My Trip to Hugom

The Philippine Coastline Is Beautiful—Until a Filipino Shows Up

 

I have lived in the Philippines for eight years. Only recently did I find a beach with remarkably clean water.

 

Think about that for a moment. Eight years in an archipelago blessed with thousands of islands and a coastline that should make the rest of the world envious—and finding a clean beach feels like a discovery worth celebrating.

 

Why?

 

The Philippines doesn't have an ugly coastline. It has a pollution problem.

 

Nature has done its part. The turquoise water, tropical islands, secluded coves, beautiful beaches and breathtaking sunsets were here long before people arrived. Nobody had to manufacture their beauty.

 

Yet people keep spoiling them.

 

Walk along a beautiful stretch of coast and look carefully. Plastic bottles. Food wrappers. Disposable packaging. Rubbish scattered across the sand or floating in the water.

 

Who put it there?

 

Trash doesn't materialize out of thin air. Someone discarded it. Someone decided that a beach, a roadside, a riverbank or the sea was an acceptable place to leave their rubbish. Someone assumed that cleaning up was somebody else's problem.

 

And that is precisely the problem.

 

Filipinos, look at your coastline. It is beautiful. Now look at what you are doing to it.

 

You cannot boast about the beauty of your islands while treating the places that make them beautiful as garbage dumps.

 

Stop littering.