ER revisited...

At the end of 2001 i met Jed Santos, and the Balai crew. Jed was a guidance councilor at my college and an avid diver at the time. One who liked to pull people and get them hooked on it. We would dive occasionally, and i would later start to help with underwater TV shoots and the like to make an extra buck while i was figuring out what to do with my life.

But it wasnt until our group of mery men made our way to the doorstep of the CAP oceans foundation that i realized that my calling in life would always be tied to the ocean. It was in that water that i remember feeling for the first time that i was finally home. That i had found what i was looking for.

Funny that the CAP ocean foundation was HQd at a place where a lot of good memories from my past were made right in the heart of the madrigal estate. A place i hadn't been to since the death of one of my closest friends in 2002.

Bu Madrigal Warns had put out a call for volunteer divers to build his final legacy, it was a large artificial reef covering some 20hectares of coastline and costing millions of pesos to fund it to completion. There in the same waters where Pacquito died. We were going to build a living breathing reef and i was all for it. I spent almost every weekend at the sight, doing hard work and heavy underwater labor day in and day out. To me it was a way of letting go, Paco had always talked about doing such a project in Calatagan and though he was gone it was finally becoming a reality. One that stands in testament to this very day to what can be accomplished when people put all their hearts into something. It was there during the days at CAP oceans that the seeds of the Ecorescue Foundation were planted.

The ER foundation was born from a need that had to be filled, we had seen the good of the CAP oceans project. Oye the project manager of CAP oceans wanted to bring it elsewhere, maybe not at that scale but to bring conservation no matter how basic to the rest of the philippines. Jed Santos on the other hand with an army of students behind him could provide the workforce for the foundation. And Boy Siojo with his contacts and long time experience in the world of conservation would bring the whole idea together. I would be the project manager, the mule or so it was, conservations soldier; always right in the middle of the action.

The mission of ER was to bring skilled volunteers where they were needed. If there was a conservation project anywhere requiring free labor ER would answer the call; If there was a need for rescue and relief operations ER would be there along with a battalion of volunteers friends and family all willing to do their part. From an idea an army was born, an army of young and willing individuals who would to go the distance to make a difference in this world; no matter how small that difference was. ER volunteers filled roles needed everywhere in the NGO society. ER tried as best it could to provide volunteers wherever they were needed when they were needed. No distance was too great, if they called we would come.

A few years later ER finally found a home in Alaminos Panggasinan, through fate as i see it we ran into mayor Hernani Braganza of Alaminos a staunch conservationist and someone who believed in what we were trying to achieve. From just plain volunteering we were now cast in a Coastal Resource Management role and the knowledge and experience each of us gained from this was extensive. We saw conservation from both ends now, not just the NGO side but also from the LGU side it was an eye opener one i wont soon forget. ER achieved so much in alaminos, many things of which sometimes when i look back i still don't believe we pulled off but we did. The plans were always grandiose and mostly started as silly drunken ideas, but many of them became reality. Ideas like bringing the "Pinoy Big Brother teen edition" tv show to shoot their final episodes at the hundred islands and even coming up with our own acredited National Service Training Program were just a few examples of those drunken ideas becoming reality.

For a good 4 years of my life i was part of a team that did what it could for the good of the earth. And even if it didn't last forever and we all went our separate ways...

I am just happy that i dedicated part of my life to ER's Quest. And the lessons learned and experience gained will always be a part of me.

It was a dream that i was happy to have been an integral part of.