Naic’s 7th Pawikan Festival kicks off Friday

NAIC, Cavite -- Naic Mayor Junio C. Dualan will lead the day long festivities marked with coastal clean-up activities, games and contests as the town celebrates its 7th Pawikan (sea turtle) Festival at the town's Labac Beach Front on Friday.

Municipal Environment and Natural Resources (MENRO) chief Evangeline Panganiban said Thursday that the annual festivity aims “to echo the importance of cleaning Manila Bay so that creatures like pawikan can live and multiply.”

Panganiban added that the event will also feature the waters around Naic, which she described as “still clean and inhabitable to pawikan.”

Friday’s activities will start with a cleanup around the coastal areas of Naic at 7 a.m.

A poster making contest from among students from Naic’s secondary schools follows at 10 a.m. while fun games are set at 1 p.m. to build up and set up the mood for the main activity at 3 p.m.

The event’s highlight will be the releasing of pawikan hatchlings to the waters of Naic at 5:00 p.m.

The event will also feature the re-launching of “Mr. Paw,” an android application developed by Cavite State University (CvSU)-Naic campus students, meant to engage the millennials in Naic’s environmental advocacy.

The application will offer information and develop appreciation of Pawikan, and some online games.

Naic is one of Cavite’s first-class municipalities and agricultural towns with its vast areas devoted to agriculture.

It has 30 barangays, where 10 are in the coastal areas facing Manila Bay, thus its long coastline teems with beaches. (PNA)