Imagine living in a place where 72 percent of the land are lush forests, 14 percent are grasslands, nine percent are food crops, three percent are mangroves, and only two percent have infrastructure? There are also white beaches, a coastline longer than the road from Manila to Baguio, islands of all shapes and sizes, world-class diving sites, waterfalls, hot springs, water spas, and towering mountain cliffs. Wouldn’t this be paradise? It is the city of Puerto Prinsesa.
Home to the Puerto Prinsesa Subterranean River National Park, the world’s longest navigable underground river and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Puerto Prinsesa is the province of Palawan’s center of trade, commerce, education, communication, culture and arts. It is also the gateway to the Tubattaha Marine Park, another World Heritage Site. Its ecological biodiversity prompted a visitor to exclaim, “Nature has run amuck in this part of the world.”
Inhabited by a disciplined, progressive and environment-friendly people, Puerto Prinsesa is a provincial city whose citizens delight in its rural ambience, backstopped by modern facilities like a sanitary landfill, new slaughterhouse, an 8000-seater coliseum, hotels, banks, and restaurants. Its land area of 253, 892 hectars makes it the biggest city in the Philippines.
Grateful and appreciative of their rich natural endowment, the people of the city, personified by their mayor Edward Hagedorn, have legislated, “Environmental security is the highest form of national security. The supply and quality of the Sources of Life — the Land, the Air and the Waters (LAW) – are the essential elements of a people and of a country, and the base of all economic activity. The availability of these life-sources and services are hereby placed in the highest order of importance and as the main cornerstone of our political priority.” (Section 2, known as the “Code of Conduct for the Conservation, Protection and Restoration (CPR) of the Sources of Life of Puerto Prinsesa City”).
Puerto Prinsesa has a Hall of Fame Award for being “the cleanest and greenest;” it is a recipient of the Peace Award for being “the most peaceful, with the lowest crime rate;” it has become the most-awarded LGU in the country, and has been cited by the Asian Institute of Management as one of the Philippines’ “most competitive cities.”
Likewise, Puerto Prinsesa is a city of many “firsts:”
It is the first city to have made environmental protection as the centerpiece of local governance in line with its sustainable developmental objectives, thus earning the honor of being the first local government unit in the country to receive the United Nations Global 500 Roll of Honor Award from UNEP executive director Elizabeth Dowdeswell in Seoul, Korea during the World Environment Day celebration.
It is the first city to receive the Grand Macli-ling Dulag Environmental Achievement Awards given by the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) and the Rotary Club of Makati. Puerto Prinsesa city was chosen as the most environmentally-conscious and active LGU at the time.
It is the first component city to receive the Award of Excellence As The Cleanest and Greenest Component City In The Philippines (1994) and The National Hall Of Fame Award (1996) for winning the “Cleanest and Greenes Component City Award” for three consecutive years (1994 to 1996). The city’s innovative approach under is Clean and Green program has since been emulated by other local government units.
It is the first LGU to receive the prestigious Development Management Award Of Asia by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in cooperation with the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Management Association of the Philippines.
It is the first LGU to be given management control and authority over a national park — the Saint Paul Subterranean River National Park (the world’s longest underground river) by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). After six years local government management and control, the national park was renamed Puerto Prinsesa City Subterranean River National Park was named by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
It is the first LGU outside of Metro Manila to establish and maintain a Cyanide Detection Test laboratory to prevent cyanide fishing, which permanently destroys precious coral reefs. It supports marine life and ensures that no fish or marine products caught through the illegal use of sodium cyanide is sold to the public. This facility has enabled the city to stop the once rampant and organized illegal trade of live tropical fishes.
It is the first LGU to have a “Public Access Defibrillation” program.
Lastly, it is the first LGU to develop and implement a comprehensive and intensive reforestation program within all watersheds in its jurisdiction. To date, the city has replanted a total of 1.7 million trees, and has protected and significantly expanded hectares of its threatened and diminishing mangrove plantations through the years.
Indeed, in Puerto Prinsesa, you will see real co-existence between man and nature. Nowhere else in this part of the globe will you see monkeys and large monitor lizards posing for your cameras. Even their dolphins have been known to save people from distress. Come now, visit Puerto Princesa, and swim with the fish, sing with the birds, and cavort with the butterflies.
source: La Isla