Save Kankabatok Advocacy

20/09/2026

Upod ha amon buwas ha gios protesta ha Tacloban! Kirigta kita alas 11:30 hit aga ha kakarsadahan! Panalipdan an Cancabato! Sukton an mga kurap! Parusahan an mga kawatan ngan tampalasan!

20/09/2026

This is our fight! Not The Tribune's nor the Dutertes'! OURS! Aton, kita nga mga Taclobanon!

TACLOBAN CITY — An advocacy group composed of various organizations, scientists, fisherfolk, and concerned individuals is demanding more disclosures from the Department of Public Works and Highways as it moves toward the resumption of construction of the P4.48-billion Tacloban Causeway project.

15/09/2026

May pangabaan unta!

The Vatican has officially declared environmental destruction a ”sin against creation and the Creator” in a major new doctrinal text.

The 29,000-word document, titled Caring for Our Common Home, elevates ecological concern from a merely political or scientific issue into a direct matter of personal faith.

Authorized under Pope Leo XIV, the text declares that destroying natural habitats, polluting, and exploiting resources are not just civic failures, but a 'sin against creation and against the Creator' that directly violates God's plan.

This shift from Pope Francis' earlier concept of 'ecological sin' to a more explicit 'sin against the Creator' is designed to reshape how believers view their daily environmental impact. The Vatican emphasizes that failing to safeguard the planet severely harms the poorest populations and future generations, distorting the core relationships that define humanity. By placing ecological action squarely in the realm of moral responsibility, the Church is challenging millions of people to treat environmental care as a fundamental requirement of their faith.

source: O'Connell, G. (2026). Vatican theological commission defines 'sin against creation and the Creator' in new document. America Magazine.

14/09/2026

𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐁𝐔𝐈𝐋𝐃 𝐀 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒 𝐂𝐀𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐖𝐀𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓’𝐒 𝐅𝐔𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐘 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐔𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍?

The DPWH Regional Office 8’s affirmation to continue the 4.48-billion peso Cancabato Bay Causeway in Tacloban, Leyte sends a powerful message to the fishers, scientists, advocates, and concerned citizens who have been ringing alarm bells for years–𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋!

Despite six of eight contracts being terminated due to various difficulties and association with the massive flood control scandals plaguing the country, the DPWH does not want to save face and intends to continue a project fueled by greed and a genuine intent to kill Cancabato Bay and the communities that depend on it.

Until the DPWH and those complicit in this attempt at ecocide and abandonment answer and are held accountable, we will continue to ask:
- How was this project ever approved in the first place?

- Were proper community and stakeholder consultations conducted before this project was allotted billions from the public’s coffers?

- Where is the rigorous scientific research proving that this project would not devastate Cancabato Bay, its marine ecosystems, and the communities that depend on them?

- We’re not buying its storm surge protection capability, travel time reduction, and contribution to regional tourism. Does this really benefit the general populace or just satisfy the capriciousness of a few?

These are questions the public has the right to have answered before this project was allowed to move forward in the first place; the same questions that sent DPWH officials scrambling to seek certifications of no objection from several barangays in 2025 despite the full-blown construction already happening in the communities’ backyards.

Why were these certifications being sought only then? If community acceptance was necessary, why was it not secured before implementation? Does this not warrant a serious public investigation into how this project was planned, approved, and implemented, especially in the wake of the country’s massive flood-control scandal? Is this not an indicator of the DPWH and local officials’ complicity and corruption?

Lest we forget, 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐳𝐨𝐧𝐞. It is a breeding ground for fish and other marine products that make up a significant part of the Taclobanons’ diet and drive Tacloban’s economy. Warnings on endangering the city’s food stocks and the environmental harms resulting from the causeway project have been raised way before the project was underway and have become impossible to ignore.

Earlier in August,a massive fish kill occurred in the bay, prompting a BFAR investigation. The incident occurred amid concerns over restricted water circulation associated with the Real Street shoreline protection project, a relatively small project compared to the multibillion peso 2.55-kilometer four-lane causeway cutting across the Cancabato Bay.

If a much smaller coastal infrastructure project can do so much damage, how can anyone sanely dismiss the impact of a project that’s many times more massive?

Cancabato Bay, along with other key marine landscapes, serves as an important temperature regulator for its immediate surroundings and the world at large. In fact, the United Nations stresses that a global temperature increase of more than 1.5°C is unavoidable given the rate of environmentally-damaging construction like the causeway project. Continuing the causeway will contribute to increasing temperatures that will endanger the health, life, environment, property, livelihood, and the future of our children. This causeway only exacerbates climate change and endangers future generations.

