ANTIQUE – Students from three schools in the province will be organized as cave protection advocates.
Inspired by the lectures of Asian Union of Speleology general secretary Aris Neil Cristales and National Museum Western Visayas researcher Merlyn Geromiano on April 28 as part of the Cave Month celebration in Antique, Board Member Pio Jessielito Sumande, Sr., chairperson of the Committee on Environment, proposed the idea.
“Students from the University of Antique, St. Anthony’s College, and Advance Central College who were able to attend the lectures during the Cave Month celebration will be the ones to be initially organized,” Sumande, who authored Provincial Ordinance 2021-256 declaring the month of April as the Cave Month in Antique, said on Wednesday.
Both speakers, he said, encouraged the conduct of mapping and intensified information and education campaigns to protect caves.
The students will have the opportunity to visit some caves in the province and help them raise awareness among their peers not to commit vandalism or remove any resources they could find inside caves.
“We will also be printing information and education materials,” he said.
Antique might have the most number of caves in Western Visayas when mapped, with a municipality sometimes hosting up to four caves, such as in Libertad, Tibiao, Sibalom, and San Remigio.
“There are caves in Antique that have also been used as burial sites by the Indigenous Peoples (IPs),” Sumande said, citing the cave in Barangay Bulalacao in Sibalom as being utilized by the Ati Indigenous Peoples.
Antique’s Environment and Natural Resources Office Senior Environment Management Specialist Jennifer Juliano said Antique is the only province in the region that celebrates Cave Month.
The celebration is mandated by Provincial Ordinance 2021-256 in compliance with Republic Act 9072, or the National Cave Resources Management and Protection Act, which provides for the conservation, protection, and management of caves and cave resources.
“Caves are really important not only for recreation, but they also ensure that there is a sufficient supply of water for the community,” Juliano said. (PNA)
