BATTERED CORAL areas in the island city of Samal are getting help for revival through a technology called Reefbuds being deployed by a women’s organization. The Innerwheel Club of Parañaque, headed by Ann Margaret San Antonio who is also the national secretary of the Innerwheel Clubs of the Philippines Inc., started with an initial 13 Reefbuds planted over the weekend in the waters off Barangay Balet, one of the dive sites in Samal. Ms. San Antonio said they have committed 100 of the artificial reefs in the area, which they aim to complete by June. This is our first program the 100 Reefbuds in the specific location in Balet infront of big Ligid Island,” she said in an interview. “The basic idea with this… when you drop it in the water since it is porous, it quickly absorbs water. Kaya yung mga (That’s why the) rooting plants grow fast,” said Benjamin Tayag Jr., who patented the Reefbuds based on a concept by an Austrian geoscientist, the late Dr. Harald Kremnitz. He explained that once the Reefbuds are deployed, the natural marine ecosystem will generate itself faster. Ms. San Antonio said the project is expected to benefit the fishing community of Balet, an adopted village of the Innerwheel Parañaque since 2013. Aside from improved catch, the men of the village have also been tapped to produce the Reefbuds. To ensure the project’s sustainability, the group will monitor the deployed Reefbuds through geotagging. “We put a geotag on each of the Reefbuds and put a nameplate of each company that sponsored,” Ms. San Antonio said. — Maya M. Padillo

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