As a self-declared “City of Hope,” Tacloban’s elected officials’ sustained support for this project is utterly hypocritical. Officials who helped build the causeway and those who keep promoting its completion should be condemned as heavily as those who choose to stay mum on this issue to advance their political ambitions.

Before another peso is spent and another cubic meter of soil from our already denuded and diminishing hills is dumped into the bay, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭’𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐬.

How much louder must the public speak before the DPWH and other authorities listen? How many warnings must be raised before they answer? 𝐈𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐚𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲?

If the DPWH, the City of Tacloban, and several other government agencies continue to dismiss our calls and ignore the potential destruction of the bay and the communities that depend on it…
..𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐞𝐲𝐭𝐞?

Cancabato Bay is not an obstacle to development. It is a living ecosystem, a vital source of livelihood, and part of Tacloban’s future.

𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐔𝐒𝐄𝐖𝐀𝐘! 𝐒𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐀𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐀𝐘!

31/08/2026

Writ of Kalikasan!

13/08/2026

We told you so. Now imagine kun sarupon na an kabug-osan hit Cancabato Bay hito nga causeway.

: KONSTRUKSYON HAN TIDE EMBANKMENT, USA HA MGA RASON HAN PAGKAMATAY HAN MGA ISDA HA MAY CANCABATO BAY

An pagripot han tide embankment ha katubigan nga parte han Cancabato Bay (Astrodome Area) an gintutudlok nga usa ha mga rason han nahitabo nga fish kill kakulop, August, 12.

Ha pakighimangraw kan Tacloban City Fishery Law Enforcement Team (FLET) Coordinator Felix Dumlao, siring niya ,tungod nga naripot na an mao nga parte han katubigan, aada na ha 3-kaadlaw nga natrap an mga isda ha area ngan hinay-hinay ini nga nagkamatay tungod han kakulangan han oxygen.

Gindugang pa hini nga nakakontribwer gihap an mapaso nga panahon ha mao nga fish kill ngan ginbabana-bana nga maabot 5-10 ka banyera an nagkamatay.

Yana in padayon an pakigsumpayan han FLET ha iba nga mga opisina/ahensiya agud himangrawan kun aanhon pagdispose han mga isda.

Naglalaom hi Dumlao nga diri na ini mautro ngan nanawagan nga unta diri na magkaada hin proyekto nga may maraot nga epekto han Cancabato Bay labi na nga ini in marine protected area ngan spawning area han mga isda ha syudad han Tacloban City.

09/08/2026

Basa-basa liwat kita dida!

TDN FEATURE STORY | The Last Guardians of Paraiso

For decades, Roque Regis has witnessed the changing landscape of the Paraiso Mangrove Eco Learning Park, Marine and Wildlife Sanctuary in Tacloban City. What was once a thriving mangrove forest that sustained coastal families now stands as one of the city's last remaining natural sanctuaries—protected by a community determined to preserve it.

His story is one of stewardship, accountability, and hope. It is a reminder that conserving mangroves is not only about protecting trees, but also safeguarding biodiversity, strengthening climate resilience, and securing the future of generations to come.

Read how one community continues to stand as the last guardians of Paraiso in this TDN Special Feature, produced with support from the VERA Files Story Grant.

🌿 Read the full story on Taklub Digital News.

05/08/2026

🎙️ "𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀, 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀."

That's how MMPH Founder & Adviser, Matthew, put it during DENR Region 7's Intact Mangroves, Protected Future webinar last July 27, held in celebration of World Mangrove Day.

Invited as a guest speaker, Matthew unpacked why mangroves matter far beyond their shoreline view: as carbon sinks, as biodiversity hotspots, and as natural buffers protecting coastal communities from the worsening impacts of climate change. He also gave viewers a look into MMPH's journey and the youth-led initiatives shaping mangrove advocacy across the country.

One quote, one webinar, one more reminder that every hectare we protect matters. 🌱

Watch the full talk on DENR Region 7's page!
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1EtmH9wQVY/

03/08/2026

STATEMENT OF OPPOSITION

Stop killing our mangroves! Save Cancabato Bay!

