Saving our lighthouses

Last year, five senior Marketing Management majors of De La Salle University-Manila embarked on a quixotic project to save hundreds of Philippine lighthouses scattered all over the vast archipelago. Twenty-two of these are historical structures because they were built with the blood and sweat of the indios serving their Spanish taskmasters. Now in the twilight of their years, these once-proud lighthouses are fast succumbing to the ravages of time – unless action is taken to save them now.

And act those students did. Mira Blanca Abinoja, Cristina Besas, Caroline Dy, Kimberly Ann Ng and Jennifer Tan presented a thesis to their professors at the Marketing Management Department of DLSU’s College of Business and Economics. Named Best Thesis by the department, the group built their thesis research on an advocacy campaign for the Philippine Coast Guard’s (PCG) light stations. Along with other Marketing majors, this group of lighthouse advocates is the first batch of seniors who took up advocacy marketing. It is a new undergraduate course offered by the department. Instead of marketing consumer products, advocacy marketing is for a cause, geared toward a public good. In this case, it centers on the public service of preserving culture and historical sites.

With a big heart and a lofty vision, the group gathered information regarding the lighthouses so people could understand their importance to maritime safety, despite all the hype of radar, satellite tracking and other computer-aided devices. The Lasallian marketing majors cum lighthouse advocates proposed programs that will help in the funding of the PCG’s project of rehabilitation and maintenance of the lighthouses.

No less than former President Fidel Ramos, through Executive Order No. 475, placed the lighthouses under the care of PCG. However, the PCG is straining with a very limited budget allocated by the national government to fully rehabilitate the lighthouses. Out of the 480 lighthouses, the PCG is set to restore and maintain 135, increasing their operational efficiency from 86 percent to 99 percent. The group surmised that the private sector should extend a helping hand since a large portion of the lighthouses’ beneficiaries come from shipping and cargo companies, fishermen, yacht club members, domestic and international vessel owners and operators, tourists and lighthouse enthusiasts and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in heritage conservation.

The group presented two phases in the proposed rehabilitation and maintenance program. Aiming to encourage business and local communities to take up a minimum number of 85 lighthouses, the "Adopt-a-Lighthouse" program will be the centerpiece of the first phase. One of the first to be up for "adoption" was the 109-year-old Cape Bojeador Lighthouse in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, just a short drive from Laoag City or the famous Pagudpud beaches.

Fundraising projects, projected to earn almost P15 million, will help restore 50 lighthouses.

To make these advocacy programs a success, those concerned should invest in creating awareness and appreciation of the lighthouses’ importance on the lives and businesses. These seaside sentinels have served well, they have seen better days, and yet their future is still to be secured. These lighthouses remind us that the past is also ours to keep.