Sunday, August 19, 2007 Work done By Stella A. Estremera
IT STARTED as just one of those ideas tossed around over bottles of beer and Coke, an experimental artificial reef that can become a must-see for divers.
Ideas ranged from dropping a whole traffic mess of old vehicles to a massive urban landscape below.
The deciding factor -- the size of our wallets. The only funds we had were in our individual wallets and they're not big.
The Aquamarine Protection and Preservation Alliance (Appa), after all, is an organization that is run by its members' paying capacity. Everyone pitches in everyone pays for his own tank and contributes for the boat and fare. But, we don't refuse offers of free tanks and food. And thus, when Paradise Island Beach Resort through its manager Julie Rodriguez opened its gates to our gung-ho team of divers and pitched in some food at that, we dove in and dragged the making of an artificial reef that is also intended to be an artwork and a lot of friends along for one year and two months.
Thus, on August 11, 2007, the Independence Art Reef project was finally completed with an unexpected centerpiece -- a real sculpture by artist Kublai Millan of a newborn hugging a pearl inside a giant clam.
The "pearl" that the newborn is hugging in the centerpiece, Kublai said, can also be the earth. Thus, the whole sculpture is a representation of the fact that while men may always strive to gather fellowmen to nurture the environment for the generations to come, it is really ten environment, represented by the giant clam, that will nurture the future generations. The only way to assure this is for all generations to hug the earth and nurture it back. Everything is a cycle of caring...
Started on June 12, 2006, the Independence Art Reef was conceived to symbolize Independence and was originally intended to be completed by June 12, 2007. The unexpected contribution, however, made Appa forego of any deadline. Anyway the initial plan of an eight-rayed sun made of concrete and steel modules deployed one by one throughout one year was already completed by Independence Day of 2007, so there was no more need to rush.
Beyond just symbolizing Independence, however, the process by which the modules were completed showed the true meaning of Independence.
That is, Independence is not about an annual celebration and it is not something given, rather a state that everyone should work for together, demanding nothing in return.
Thus, the Appa, sans any initial fund was able to build an eight-module art reef with a sculpture for a centerpiece through the contribution of friends and supporters that included Top Agro, MinOil, a friend from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Philippine Navy, the Philippine Coast Guard and Appa member Mikai Pleños. The sculpture itself was made for free by Kublai (with Appa just buying the materials). The Task Force Davao shared some of its men and its boat to transport the 300-kilo sculpture from Davao City to Paradise.
And on the day of the centerpiece deployment, Appa friend and presidential daughter Luli Arroyo arrived to help, paying for her own plane fare and accommodation as she usually does when she joins any Appa activity. This too can be taken within the context of independence... after all, independence can also mean having the capacity to pay your own way for a common cause.
In the meantime, Appa is contented with the fact that the super-heavy sculpture has already been deployed and set up where it was designed to be, underwater. But it's not stopping there. As Luli herself said in her short speech, an artificial reef is good, but a real live coral reef is better... Abangan!
