Creek clean-up … This tractor sent by the Jose Panganiban LGU is not paving the ground to build a new road just like what has been going on around the municipality since last year. It is actually scraping the bottom of this “estero” (creek) known as Maligat canal to unearth rubbish and silt that have accumulated over the past many years – decades, we can, perhaps, say– courtesy of residents nearby as well as those vendors at the wet and dry goods market just a few meters away. This estero lies just next to the temporary bus terminal of Superlines Express, which operates the Mambulao-Metro Manila route – another source of rubbish that obviously ended up on the creek. Until lately, residents have complained of stench that was said to be emitting from this creek. When it is high tide and the water gets really high, enabling it to flood into the creek, it drags with it tons of waste materials as it pulls back to the bay. The rubbish then finally ends up along the beach of Parang, just on the outskirts of the poblacion.

Men and stinking silt … Municipal government contract workers work on the creek known as Maligat canal right next to the wet and dry goods public market. The color of the wastes that had been manually dredged ranged from brown to stinking black – giving one an idea that they had been buried/or deposited there for quite long years until they were unearthed recently. At any rate, this waterway has been rescued from its gradual death, and made friendlier to the environment and to the people around it. Clean or unspoiled waterway is always pleasant to look at especially when its water ends up into the nearby Mambulao Bay without carrying any rubbish. The most intriguing question now is: could the people operating in the vicinity maintain its cleanliness? – Photos supplied/text by AP HERNANDEZ