhi’s shoreline continue to drain their wastes into the lake.
• Lakeside households dump their septic and other domestic wastes into the lake.
• Fish cage operators in the lake overstock their cages, requiring the use of more commercial feeds. About 2,840 tons of feeds are used by almost 15,000 fish cages (covering 70 to 80 percent of the lake surface) per production cycle, quickly becoming a major source of nutrient loading in the lake.

The CSSAC research team – composed of Dr. Cely Binoya, Joyce dela Trinidad, Arthur Estrella, Celerino Llenol, and Gloria Oson – conducted a study titled “Managing and Conserving Lake Buhi: An Agroecosystems Analysis for Sustainable Development.”
The research was funded by the Los Baños-based, government-hosted Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEAMEO-SEARCA).
Lake Buhi, situated about 500 kilometers southeast of Manila and surrounded by 10 of Buhi’s 38 barangays, yields four to five tons of fish per day.
In their study, the CSSAC researchers interviewed 127 fisherfolk and 110 farmers.
Their laboratory analysis showed that Lake Buhi’s water now has high total suspended solids (TSS), resulting in turbid waters, shallow depths, low pH (acidic), and high chemical oxygen demand (COD) owing to high organic matter.”
“Ammoniacal oxygen, nitrate nitrogen, and phosphates were at toxic level,” they added.
“These results,” they averred, “indicate that Lake Buhi is now in the stage of eutrophication. Similarly, the presence of three polluted water algae and three odor algae confirms that Lake Buhi is now highly polluted. In essence, Lake Buhi’s ecological quality has deteriorated.”
Recognizing the lake’s sad state, the local government unit and communities around it have been training lakeside dwellers on environmental appreciation and awareness and legislating appropriate ordinances.
Along these lines, the SEARCA-supported research team conducted training needs assessment; information, education, communication (IEC) activities; focus group discussions; SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities, threats) analysis; and environment awareness and advocacy and livelihood training courses.
The Sinarapan Sanctuary Management and Development Council was also organized to help develop policies and implement community-wide programs that would ensure the sustainable population of sinarapan.
Relevant ordinances and resolutions have also been passed for more efficient implementation of projects for Lake Buhi’s sustainable development.

by Stella Dasmarinas-Roig

These are worth saving Boie’nen icons…

I think the local government and the private sector should work together so that sustainable development can be achieved.

Maybe there should be a separate department under the local government that should be responsible for these – like a Buhi Redevelopment Agency - whose efforts should focus on the preservation of the lake, the sinarapan, the pili nuts and other similar noteworthy projects.

There are many foreign grants available for projects like these. All we need is a good leader who has the vision and dedication to make this happen.

There is also a need to preserve Buhi’s cultural heritage that is very unique to Buhi – like the “tanggal”during the Holy Week and “pastoras” during the Christmas season.

I feel sad for the younger Buhi generation who wouldn’t have the chance to know about these when they are older.

Again, the local government and the private sector should work hand in hand to set up an organization – maybe a Buhi Cultural Heritage Foundation – for this purpose.

I’m pretty sure there will be many Buhinos who will generously give their time, treasures and talents for this good cause.

After all, wherever we are, Buhi will always be our home.

So let’s all unite!

Mabalos:

Eng. Wilfredo Ibarlin grew up in Sitio Pito, Penafrancia and Sta. Clara of Buhi.  He graduated from Buhi Elementary School in 1966 and in 1970 from St. Joseph’s Academy.

He started college in Saint Anthony College and finished Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from NAMEI Polytechnic Institute.

After his bachelors degree he worked for one year in the Philippines and moved to Saudi Arabia where he pursued his dream of applying his professional skills and knowledge from 1985 to date. Eng. Ibarlin worked as well in the far away desert of Libya between 1988 to 1991.

He is currently a Site Electromechanical Engineer with one of the engineering consulting firms in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.  But most of all he is a proud Boie’nen.

His professional achievements includes professional work in the following projects: Al Huwalylat Mall among others in the Eastern Province of Riyadh and Western Province of Jubail. And currently is involved in the renovation of Al Azizia Mall in Olaya, Riyadh.

BOL welcomes and thanks Eng. Wilfredo Ibarlin as one of its BOL-Middle East Contributor.

MABALOS.

(check out his latest comment on the Save Lake Buhi Cause)

Mr Hermito San Jose  wrote this some weeks ago to Bicol Mail editor Joe Perez after it published an obituary on the late Ben Saez who passad away on the day of Boie’s Pintakasi.

Mr. San Jose was also a classmate of both of the BM editor’s parents as told to BOL.

BOL espresses deep gratitude to MITS/Mr San Jose for sharing his thoughts and feelings in BOL. 

If any of your parent or grandparent were former acquaintance or friends of MITS it would be nice to get them reconnected.

I learned from your latest issue (BM 6/4) that Benjamin “Ben” Saez has died at age 78, that he had 9 children, that he was formerly the vice mayor then acting mayor of Buhi.

Condolence to his family and relatives.

 I turn misty at such news because Ben was my classmate, together with your dad and mom, at the Cam. Sur High School, Class ‘48.  Ben was our class politician (another was Vicente Estela) and I still can picture him as he waved his hands while campaigning for president of the student government.

