My First Race - Haribon Million Hectare Challenge

First of all, I would like to congratulate Haribon Foundation for the successful Million Hectare Challenge last November 21, 2010. More than a thousand people joined the race and supported the cause to raise funds to restore our forests by the year 2020. Everyone had a great time and some runners can not wait for the Haribon Run next year. As for me, I am very happy for my first run and I decided to continue running as what I mentioned on my previous blog post.

I joined the 5k race and successfully finished it in 37 minutes and 10 seconds. It was a slow pace but I know I will improve in the coming months. I could have finished earlier if I knew the route and was not dependent on race marshals. I was a bit relaxed, saving my energy for the last 50 meters because I was planning to finish in a bit of a sprint. I had a hard time during 2 uphill stages and I relaxed a bit to gain strength. To my surprise, race marshals were pointing to a direction towards the finish line and I have plenty of energy left. I was a bit smiling when I crossed the finish line because I knew that in my next race, I would definitely get a better time and I knew 5k is not that difficult after all. I can run for 6 or 7k next time, to prepare for the next 5k run and in a few months, try the 10k run.


I am planning to join another race this December and train during the holidays. I am so excited to start this running hobby and I am also looking forward to meet new runner friends. My wife has always been very supportive and in fact had a great time running the 3k race too. Hopefully, she'll have more time on her hands and try the 5k run next year.

I would also like to give my sincerest gratitude to the Rotary Club of Midtown Diliman for supporting the Haribon Million Hectare Challenge, most specially President Randy Tan for being present during the event. Finally, congratulations to my loving wife, Yasmin Mangila Ponce for doing a great job as the overall logistics supervisor, I am very proud of her accomplishments and will always be there to support her future projects and endeavors.

Running for Fitness

This coming November 21, Sunday, I will be one of the participants of Haribon Foundation's Million Hectare Challenge. I will be joining the 5-kilometer race and I hope my time will be decent enough compared to other runners in the event. Yesterday, my wife and I went to see a similar fun run in SM Mall of Asia grounds to observe how the organizers managed the event and for me to see what are the best times by first place finishers of the race.

2 Kilometers - around 20 minutes
5 Kilometers - 24 minutes
10 Kilometers - 34 minutes.

First place finishers of 2 and 5 kilometers were Filipinos but the first and second place finisher of the 10 kilometers were Kenyans (I think, judging by their looks). According to one of the organizers of the event, the first place finisher of the 5 and 10 kilometers race were familiar faces of previous races. We were told that these participants are training for a bigger competition, probably a marathon within the coming months. Even kids as young as 12 and 13 years old finished within 35 minutes of the 5-kilometer run.

So in order for me to have a decent time for the 5k race, I have to finish within the 40 minute mark. I hope I can make it. I have been training once a week (its not enough though) and have been finishing 15 minutes for a 2.5k run (with great effort). If my pace is consistent, I estimate to finish the 5k run within 35-40 minutes. So, I have 14 days left to train more and hopefully I will have a good run on the 20th.

After the Haribon Run, I am planning to run regularly and join more running events. Hopefully by next year, I can compete with the 10k run. If I can do 40 minutes for a 5k run, I can probably do 1 hour and 30 minutes for a 10k run. That is way much slower than the Kenyan time of 34 minutes but I am not planning to outdo a Kenyan. These people have been running all their lives. I just plan to be physically fit so that even at the age of 70 years and up, I can still run and join races and inspire my wife and children to be healthy and enjoy sports like I do.

Million Hectare Challenge

Join the Million-Hectare Challenge! Haribon Foundation announces its 4th annual event, happening November 21st at McKinley Hill, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

The Million Hectare Challenge urges all Filipinos to support the ROAD TO 2020 campaign, which aims to restore 1 million hectares of forests by year 2020 using native tree species.

Rainforests are our primary source of water. Healthy rainforests prevent soil erosion and enhance biodiversity. In the past few years, the Philippines has seen an increase in natural disasters such as killer landslides, droughts, floods, as well as water crises - all telling signs of the state of degradation of our rainforests. To date, we have 22.08% (Philippine forestry statistics, 2007) forest cover left, we need 54% to maintain ecological processes in the country.

Let’s hit the road! Help raise at least 1 million pesos towards ROAD TO 2020. Funds generated from the Million-Hectare Challenge event will be used to support tree-planting activities, promotion of environment-friendly and sustainable livelihood options for local communities, establishment and maintenance of indigenous tree nurseries, awareness-raising and capacity building– just to name a few.

- Join and accept the challenge! You can choose to walk, run at your pace or race to raise pledges (3K, 5K, 10K)

- Registration Fees: 400 pesos; and 350 pesos for Haribon members.

- Pledges are optional but help us reach our fundraising goal and get pledged!

