Time flies, moments remain…

Three months ago I decided to move on and believe in the magic of new beginnings.

Off to a coastal clean-up in Freedom Island, 2011.

Leaving an organization where I spent most of my adult life wasn’t an easy decision to make. It was where I met some of the most amazing people I have known — and I was so lucky to have been able to work with them. A part of me feels like I’m leaving an era of my life behind. Yet I am thrilled at the thought that I will meet more lovely human beings and start a new adventure.

Every moment I spent working at Greenpeace, high and low, will not be forgotten. Like that rapid response work where our team went after Typhoon Hagupit’s 2/7 landfalls to bear witness to the impacts of this extreme weather event and assess the situation of local communities, and share portable solar power kits to towns where electricity will be out for weeks. Or those times when I’m slaving away on my desk managing websites or polishing digital campaign strategy documents. This organization has taught me so many things: from campaigning to engaging people from almost all walks of life.

“What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”

— Karl Lagerfeld

Below are just some of the memories captured in the past years and fortunately still stored in my cloud:

The last digital activism and social media skills share I did this year with our volunteers in Greenpeace Malaysia.

GreenpeaceX ControlShiftLabs Community of Practice’s first ever meeting in Madrid, 2017. I shared here Greenpeace Philippines’ learnings on rolling out our GPX platform, Bataris.

Piglas Pilipinas Youth 2-day climate and activism workshop in preparation to the global Break Free from Fossil Fuels actions in May 2016.

Greenpeace’s first Climate Justice and Liability global team meeting and planning in Washington, DC, 2015. Yes, we were just this small team before.

Greenpeace Philippines Program team building in 2015.

Boy was I always one of the boys 😐 The response team I worked with during Typhoon Hagupit in 2014. From left to right: myself, videographer Tim Alipalo, Aaron Gray-Block, Isko Noveda, chopper coordinator, then Philippine Climate Change Commissioner Yeb Saño, Kumi Naidoo, photojournalist Jimmy Domingo, and Von Hernandez.

Connected 3 countries (Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines) in a live forum that launched a policy brief for a stronger ASEAN response on Climate Change in 2013.

Streaming live the Save the Arctic Ice Ride in Manila, 2013. Also, a bad example of covering a bike ride – didn’t plan well on how we’ll live stream this event, so I ended up not wearing a helmet or any protective gear. But at least we didn’t have to rent a vehicle for me to capture and share this event live, and that’s less carbon footprint 😜 Photo by Rei Gallardo

Mobilisation Bootcamp in Thailand, 2012, with colleagues from Argentina, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the UK.

International Plastic Bag-free Day in 2011. We called for a nationwide phase out on plastic bags, and created a “plastic bag chain” made of trash plastic bags, surrounded the full circumference of Quezon City Circle to show the massive plastic pollution crisis. Photo by Tomas Leonor.

I always drag my sister and nephew to all GP activities when they’re available 😜 This was taken from one of the events of Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s 10th year anniversary “Turn the Tide”: PNoy Go 100% Renewable Energy campaign in 2010. Photo by William Casabar.

“Stop the Forest Destroyers, Not the Climate Defenders” Indonesia embassy action, 2009. The time when we, the ever-agile and all-aroud Comms and Digital team, have to be ones to hold the banner because there was no volunteer available and we had to act in a snap.

We decorated the Philippine House of Representatives with paper pinwheels and delivered the thousands of people’s signatures opposing the rehabilitation of the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in 2009.

The first team I was blessed to be a part of — Greenpeace Philippines Fundraising Unit’s Direct Dialogue Campaigners from 2006 to 2008.

There are countless memories I wish I could crunch here and plenty of amazing people I wanted to express my never-ending gratitude to. Greenpeace is where I learned to sustain that sense of connection existing between the struggles and fragility of our day-to-day unromantic lives and the ultimate vision of a greener and peaceful world. It is the connection I felt through that genuine camaraderie I found in some people I was blessed to work with, of whom I’ve shared variety of experiences with the aim of taking our vision of a greener and peaceful future closer to possibility.

With all that, I am looking forward to contributing and learning more, outside of Greenpeace, to advance the work towards our collective vision of a just and sustainable world for all.

For now, I’ll relax for some more days here at the beautiful Vagator beach in Goa, reflect on the past few years, and recharge for the upcoming beautiful memories lined up for me in the coming months (or years, hopefully) with my new job. 😎🏖

Cattle sun appreciation club in Goa 🐮🏖