Statement Opposing the Proposed Earthballing of Mangroves in Cancabato Bay for the DZR Airport Bird Strike Mitigation Project

We express our strong opposition to the earthballing and relocation of mangroves in Cancabato Bay as a means of addressing bird strike risks at Daniel Z. Romualdez (DZR) Airport. While ensuring aviation safety is a legitimate public concern, it should not come at the expense of an ecologically critical coastal ecosystem. Destruction of mangroves is an assault to our existing but already fragile, blue economy. There are more effective, science-based, and less destructive alternatives available.

Bird strikes are a challenge faced by airports around the world. However, new technology and best practices in wildlife hazard management emphasize integrated approaches such as habitat modification within airport premises, improved waste management, bird monitoring and detection systems, operational adjustments and dispersals, and other non-lethal wildlife management measures.

Earthballing of mangroves is itself a controversial practice. Transplanting mangroves results in only an average of 10-25% survival rates (Sornito, 2026) due to transplant shock, root disturbance, and changes in hydrological conditions (Primavera and Esteban, 2008; Gorman et al, 2022). Ecological functions of a mature mangrove forest cannot simply be transferred from one location to another (Bosire et al, 2008).

Mangrove provide nursery grounds for fish and crustaceans, habitat for migratory and resident wildlife, protection against coastal erosion and storm surges, and livelihood to communities.These forests are highly effective blue carbon ecosystems, storing substantial amounts of carbon in both their biomass and waterlogged soils. Disturbing these forests risks releasing stored carbon while reducing their long-term capacity to sequester greenhouse gases.

We assert that the earthballing activities are illegal, violating the following orders:

The Philippine Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) System (Presidential Decree No. 1586) requires environmentally critical projects and projects within environmentally critical areas to undergo rigorous environmental assessment before implementation. We demand to see that these assessments demonstrate that environmental impacts have been properly identified, minimized, and addressed.

The Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (ENIPAS) Act of 2018 (Republic Act No. 11038) recognizes the importance of conserving protected areas and their biodiversity through sustainable management. Cancabato Bay is locally a fish sanctuary, this forms part of a protected area or legislated protected seascape. Thus, all activities within its boundaries must be consistent with its approved management plan and conservation objectives.

Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act (Republic Act No. 9147) mandates the conservation and protection of wildlife and their habitats. Mangrove ecosystems in Cancabato that support numerous resident and migratory bird species, aquatic organisms, and other wildlife, should be conserved and protected.

The Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998 (Republic Act No. 8550), as amended by Republic Act No. 10654, recognizes mangroves as essential fish habitats and promotes the protection, conservation, and rehabilitation of coastal ecosystems to ensure sustainable fisheries and food security. Established mangrove should not be degraded.

At a time when the Philippines islands are extremely vulnerable to climate change, as it continues to strengthen its climate adaptation and mitigation commitments under the Climate Change Act of 2009 (Republic Act No. 9729), the destruction or displacement of mature mangrove ecosystems gravely counters our national climate resilience objectives.

The local government units surrounding the bay, together with the Provincial Government of Leyte and concerned national agencies, have a legal and moral obligation to uphold existing environmental laws. They should ensure that management decisions strengthen and not weaken the protection of this invaluable ecosystem.

Development and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive. Sustainable development requires solutions that safeguard both public infrastructure and ecological integrity. We therefore call on the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the concerned local government units, and all relevant agencies to halt the earthballing of mangroves! Instead pursue evidence-based bird strike mitigation measures that do not compromise protected coastal ecosystems.

Stop killing our mangroves! Save Cancabato Bay!

Reference:

Bosire, J. O., Dahdouh-Guebas, F., Walton, M., Crona, B. I., Lewis, R. R., Field, C., Kairo, J. G., & Koedam, N. (2008). Functionality of restored mangroves: A review. Aquatic Botany, 89(2), 251–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquabot.2008.03.010

Gorman, D., Vanderklift, M. A., & Lafratta, A. (2022). Quantitative Analysis of Methodological and Environmental Influences on Survival of Planted Mangroves in Restoration and Afforestation. Forests, 13(3), 404. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13030404

Primavera, J., & Esteban, J. M. A. (2008). A review of mangrove rehabilitation in the Philippines: successes, failures and future prospects. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 16(5), 345-358. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-008-9101-y

Sornito, I. 2026. Earth-balling detrimental to mangroves: marine scientist. Agriculture, Health and Medicine. Science for Every Juan. DOST-STII. https://www.science.ph/articles/earth-balling-detrimental-to-mangroves-marine-scientist?s=&category=health-and-medicine&topic=global-and-environmental-health