Palawan after the crisis

He was introduced as a deep penetration agent. Well, the guy identified by his handlers as Gardo Ibrahim has just ended his career as an Abu Sayyaf DPA. Amid text jokes and public skepticism about Sabaya’s death, the government presented Ibrahim to the press yesterday to provide further testimonial proof that Sabaya had been fatally shot and fallen into the sea.

Ibrahim met the press at Malacañang, where he received a reward of P5 million from President Arroyo herself. You wonder about the guy’s background. When the President moved to shake his hand, Ibrahim instead saluted snappily. Was he in the presence of his commander-in-chief? With so few people, particularly Muslims, capable of infiltrating that group, I’m surprised that the government would "burn" a DPA simply to convince skeptics that Sabaya is dead.

I didn’t even know we had moles in the Abu Sayyaf, right there in Sabaya’s close circle. Perhaps the bounty helped. Would you give up peace of mind for P5 million? The amount is supposed to be on top of the $1 million offered by the US government. Gardo Ibrahim, watch out for swindlers. If you have truly risked your neck, make sure you get all the money. And watch your back.

I doubt if skepticism will end with the appearance of Ibrahim. If the government’s story is true and Sabaya’s remains are recovered from the sea, the face will likely be unrecognizable. We won’t be surprised if we continue to receive reports of sightings of Sabaya, the way people continue to report seeing Elvis Presley and to speculate that Adolf Hitler survived World War II.

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There were Sabaya jokes even in Palawan, which marked the centennial of its civil government last Sunday. In that province which bore the brunt of the fallout from the Abu Sayyaf’s kidnapping caper, smiles don’t come easily when someone jokes that Sabaya would soon surface and announce that he’s alive and well, enjoying the good life in the capital, Puerto Princesa.

Sunday capped the weeklong activities marking the centennial, dubbed Baragatan 2002. Baragatan, derived from the native word bagat which means to meet, is a gathering of all the ethnic groups of Palawan. On Sunday I watched them compete for the P300,000 prize in a parade of music and dance similar to the Sinulog in Cebu and Dinagyang in Iloilo.

Near the provincial capitol there were stalls showcasing Palawan products, including baskets, mats and cashew butter. There was a place for used clothing or ukay-ukay, an art exhibit and a food festival that included French bread and noodles made by the Vietnamese refugee community.

In the evening there was an impressive fireworks display and performances by Geneva Cruz, Jay Cayuca, Priscilla Almeda and Patricia Javier. The streets around the capitol were packed with people.

But I spotted less than 10 Caucasians in the crowd, and I must have missed any Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese or other Asian tourists.

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The governor, Joel Reyes, was upbeat, telling me his province had recovered from the Abu Sayyaf raid on Dos Palmas in May last year. As early as November, he said, business starting improving.

Provincial information officer Rolando Bonoan Jr., on the other hand, said tourism in Palawan had recovered by only about 40 percent since the raid. Visitor arrivals started picking up in August, but plunged again after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. To this day Japan and the US have not lifted their travel advisories on Palawan and Zamboanga. Bonoan said the Palawan Tourism Council wants to seek President Arroyo’s help so the province won’t be cast in the same league as Zamboanga (I can hear the Zamboangueños protesting).

But Bonoan said things are looking up. The people of Palawan learned aggressive marketing after their tourism industry collapsed, he said, and the efforts are starting to pay off. Dos Palmas is back in business and hotels such as Legend are approaching full booking.

The foreigners still aren’t coming, but local tourists are helping boost recovery. In May Philippine Airlines reported that for the first time since the Dos Palmas raid, their Manila-bound Airbus 330 from Puerto Princesa, with a capacity for 367 passengers, was fully booked. Bonoan said tourism is improving particularly in northern Palawan, where Calauit Island and El Nido are located.

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In any case, Governor Reyes said, the main industry of Palawan is agriculture, and that’s what he’s focusing on to ease poverty. But he can’t ignore tourism, which is Palawan’s second biggest industry.

They are all happy, Reyes said, that Gracia Burnham was rescued and the hostage crisis ended just days before the start of Baragatan 2002. And they were even happier with the news that Sabaya had been shot dead.

But the fear is still there, Bonoan acknowledged, because the body has not been recovered. The buzz last year was that Sabaya and his band of thugs, on their way from Basilan to Dos Palmas, even made a stopover in Puerto Princesa to refuel, replenish supplies and enjoy R&R before proceeding to the resort that occupies the entire Arreceffi Island, facing Palawan’s Honda Bay.

So when you make jokes about Sabaya surfacing in Puerto Princesa, you’re bound to hear nervous laughter from the locals.

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If it’s any consolation to them, tourism is still slow not only in the rest of the country but around the globe. A strange new war without borders is being fought, and most people are opting to stay home, waiting for a safer day to see the world.

It‘s our misfortune to have the Abu Sayyaf, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network. Because the Philippines is supposed to be home to an al-Qaeda cell, the country is included in negative travel advisories. And our "TNTs" — the tago nang tago or Filipinos overstaying in the United States — are among the first to be singled out for deportation as the Americans secure their country against terrorism.

Sabaya’s death would have helped not just Palawan but the entire country. Unfortunately, our soldiers can’t seem to catch him, dead or alive.