LOST PICNIC GROUNDS. Navalians at home are fast losing their picnic grounds by the sea. We lost "Sa May Duha Ka Punong Lubi," the stretch of beach between Mamam and Aslum, to the squatters in the 1970s.

Sabang, which consisted of a vast expanse of sandbar at the mouth of Caraycaray River south of Aslum, became the alternative picnic ground in the 1970s. Now the vast sandbar is gone (see photo at the top), lost to the sand quarrying venturers.

Banderahan, just across the river mouth from Sabang, then became the picnic ground in the 1980s. Just like Sabang, we also slowly lost this ground to the sand quarrying venturers during the construction boom of the late 1980s and the 1990s. The middle photo of Banderahan, taken at low tide in the morning of May 2, 2003, shows the extent of the ecological damage and the erosion of this former picnic ground. Gone are the large mangrove trees, and the rectangular cement blocks at the center-right of the photo, which used to prop up a beach shed up in the sand, are now being claimed by the sea. Sabang without its landmark sandbar can be seen across the water.

We shifted to Atipolo Beach (bottom photo) in the 1990s. But we are also losing this picnic ground due to lack of upkeep by the seemingly demoralized residents, gradual beach erosion attributable to a concrete causeway built north of the village, and occasional thin oil slicks - pollution coming from used engine oil apparently dumped from sea crafts docked at the Naval port.

Naval might have shown signs of economic prosperity after the provincehood of Biliran and the devolution of government powers in the the early 1990s (both developments ironically opposed by most Biliranon politicians, many of them present office holders benefitting from the after-effects). But the cost in terms of environmental damage and the loss of our picnic grounds was severe.

We also lost our town plaza to the church, which converted it into a fenced parochial school campus. And our old municipal quadrangle has been converted into an unfinished gymnasium.