Reigning Miss Cebu leads coastal clean-up in Carmen

CEBU, Philippines — It takes heart to advocate for something, and absolute will to make it last a lifetime. We’re well into 2018 but Miss Cebu 2016 Gabriele Raine Baljak sees no reason to cease her efforts. Even without a Miss Cebu successor for almost two years now, the beauty queen has seen to it to leave something meaningful one project at a time.

In line with the recent National Clean-Up Day, led by members of the civic-led grassroots movement, National Clean-Up Day Coalition, Raine’s Project CORAL had locals of the municipality of Carmen, free divers, and student volunteers scouring the seas and coastline for garbage.

Project CORAL, which stands for Cebu’s Oceans Rescued and Loved, called over a hundred volunteers to action, cleaning up the shores and reefs of Pooc, Bantigue, and Luyang in the town of Carmen north of Cebu. Among the volunteers were members of the Sawum Free Divers, Team Magno from Bogo, P&L Medalle Realty Corp., students from the University of the Philippines Cebu and the University of San Carlos, as well as members of the Luyang Fishermen Association.

The half-day event by Raine and entrepreneur Karlo Soriano was supposed to be held on Sept. 15 but was moved to Sept. 22 due to unfavorable weather conditions caused by last month’s Typhoon Ompong. It began with volunteers meeting up at 5 a.m. at the Caltex Gasoline Station underneath the Banilad flyover and ended with lunch at the home of Mayor Gerard Villamor.

Raine told The Freeman that she decided to hold the event in Luyang because this was where she did her charity event October of last year: Artemis Strength for Saving Youth and Boys Ultimate Test To Strength, or as Raine fondly abbreviates it, ASSY and BUTTS, which was about health and fitness. Just this July, she learned that the locals were fisher folk and that there was an established sanctuary known as the Bantigue-Luyang Marine Sanctuary in the same area.

“I wondered, ‘How come people don’t know about this?” the 21-year-old PADI Advanced Open Water Diver said. “I then decided, why not do something that will complement the effort that we have? Because the sanctuary is actually well-maintained and very safe. When you go into the sanctuary it’s very vibrant and the corals are so diverse but when you go out of the area it’s a little different.”

Because of the disparity and the differences in the underwater environment outside of the sanctuary, Raine wanted to do something to improve the propagation of the coral and livelihood of the locals beyond the sanctuary. Hence, the plan to call on free divers to help assess the area and clean it up.

Apart from the community transformation that could happen if the initiative keeps up, Raine pointed out how important it is to keep the oceans healthy not only for the fisher folk, but also because most of the Earth’s oxygen comes from organisms in the ocean.

This is only the beginning, as Project CORAL aims to stage its second phase. Raine explained that the clean-up was to inspire and wake up the locals to not take for granted the beauty surrounding them. It also aims to inspire the volunteers to do the same to their own towns. The next phase, Raine said, will be all about education.

“Today, we’re emphasizing the need to clean up and maintain the things that we do. So today is intervention day. A wake-up call,” she said. “The next phase is the education part where we hope to bring the project to the areas of the volunteers. Maybe go into dive workshops and marine lectures with marine biology students, professors, and coral propagators.”

“I believe that education is a big part in making things sustainable. And it’s the next generation that will inherit the world. With that we have to enforce the value of why we’re doing this,” Raine added.

Raine, who learned how to dive through her uncle, said she has always felt the ocean calling her name. And when she decided to do something about her passions (one of them including the seas), she put up a beauty and fitness consultancy business (BaBeBoBs Beauty and Fitness Consultancy) to fund her advocacies.

She couldn’t express her gratitude enough, seeing everyone come together for the humble cause.

“I’m so grateful for everyone who’s taken part in Project CORAL. Without the divers, I won’t have people to help me assess the area, the students and the people from P&L Medalle Realty who did work on land. And the sponsors who wanted to lend a hand. Even the fishermen let us borrow their boats even though they need it for their livelihood. The mayor let us shower in his home. The Coast Guard and the Navy came,” Raine said.

“Lots of different people lending a hand because they believe in this. Sometimes, it just takes an idea and how you believe in it and how you work for it. Life has a very interesting way when things start from an idea and it’s up to you. Are you going to do something? Or are you going to wait until your dead?”

While Raine has her hands full with projects CORAL and ASSY and BUTTS, as well as running her business BaBeBoBs, she said those who wish to see her back on the pageant stage will just have to wait and see.

Asked why she persists with her advocacies, Raine says that the example of being proactive came from her mother (former Miss Cebu’s 5 Prettiest 1986 Merce Abellana) and her grandmother. Raine knows very well that it’s her turn to do the same.

“If you believe in something, you really have to work for it. If it’s not enough then ask for help, or other people might offer help,” said Raine.

“But you have to initiate it yourself because if you don’t set an example, then why would someone else want to do it?”