Mabuhay! UPlanders!

MABUHAY! UPLANDERS!

By Anton Antonio

August 7, 2015

Around 5pm today, UPlander Jimmy Loro shared a post by Mr. Jose Lastimado (of Quezon City) to the UPlanders Facebook page.  The item carried pictures of a bigger-than-normal leatherback turtle caught in Barangay Sta. Rita, Marabul, Samar.  Please note that this species is an endangered one.  What was appalling to Jimmy was the apparent maltreatment of the turtle by the local residents as evidenced by photos from the post of Mr. Lastimado.  Jimmy sounded off the UPlanders on what was going on.

Barely 3 minutes after Jimmy made the post, UPlanders Joarlyn Morano, Joy Saquing and I reacted… and a network of pro-environment advocates and activists kicked into action.  It could be considered an emergency situation because (for all we know) the local residents of Marabul, Samar could possibly be thinking of slaughtering the poor turtle.  While Jimmy and I tried alerting the other UPlanders on what was going on, I could imagine both Joarlyn and Joy scanning their mobile phones for possible contacts who could do something for this helpless turtle.  Joarlyn had the good sense of immediately calling her friends from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB).  It was through the DENR-BMB that we found out that the leatherback turtle has already been rescued yesterday.  With this piece of good news, all of us were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

I should mention that Jimmy is from Tacloban City while Joarlyn and Joy are both from Metro Manila.  The UPlanders is an online community of environment and natural resources management practitioners and experts.  The dispatch by which this incident in Samar was addressed is testimony to the commitment of the UPlanders to environmentalism and animal protection.  Kudos to you Jimmy, Joarlyn and Joy.  Mabuhay! UPlanders!

Thoughts to promote positive action…

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