Look closely at the picture and tell me what you see.

I took this picture some time last week when I had to go to Paete for my monthly errands there.  And my errands make it okay for me to walk in between since one errand is just like five to ten minutes away from each other, give or take a minute or two.  Since my dad grew up there and knows every street and alley, he always serves as my guide.

This is the canal near the Paete Catholic Church.  The red brick fence on the left is the church's.  My dad said that we can go by this route to take us to the next errand.  And he was the one who caught my attention and told me to take a look at the canal.  Well, I don't really know if it's a canal or a estero, but let's just say it could be either.

What did you notice?

As for my dad and me, we both took a few minutes to admire the canal and take some pictures.  Have you noticed that there are no plastic bags or anything of its kind?

Paete, Laguna has been maintaining its ban on plastics.  I know that they started to ban plastic bags since last year and they are still keeping it up.  I think the canal's state on this photo would serve as their proof of citizens abiding to the law imposed by the town.

How I wish the same thing will be done here in Sta. Cruz, Laguna.  So far, I was told that Sioland Supermarket (at least the one in M.H. Del Pilar St., near the new PWU) is not using plastic bags on Wednesdays.  It's good to hear that they started doing it on their own.

So, if this canal in Paete looks like this after banning the use of plastics, I think this will make a lot of difference for this problem:  Plastic trash still top Manila Bay pollutants.  Of course, we should not expect results in a day or a week, but look at the canal and think of the ban that started some time last year.