Two Filipino friends have decided to join the 17th Annual Canada Life CN Tower Climb for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) this coming Saturday, 28 April. This event is specifically organized to raise funds to combat global warming.

        Jonathan “Tan” Canchela and Alfredo “Al” Calara III, who have been friends since their seminary days back in the Philippines, have made a decision to stair climb this world’s highest freestanding structure (1,815 ft.) as expression of their continued environmental advocacy.

        “Global warming is definitely the most important issue confronting every person and every nation today,” said Canchela, a Filipino residing in Toronto since 2005.

        “It’s so important because it affects all of us. I think that’s why all people and nations have to bond together to fight global warming,” added Calara, who just arrived in Canada last March as immigrant.

        These two friends’ environmental advocacy can be traced back from the time they became members of United Trekkers Club (UTrek), a mountaineering group based in Makati, Philippines.

        Calara was one of the four Bikolano buddies who walked the highway from Manila to Bikol ( 450 kms.) during the 5-day trek last year. The walk was to promote peace and protecting the environment.

        “Our CN Tower climb is also an expression of our support to the Philippine chapter of WWF for their call for food establishments and people in the country to stop serving and eating dishes made from endangered species,” Canchela said.

        “We really should stop patronizing dishes like shark fin, siomai and turtle soup simply because they are made from endangered species. We should protect and preserve these species as they are part of and needed to balance our eco-system,” explained Calara.

        What’s next after this climb? According to Canchela and Calara there is a plan between them and their three buddies (Quintin Barachina, Egay Ramores and Mike Cuesta) back home to make a coordinated advocacy trekking soon this year.

        The two friends here are thinking about the possibility of walking the long stretch of Yonge Street in Ontario – the once acknowledged by Guinness Book of World Records as the longest street in the world, while the three buddies are still working on their own plan either to walk from Manila to Baguio or to repeat the Manila to Bikol trek but with a bigger group.