A Gift For The Environment

This holiday season, people are very busy finishing their work and shopping for Christmas gifts for their friends and love ones. Other than the usual gifts we buy from the malls and bargain stores, we might want to consider giving a unique gift. Haribon Foundation is still selling tree seedlings as a gift and upon purchase, you will receive a certificate of donation saying you have purchased seedlings to be planted at Haribon's rainforestation sites in the Philippines.

You may indicate your friend or relative's name on the certificate so it will show that you have donated in behalf of your friend's name. My wife and I have given several certificates to our relatives and friends last Christmas and upon reading their names on the certificates of donation, they really appreciated our Gift of Tree.

To know more about the Gift of Tree program of Haribon, you may visit their website at http://www.haribon.org.ph or you may call at 02-4211209. You can also purchase other items such as kiddie books, research books, kids and adults t-shirts, postcards, bird stickers and a lot of other souvenirs. All proceeds will go to Haribon Foundation's environmental conservation projects within Metro Manila and several provinces around the country.

Million Hectare Walk Year 3

Haribon Foundation for the third straight year will have its annual Million Hectare Walk on November 22, 2009, Sunday from 6am to 11am at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Nature Center in Quezon City. The Million Hectare Walk is one of the most successful events of Haribon and for the past 2 years and the event has attracted a lot of walkers and a lot of pledges which made the past 2 events very successful.


Our family participated for the past 2 years and this year will be our third year. During the first year, it was I who did the walking. I gathered pledges from relatives and friends but Leon, our son, had more pledges last year. It was also last year that Leon was awarded the youngest walker and my wife and I were very proud of him because it was the first time he went up a stage and receive an award which was also applauded by participants who gathered inside the amphitheater.


This year will be Leon's 3rd year and again we will gather friends and relatives to pledge for him. Hopefully we raise more funds this year and influence his cousins to walk with him too. Hopefully this event will be memorable for him so that when he grows up he can look back and say that he has contributed a lot for environment conservation.

If you would like to participate or just contribute by making a pledge to walkers, you can visit Haribon Foundation's site at: http://www.haribon.org.ph/

or you can contribute by adopting a seedling for just P 75.00 per seedling. Visit http://www.haribon.org.ph/Road/Adopt-a-Seedling-Campaign

See you there!

Haribon's R&R at D Farm, Pampanga

Haribon Foundation's R&R this year was held at D Farm Resort in Bacolor, Pampanga. It is a private resort with 2 big swimming pools, air conditioned family rooms, functions rooms, billiards, table tennis and a big fishpond for fishing tilapia and hito. My wife was one of the organizers and they invited family members of Haribon's staff to join this year's activity.

We left Quezon City aboard a rented Victory Liner Bus around 8am and reached our destination before lunch. The trip was a bit slow because of 2 stopovers. Anyway, upon reaching the resort, the Haribon staff, each assigned to a specific group eagerly prepared for lunch. A little past 12 noon, we started eating a very sumptous lunch consisting of pinakbet, soup, ensaladang talong, chicken adobo and inihaw na liempo. The menu was perfect! Everybody was happy to eat a well prepared meal.

Our son was as usual very excited about the trip. It was his first time to ride a bus and he loved it! He was very well behaved, looking through the window and was always smiling when asked if he was happy. You could just imagine his dimples showing... it was really fun to see. Upon arrival at the resort, after about 10 minutes, he anxiously asked if we could swim. At first i was really hesitant, it was past 10am, almost 11 and the sun is really up. I had no choice, he would not let go. We just applied sunblock, inflated his rubber boat and dived into the pool. I told him it was really hot and pointed the sun but he corrected me saying "lamig" pointing the water. I could not resist him. He is so lovable. Anyway, i too enjoyed every minute with him even under the scorching sun.

After lunch, we rested for a while and went back to the pool. We stayed for a about an hour or two and upon seeing him trying to stay awake, we went up, took him for a bath, to prepare him to have his afternoon nap. He only slept for about 30 minutes! He did not ask to swim this time but tried to play billiards with my wife's officemate. He could not see the top of the table but it did not stop him from playing with the balls. After billiards, i took him to the fishing pond and we watched my wife's officemates catch tilapia for our dinner.

Night time came and my wife did not have any trouble making him sleep. We figured he was really tired the whole day so we was asleep immediately. The following day, his first activity was of course swim again until 9am. He really had a great time. It was not difficult to convince him to get out of the water because we told him we will ride the big bus again. After a few minutes upon riding the bus, he was asleep again.

The R & R activity with my wife was really great. We had a great time and my son enjoyed the trip and swim very much. It was also nice to try a different place other than the usual resorts in the south and Subic area. Time with my family is really important and i am glad i was able to take a vacation leave from work. It was really overdue since we were not able to had a summer outing this year. Hopefully during the Christmas break we can spend more time together as a family and with my son's cousins and grandparents.

