One Sunday in September, on the small strip of beach on Long Island in the Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA), we looked garbage straight in the eye. The weekend had been designated as International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), the world’s largest volunteer effort for the ocean’s health initiated by Ocean Conservancy, a non-profit organization and world leader in ocean conservation. Here in the Philippines, the DENR spearheaded the activity, calling on Filipinos ”to fight for trash-free seas.” An army of 2,000 volunteers had come the day before to clean up Freedom Isl…