MIMAROPA

Puerto Galera highlights Mangyan culture on Earth Day

By Luis T. Cueto

Tuesday 24th of April 2012

CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro, April 24 (PIA) -- Puerto Galera, a booming tourism town in Oriental Mindoro celebrated Earth Day on Sunday highlighting the rich cultures of the Mangyan natives in Mindoro Island.

French expatriate Hubert d’Aboville, the lead organizer of the event which had as its theme, “Belongingness to Nature,” said they highlighted the rich cultures of the Mangyans on Earth Day because they wanted the world to emulate the lifestyles of the Mindoro aborigines who protect and conserve the environment in their own way, as they feel that they belong to nature.

In cooperation with the municipal government of Puerto Galera, D’Aboville, a French businessman who declared Puerto Galera Bay as “one of the most beautiful bays in the world,” led the participants during the whole day program in his demonstration farm at Mount Malasimbo, the town’s highest peak.

The celebration featured rituals, songs, and dances of the Mangyans; a community mass; an environment-inspired on-the-spot drawing contest; and a bike contest.

The Earth Day celebration will now become an annual occasion in Puerto Galera to create environmental awareness among the people in the community, the French environmentalist said. (LBR/DOS/JRMahusay/LTC-PIA4B, Calapan City)