Okay, this has to be said.

One thing highly noticeable during our trip to the three island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi–Tawi is that somewhere, somehow, in the midst of the pristine white sand and clear waters of the sea, trash is floating. Imagine how a disappointment it would be if in the middle of your relaxation in an island paradise, while basking under the tropical sun soaked in clear waters with fine sand under your feet, a garbage will float by? Yes, such a bummer.

Waste management is clearly a challenge in the island provinces, but it is not for the lack of trying. The seafaring Sama–Bajau are known to peg their lives with the sea, literally their begetter and thwart of life. It is their life source, and whatever they get, they return back to the waters. Unfortunately, that includes trash. All kinds. It is cultural, something that predates the dawn of civilization the way we know it today. It can be corrected, but no one should dare say they are wrong. That’s self-righteous.

Thankfully, Basilan has a solution. If life throws you lemons, you make lemonade. Life threw them plastic bottles, they made tulips.

The Lamitan City Tulip Garden is Lamitan City’s beautiful way to address the growing problem with plastic waste. An advocacy under the city’s comprehensive waste disposal management program, plastic bottles were collected, cut into shape and painted in different colors to resemble tulips. The idea was welcomed by the residents of Lamitan City and it did not take long since its inception that social media became abuzz with the tulip garden.

Where waste disposal and creativity meet.

Our colorful malong was just perfect in the colorful surroundings, hence photo ops! Our guide Allan was kind enough to take the photos of everyone from the viewing deck of the garden, hence providing a great overhead view of the colorful tulips. It was such a visual delight.

Just some closer shots.

The garden provides a place for residents and tourists alike to relax and bond in the midst of the colorful plastic tulips, also dubbed as forever tulips. That’s the thing. Plastics do not disintegrate and unless something is done about it, they would pretty much outlive most humans, potentially damaging waterways and ecosystems in the long run. Before long, the damage could already be irreversible. Something has to be done, and Basilan took as step in the right direction.

The circular garden had 26,877 plastic tulips when it first opened in 2019. In 2022, it had grown to 50,000. The idea, of course, it to stop the tulips from growing.