ALAMINOS CITY–One James Bond girl, a half-Filipina, hopped around the Hundred Islands here and hailed environmental conservation efforts undertaken by the local government.

The statuesque Grace Grant, who played an assassin posing as masseuse in the James Bond movie Die Another Day“, a Pierce Brosnan starrer, was visibly impressed with the Gawad Kalinga (GK) Village in Barangay Lucap where city workers were building pathways made of “eco-bricks”.

Grant, whose mother Maria Isabel is from San Juan, La Union, said it was not her first time in the Hundred Islands because as a child, her family used to visit here.

“We used to make a stop here to swim in the Hundred Islands until suddenly, my parents and I stopped making visits and I did not know why,” Ms. Grant said.

During her visit last week, Grant was told that blast fishing became rampant in the area in the past, but that the problem has been addressed and the Hundred Islands, a declared protected area under a national law, has been recovering from human abuse.

“This, I’m going to find out in my dive there,” said Grant, a licensed scuba diver and martial arts practitioner.

Her father is an English baron who is distantly related to the British royal family.

GK INVOLVEMENT

While at the GK Village, upon the invitation of Mayor Hernani Braganza, Grant was asked to leave her handprint on the brick pathway and inscribed her full name “Grace Padua Grant” to underscore her Filipino roots.

“I was first introduced and became enamored to GK when I browsed its website in the Internet,” Grant said. She then sent an e-mail to GK headquarters in Manila, telling them “I’m going to Manila. Can I get involved and do something?” The instant reply was, of course, “yes!”

That was in 2007 and she has since been extending help to the group.

Grant and her mother founded a charity in London that raises money for underprivileged communities in the Philippines, particularly for children’s education.

Grant came to Pangasinan as guest of Mayor Marcelo Navarro Jr. of Bani, another scenic coastal town in Pangasinan facing the West Philippine Sea.

Navarro read about Grant’s book about underprivileged communities in the Philippines and the good works being done to help them, which she just promoted in her recent trips to New Zealand and Australia.

Navarro, she said, asked her to share what she has been doing in his town to inspire communities to become self-sufficient under her community project “Love”.

Since Alaminos City is close to Bani and the two mayors are friends, Braganza then took the opportunity to invite Grant to make a stop.

While here, Grant also helped plant mangroves in the coastal waters of the Hundred Islands.

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