Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro — Oriental Mindoro provincial Agriculture office (PAGO), together with Malampaya Foundation Inc. (MFI), local governments of Bulalacao municipality, bgy Maasin and community members inaugurated on February 13, 2018 the marine protected area (MPA) ranger station fronting the marine reserve.
Bgy Maasin is a beauteous island barangay in the southern-most municipality of Oriental Mindoro. Its 18-hectare MPA was launched in June 2015 after completion of social and legal establishment processes in cooperation with conservation partners. A year later, in 2016, the Maasin MPA placed number seven best-managed MPA in the province.
Prior to having a ranger station, volunteer bantay dagats (sea rangers) took turns guarding the MPA using a make-shift shelter. The concrete ranger station was built via carpentry-masonry skills training of MFI, with counterpart from the local government and Maasin community-members.