Give the Gift of Trees

Haribon Foundation, a non-government organization in the Philippines has started the Give the Gift of Tree project since last year and has received lots of support from private companies and individuals. Although the program has received several support from Filipinos, we have yet to tap the enormous market and support from millions of people who are known as bloggers all over the world. This project if known and supported by the people who blog everyday and post ads to blogsites everyday, Haribon's goal of planting trees to reforest One Million Hectares of rainforest by the year 2020 will definitely be accomplished.

How can we help? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Support the program by buying seedlings. You can go personally to Haribon Foundation's office and pay the minimum amount of P 75 per seedling. A certificate will be given to you and the seedling will be planted in your name.

2. Send donations. You can send donations through deposits BPI (Bank of the Philippine Islands). Click this link for instructions.

3. Donate online through PAYEASY payment facility. Click this link for instructions.

4. Help spread the word and post an article or two on your own websites or blogsites.

5. Support Haribon Foundation by being a member. You can learn more about the organization's projects and activites through their website. You may click this link.

I hope you can help support the project by buying seedlings or by simply help in spreading the word through your blogs. This Give the Gift of Trees is not limited this Christmas Season. You can use this gift for a relative or friend's birthday, anniversary gift, baptism gift, wedding gift or giveaways or even corporate gifts. Each seedling you purchase, you can help us in providing hope in our future and our children's children future.

Million Hectare Walk

Last November 16, our family joined Haribon Foundation's Million Hectare Walk 2008 at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Quezon City. We started early, about 5 AM because my wife is also part of the organizing committee.

Leon, who went with us last year but was still below 1 year old couldn't walk yet so we just brought his stroller and be a part of the event. But this year, my wife actually got several pledges for his walk so we have to at least try to convince and guide him to finish one lap.

We were one of the first ones to register so we could start early and finish early. He actually takes his morning naps around 930 or 10 AM so in order to avoid any tantrums, we decided to start the walk early.

It was really funny! He started walking fast because he saw several people walking in front of him, beside him and after him. It wasn't much of an effort for him to finish one lap (around 500 meters, i guess) because he was too excited. For his second lap, he got distracted by other young walkers and sometimes he actually want to go back, walk sideways (out of the path) and just sit at the pavement. We finally decided he was starting to get tired so we rested for a while and ate a few snacks.

After finishing a bowl of soup and a glass of juice, we tried to go back to the path to have his third and final lap. He walked with a little girl, a child of my wife's officemate so he finished the lap without any distractions. We were so proud of him! He was really great and did not have any tantrums. We also went to the wildlife rescue center to see several rescued birds, mammals and reptiles. Leon also joined the art workshop and played with colors and paper.

After the walk event, Haribon made a short program and gave out a few awards as a way to show gratitude for all those who supported the fund raising event. Leon got the "Youngest Walker Award"! As parents, we were so proud of him going up the stage to receive his prize and being applauded by the audience. It was surely one of the most memorable events of Leon's childhood and we hope that someday, when he has children of his own, he would also let them participate in environment awareness campaigns just like this one.

Climate Change

How does an ordinary person understand these two words? Climate change, how does this affect each individual? How can a person associate these two words to his or her everyday life?

I was employed for about 2 years at Haribon Foundation and I can say these two years are very fulfilling for me. I became a part of an environment conservation organization which goals are to help preserve our country's remaining natural resources specifically forest and marine areas. I was exposed to several project sites, communities and even a foreign country which prioritizes environment conservation for the benefit of future generations. I also got a chance to lead a project or a fund raising activity to help generate funds for the organization's project sites.

One of Haribon Foundation's advocacy is educate the people about climate change. Climate change is such a common word for us but we only associate these two words when we think about the environment. When we go home after work or school and we live in the comfort of our homes, especially if we have air conditioning at home, we seldom feel the effects of climate change. Come to think of it, we only associate climate change when we feel extreme heat or a sudden downpour of rain. Am I right?

To get straight to the point, we oftentimes miss the true meaning of these two words. Climate change affects everything. From our food, water, the air we breath, clothing, shelter which are our basic needs. Because of climate change, we eat instant food, buy mineral water, we seek homes, offices even malls to provide a cool atmosphere, and goal to buy a nice condo unit near our place of work. Because of deforestation, we can no longer get cheap and fresh food to eat and clean water to drink. Because of irresponsible environment planning, we cut the remaining trees in our surroundings which absorbs the carbon dioxide we emit. Because of lack of opportunities and irresponsible fishing and farming in the provinces, we migrate and congest cities. I could go on and on about the effects of climate change but i guess what we need to see are the solutions and not just blame our problems to our public officials.

What do i suggest as solutions?.... i will write on my next blog the simple ways on how we can help as an individual to help delay the severe effects of climate change.