Shredded wrappers for rice,

trash recycling innovations

during PESWM Summit ‘26

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—A kilo or shredded plastic wrappers for a kilo of rice in Tubigon, opens up windows of trash-upcycling possibilities, as the Provincial Ecological Solid Waste Management (ESWM) Program gathers municipal solid waste stakeholders for the annual Bohol Solid Waste Management Summit 2026, at the Jjs Seafoods Village, this week.

With environmental sustainability prominently more emphatically pinned in its development policies under Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado’s administration, Bohol’s ESWM Bohol's ecological solid waste management (ESWM) policy is anchored on Republic Act No. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, and the province's Provincial Environment Code (Provincial Ordinance No. 2016-008).

Adopting a central principle of moving away from the traditional practice of collecting mixed garbage, Bohol navigated toward waste segregation, reduction, reuse, recycling, composting, resource recovery and environmentally sound disposal.

The Bohol Solid Waste Management Summit 2026 forms as a mechanism to bring together the provincial government, municipalities, national agencies, businesses and civil society to share best practices, hand-hold each other and learn innovations.

Innovations as well as best practices in waste segregation at source, operations at Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs), composting and organic waste management, recycling, up-cycling and resource recovery, environmentally sound final disposal, as well as waste reduction and regulation of single-use plastics get to be the day’s highlights as local government units implement policies limiting disposable.

The summit featured local initiatives including the LGU Jagna’s eco park and recycling facility, SK Bien Unido, Women’s Welfare Organization, Bunacan Bag Wavers Association, Tagbilaran City Livelihood and Community Development Unit, and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor, in their individual initiatives of waste management and reduction.

LGU Tubigon’s innovation centers on a kilo of specific shredded plastics for a kilo of rice, which, according to local authorities have significantly reduced drainage clogging in the town’s systems.

The shredded plastics are then sent out to a private facility to be heat-pressed and converted into construction panel boards, plastic lumber, ceiling panels and non-load bearing wall claddings.

And like LGU Jagna which collects bottles to be shredded and mixed with cement to form cobble stones and construction bricks, Tubigon’s focus is to convert the shredded glass bottles into converted into cinder block alternatives, for construction projects.

Jagna also sells its plastic refuse to a cement facility in Cebu, which uses shredded plastic as fuel for their furnaces.

The cement industry traditionally uses coal or petroleum coke as fuel, but recent developments in qualified waste-derived fuel from the waste’s energy content now replaces portions of these fossil fuels, thus creating a circular economy approach.

Bunacan Bag Wavers Association, Tagbilaran City Livelihood and Community Development Unit, and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor all share the same recycling practices of turning discarded tarpaulins into trendy hand bags, but Tagbilaran City takes this to a new level with their upcycled eco-bags which has since been supplied to department stores in Manila as showcases of upcycled trash.

The summit also brought in recycling technologies and industrial scale equipment for LGU ESWM operations, as the provincial government continues to encourage and support LGU initiatives sustainable environment by promoting responsible waste management and a cleaner environment for future generations. (PIAbohol)

ITS IN THE BAG. Cabulijan Tubigon Women also sell their recycled tarpaulin bags which were among the showcases during the PESWM Summit 2026. Other than recycled tarpaulins, Tagbilaran City presented upcycled eco-bags which are now supplied to Manila, as Bohol continues to bring the spotlight to innovating solid waste management practices, if only to reduce if not scrape off scraps from landfills. (PIABohol)

Bigger aircraft to Panglao

opens more tourist seats

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—An airline may have suspended its Panglao airport for reported network restructuring and schedule re-alignments, but in its stead are bigger aircraft, easily filling the gap of lost seats for Panglao Bohol International Airport (PBIA) from Manila.

This as flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) introduced its wide body aircraft that could pick in as rotational aircraft for surging passengers or rescue over-booked flights.

PBIA announced PAL’s first Airbus A330-300 landing at 6:25 in the morning, October 27, 2026 with PR1771/PR1772 flying to and from Manila.

This also makes the Philippine Airlines as the second airline to bring in a wide-body aircraft service from Manila to Panglao Bohol route, after Cebu Pacific.

PAL’s most recent fielding of a wide -body aircraft to replace its standard narrow-body air-carriers when conditions warrant, significantly increases the number of seats available for Bohol as the passenger demand expectation for the holidays increase.

In its present configuration, PAL’s A330-300 seats 363, which is significantly more in capacity for each flight than the 156 seats its Airbus 320 regular narrow body which its fielded for Bohol then.

Other that PAL’s news wide-body carrier taking the Manila-PBIA route, it still operates an Airbus 320 aircraft that seats 156 to 180 passengers.

Last November 16, 2025, Cebu Pacific (CebPac) pioneered the large body aircraft to serve the Manila-Panglao and return trip with an Airbus 330-900 neo, which has a seating capacity of 459.

In fact, CebPac has since used the same aircraft for another flight to Panglao: one in the afternoon and another for the night schedule, according to Panglao Bohol plane spotter.

Other than CebPac’s wide body air craft, it also maintains Airbus 321 flights for PBIA-Manila, the narrow body still allows the space of 194 passengers in and on its rotational flight.

Last September 30, Air Asia flight Z2 354 last flew off Panglao Airport after the air line company suspended its Panglao operations due to reported network restructuring and schedule realignments.

Air Asia used a typical Airbus 320-200 for the route, with 180 seats.

Aboitiz IfraCapital Bohol Airport Corporation (ABAC) General manager Aldwin Uy said, “Having both of the country’s major airlines fly wide-body aircraft into Bohol shows how far BPIA has come.”

ABAC, upon its take-over of the operation of the BPIA, For wide-body operations, readied the facility for wide body aircraft, while tourism arrivals were slow, allowing them more time on the runway and the ground.

ABAC reportedly upgraded aircraft rescue and firefighting, while inspecting pavement bearing strength, testing runway surface friction, checking taxiway and apron clearances as well as obstacle clearances, including ground handling and emergency procedures. (PIAbohol)

TWICE THE SEATS. With Philippine Airlines fielding a wide-body aircraft to Panglao Bohol International Airport to run its ferry services, the vacuum of seats lost by suspension of a narrow-body aircraft less than a month ago, is now filled, and in fact added more available seats to Bohol from Manila every day with Cebu pacific also using another wide body aircraft. (PIAbohol/PBIA)