I don’t know how many of us are still alive. Like autumn leaves we keep falling one by one. You told me your dad passed on some years back. I know that Benjamin Cordial (our valedictorian) and Sigfredo “Pat” Obias (former Naga vice mayor) are now gone.

 Where are our other co-graduates now? Some names I can still remember, among them Edgar Balcueva, Santiago Casin, Honesto Luzentales, Leoncio Bibing Badiong, Fernando Rebustillo, Pacita Adorna, Lydia Santelices, Visitaction Coquia, Margie Rifareal, Effie Lagman, Nena Agawa, Dulce Medina and, for the love of me, I can’t remember any more, even if our batch numbered more than 400.

I feel frustated when I’m in what my sons call my “senior moments”.

For me (when you have the time) please ask your mom if she remembers others and where they are now. BTW how is she? Is she still up and about? I hope she still has (in Latin words we learned and gleefully showed off in high school) “mens sana in corpore sano.”

Your mom (Rosa Beldue) and your dad (Dick Perez) are the only pair I know from our class whose budding romance blossomed into a union. You told me Rose became (and retired as) a principal of our beloved Camarines Sur High School (CSHS). To me that’s an accomplishment, for how many alumni become a principal of their alma mater? Rose now belongs to a distinguished company of former CSHS principals, among them the legendary Roque S. Alba.

We old folks relive the past too much. But there are times, triggered by an announcement of death, when nostalgia becomes irresistible.

***

We live in a small community in Sagrada otherwise known locally as the ‘Tokyo Valley’ of Buhi.

Our major problem is the ready availability of safe drinking water.

To get it, we have to walk  for about a kilometer to take water from a ‘burabod’ or ‘water spring’. There are no roads or decent pathway to reach this ‘burabod’.

Just imagine during the rainy season – we have to wade and plod through slippery and sticky  mud to go to the main road too.

There are two favorite-night haunts of some Boienen men and a cockpit arena very close to our community.  So I am not convinced my Barangay is poor that it cannot look at our basic needs, like for potable water.

Or could there be a deeper politics behing this neglect?

Buhi Online encourages everyone to join this worthy cause for the protection and rehabilitation of Lake Buhi now and for future generations.

To join this commendable cause on Facebook CLICK HERE.

This cause’s POSITION SUMMARY:

• Each and every Buhinon should put it upon himself/herself not to contribute further to the sorry state of Lake Buhi.
• It is imperative that every environmentally inclined Buhinon convinces at least one degradation contributor to mend his/her ways now.
• Individually and/or collectively, Buhinons in or out of town have the moral duty to put some pressure on concerned agencies for proper actions.

Your help would be highly appreciated.

Mrs. Trini Dautil Watkins sent the email below to BOL several months ago. Trini has a very simple but equally brilliant idea. I share a related story postscript to her email below.

From: Trinidad Watkins
Date: Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 1:32 AM
Subject: Re: Pili Nut Tree Preservation
To: webmaster@buhi.com

To: Mayor Rey Lacoste and Other Elected Officials:

I am Trini (Ining) Dautil-Watkins. I live in Savannah, Georgia with my family. I would like you as Mayor of our town to tell the farmers and for those who own land to preserve the Pili Nut Trees. It has unique taste compared to other kinds of nuts in the world. I believe it only grows in the Bicol Region. If all the land owners will be interested in planting more pili nut trees; in 15-25 years we will have an abundance of pili nuts. This can create jobs in our very own town. Farmers can export the raw peeled products or make them into different kinds of sweets/delicacies for sale in tourist areas, etc.

I believe that all of you are working very hard to develop Buhi and become one of the famous tourism areas in the Bicol Region.

Kumusta and maray na aldaw sa ngamin!

Trini (Ining) Dautil-Watkins

P.S. by Al Claveria

In the early ‘70s, Cody Best, a Boie-based U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, and I had a meeting with an American World Bank ‘environment/agricultural-development expert’ in one of the hotels in Naga City.

This expert’s suggestion: the ‘air-seeding of pili-nut’ seedlings all over the mountains primarily of the Bikol region.

It was the same brilliant idea as Trini has in her email above.

The only thing different between their suggestions: Trini has a very practical idea of encouraging people, particularly manga Boienen, to start and keep propagating pili-nut trees for environmental and economic gains.

The American-expert’s idea is similar to Trini’s. Except that he wanted to use a C-130 or Hercules plane to air-seed the mountains of the Bikol region with pili-nut ‘bomblets’.

Just imagine if a to’nas pili coming from several-hundred meters from the sky hit one on the ground! It could be worse than being hit by a bullet from a gun! I told that expert so. To Cody’s amusement, I’d say.

So if they have a JOHNNY APPLESEED in America, we have in Boie a TRINI TO’NAS PILI that every one of us could be proud of someday.

Go figure! Give your SPIN on this topic.

Worth Getting Information for BOL Publication:

- the Pili-nut Alley in U.P. Los Banyos which is planted with rows of pili tree on both sides;

- WIKIPEDIA on Pili Nut CLICK HERE

- pictures, illustrations and videos.

LINK: Boienen-English Dictionary CLICK HERE:

New Words: to’nas – whole pili-nut shell without the husk or ‘obak’; with the pili-nut ‘elog’ still inside the shell; opened pili-nut shell without the nut or any shard or sliver of it is called, pine’ne’