The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has challenged the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, teachers, as well as the DENR utility personnel, to promote care for the environment in their own ways, during the learning session for the Month of the Ocean (MOO) celebration.
DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu explained that presenting a challenge to these stakeholders will “awaken their passion and awareness about the current situation of our oceans and the biodiversity that thrives in it”.
“It is important that we educate all the sectors, including the teachers, who will mold the minds of the next generations, the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, who are tasked as one of the stewards of our environment, and even the maintenance personnel of the DENR, as they are the custodians of our institution,” Cimatu said.
The learning event for the MOO, hosted by the DENR’s Strategic Alliance and Environmental Partnership Division of the Strategic Communication and Initiatives Service (SCIS), is in line with this year’s MOO theme, “The Science We Need for The Ocean We Want”.
A total of 569 participants attended the four-day learning event: 155 rover and 113 senior members of the Boy Scout of the Philippines on May 26-27; 196 elementary and high school teachers on May 28; and 105 men and women from D’Triumph, the janitorial manpower agency of the DENR, on May 29.
DENR Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and Local Government Units Concerns Benny Antiporda, who is concurrently the Supervising Undersecretary for SCIS and Task Force Tayo ang Kalikasan, pointed out the need to act now.
“Humankind is racing against time in saving the oceans.”
“Humankind is racing against time in saving the oceans because we might lose it one day,” Antiporda said.
“Work to protect the ocean and the environment.”
“We at the DENR are challenging you to contribute in your own way and work to protect the ocean and the environment,” he told the participants.
Antiporda said the stakeholders’ contribution is significant to achieve the department’s goal “to care for and enrich our oceans, and the creatures and plants that live beneath them”.
During the learning event, the participants were taught about the importance of the oceans, heard success stories through the DENR regional offices, and discovered how they can save the natural aquatic resources.
The Month of the Ocean is celebrated annually in the Philippines in May by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 57 issued in 1998.
