Research, monitoring of Pag-Asa to expand–DENR
PLANS to expand the research and monitoring in Pag-Asa Island and peripheral areas is in the offing, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
This was the issue discussed during the recent visit of DENR Secretary Antonia Loyzaga and her team in Pag-Asa Island where they met with Mayor Del Mundo and other Kalayaan government officials.
Included in the meeting were Dr. Fernando Siringan, Dr. Jose Fernando Alcantara and Dr. Rolando Tolentino, all of the University of the Philippines-Marine Science Institute (UP-MSI); the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, and Western Command (Wescom) teams led by Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos.
Scientific studies have established that the marine ecosystem in the Kalayaan Island Group is a critical biodiversity area, and is crucial for the sustainable supply of fish and coral larvae in the Philippines and the region.
The visit included a site inspection of the area surrounding Pag-Asa Island, including Sandy Cay 2 and coincided with the arrival of the M/V Panata research vessel of the UP-MSI for its bi-annual research expedition to the Kalayaan Island Group and the West Philippine Sea.
Loyzaga is the second Cabinet-level official to visit Pag-Asa Island in recent years, and the first DENR secretary to do so.
Other DENR officials who joined Loyzaga were Undersecretaries Augusto Dela Pena, Analiza Rebuelta-Teh and Juan Miguel Cuna; Assistant Secretaries Gilbert Gonzales and Marcial Amaro, Jr., the respective directors of the Environmental Management Bureau and the Biodiversity Management Bureau; and Palawan Council for Sustainable Development Executive Director Teodoro Matta.
Loyzaga and the DENR team visited the research station of UP-MSI on Pag-Asa Island, where the team conducted field and oceanographic surveys as part of the period monitoring of the immediate environment around Pag-Asa Island.
The research is partly funded by the “Philippine Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System” project of the national government.
They boarded the research vessel for a site inspection and docked at Sandy Cay 2, an islet just two miles off Pag-Asa Island to check the crushed corals littered on the beach.
Pag-Asa Island serves as the hub of the municipality of Kalayaan in Palawan—the smallest in the Philippines with a population of 193, but the largest in terms of jurisdiction, with an area spanning almost 65,000 square miles.
