'Baler' triggers tourist boom in Aurora

BALER, Aurora – The mega-buck film named after this capital town has triggered a tourism boom with moviegoers now flocking to this province after getting a glimpse of the historic siege which swept major awards in the recent Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).’

Local officials and the tourism office here said “Baler,” which earned rave reviews for chronicling the saga of 57 Spanish soldiers who waged war for almost a year at the turn of the 19th century even after the war had ended, has so captured the imagination of viewers who are now visiting the province as tourists.

Gov. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo said that the film, adjudged Best Picture in the MMFF, has heightened people’s awareness about the tourism potentials of the province. “After watching Baler, everybody suddenly wants to come here. It really opened the horizon of Aurora,” Angara-Castillo said.

She said that all the province needs is exposure to the outside world and the support of the national government for it to really develop as a tourism mecca.

“Baler,” which was endorsed by the Department of Education and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, was a well-researched screenplay. The movie refers to the event in what became known as the “Siege of Baler” during the Spanish Occupation when a 57-man Rifle Battalion of the Spanish military clashed with Filipino forces

Michael Palispis, provincial tourism officer, said that the movie, for which producers spent a whopping 100-million, including P20-million for its interior, has further enhanced tourism in the province where tourist arrivals more than doubled in 2008 compared to 2007.

Palispis said tourism arrivals had reached 25,000 in 2008, up from only 12,000 in 2007.