It was still five o’clock in the morning and yet Sonny Boy Aporbo was already awake. Immediately, he went to nearby Dahican Beach in Mati, Davao Oriental to do the usual morning ritual: to practice skimboarding. As he walked towards the beach, he saw something floating in the water. Not knowing what he saw, he went to the house of George B. Plaza, who acts as the guardian of the skimboarders and surfers in the area. They went to beach and from a distance both tried to decipher what the big thing was all about. Plaza, who asked the local government to convert about 100 hectares of the Dahican waters into a marine sanctuary, called the attention of some fishermen in the area. One of the fishermen said that it was a big fish and “it looks like it is already dead.”

Tacio, H. (2013, February 26). Vanishing dugongs. The Daily Guardian, p. 5.