Bouncing Back
Mariglo reveals: “It’s so important to see a big company walk its talk.”
In July 2020, El Nido Resorts re-opened with an abundance of caution. It was one of the first destinations accredited by the Department of Tourism as a safe travel bubble. On top of its environmental protection guidelines, the resorts now enforce strict pandemic safety protocols.
New Normal
“I know that not everyone is happy to go into their vacation wearing masks and having thermal checks,” says Mariglo in an interview by the press. But really [after being] caught in a lockdown the way we were last year, just the opportunity to go out and experience the sun and the sea is a tremendous gift, wearing a mask is a small price to pay.” The choice she highlights mirrors the many choices that Ten Knots has to make to get through the crisis.
“In a time when survival for tourism has been about belt-tightening, I am very fortunate that I belong to an organization that recognizes that saving the environment is no respecter of whatever pandemic there is,” she reveals. “So we continue with our conservation efforts, we just have to make sure we remain within the bounds of budgets.” Mariglo has spent more than half of her life in El Nido. As the Sustainability Director of El Nido Resorts today, she has witnessed how the island completely changed when the pandemic hit in 2020. As the situation was unfolding its severity before her eyes, she saw how the company latched on to its values even more. “As a company in Ayala, I really felt what we were saying publicly. I saw [our values] at work, so that was very defining for me…It was so important and significant to see a big company walk the talk,” she says. This was especially important for her because it proved that she didn’t waste a single day of her life working for a company that she’s invested her life in. “The bigger message is that it’s doable—you can be a big company, and still do good,” she adds.
Looking ahead
For a modern-day superwoman who has achieved a lot in this lifetime like Mariglo, she continuously seeks inspiration to keep going. “You will feel tired of advocating for so many positive things and for the future that when you are reminded that there’s a network of people doing more than you are, who are giving so much more, it drives you to get up.”
Looking ahead, Mariglo remains hopeful and excited to honor her promises to herself, her family, her work, and the many advocacies she has committed to as the country starts to recover. While she has lost loved ones and faced many challenges during the pandemic, she continues to face the future with renewed vigor to live life purposefully.
The one-way journey that started more than two decades ago has clearly made a mark on all forms of life on the island of El Nido. Everything that she’s building serves the ultimate purpose of being remembered as someone who loves children and fights for their future. There’s clearly no stopping for her anytime soon, not even retirement. Wherever in the world they end up, she will continue to be in active service for children’s education and the environment even beyond retirement. “Everything is grace. We bring nothing in, we take nothing out.”
Interested in helping El Nido bounce back? Experience paradise just like Mariglo, and be one of the 50 Ayala group employees to unlock this special offer by emailing holiday@elnidoresorts.com today.
What El Nido Resorts Conservation Awards Mean to Mariglo
In November 2020, Mariglo Laririt was recognized by the World Wildlife Fund-Philippines as a Conservation Hero. This is given annually by the WWF to organizations that work in the preservation of the wildlife and reduction of human impact on the environment. In an interview for the Daily Tribune, she said: “I am very proud of that [award] and I take that to heart. When you think of conservation heroes, usually they talk about people who lay down their lives. I have not done that. But the business of conservation is not just about guarding the environment, what we’ve been trying to do is to do the best we can given our context. And our context is a tourism company. It is my fervent hope that fellow hotels and tourist destination see that the responsibility of tourism [stakeholders] is big. We are in very fragile ecosystems, these are very fragile places on the planet, and are challenged as it is by changes in the climate. So if you are thinking of doing something good, you as business owners are in a very good position to do something good for the planet. Ordinary people, who are not necessarily in the NGO or formally connected to conservation, are in a very good position to do something positive. What I have been able to do is to harness the energy of our shareholders, who are very much committed to conservation, and the local communities to do what we have been doing. The result is that El Nido remains to be beautiful.”
MARY DE GUZMAN-SIOJO
Author
