Stripping the strip

It was not long ago when I wrote about my “first trip to BORA”, which was actually a sarcastic twist on the fact that the old Boracay I used to know, no longer exists. Commerce and human traffic have already taken their toll on the former paradise, and it would take a tsunami to correct the problem.

So I am quite surprised that some special interest groups are actually raising the flag of ecological and environmental concern over the expected entry of San Miguel Corporation to develop the Caticlan Airport on the mainland.

Having been in the “resort business” both as developer and former owner of a “resort” in Palawan, I fully understand the different concerns about “stripping” down the old Caticlan Airport and making it an international airport.

To put things in perspective, let us begin with the unavoidable fact. When you build it, they will come. So when we opened Boracay to the world, we also opened ourselves to certain expectations, requirements and “progress”.

What many “natives”, locals, or special interests groups did not count on was that sooner or later, their activities would also open themselves to real competition.

I have seen this scenario played out so many times in different tourism or resort destinations. You have a nice tourist attraction. It’s paradise but tourists want cold beer, butter, familiar food and communications. In order to have amenities you need better facilities.

So you attract investors.

Often, it’s the home grown, Mom and Pop operators or just a bunch of dudes who want something better than a surf camp or a dive shop. It doesn’t take long before the rich and famous arrive with their MBA approach to resort living and before you know it, they start buying up things through dummy corporations or really dumb locals.

But in order to get their investments back, they can’t stick with the “turistang kanin” or “smelly hippies” or Rucksack tourists. They need the numbers and the spenders, so they use their socialite influences and push to upgrade short airstrips to bring in “jet/propeller” type planes that can fly in minimum numbers of 40 people.

In the meantime, certain local officials are just as happy because they own certain concessions, and handling services at the airport. They “own” the porters; they “own” the toilets, canteens and stores.

Then one day, things change.

The tourism market and the government come to realize that in order to maximize opportunities, things have to be completely changed. The once local/ domestic destination needs to meet the needs and lifestyle of the market and the tourists.

Tourists only have a two-week window for vacation. They want to fly direct to destination, the international agencies don’t recognize “tutubi” or dragonfly airplanes, which means insurance companies also don’t honor any claims if something happens to passenger or baggage.

In order to service international passengers and get the tourists, you need direct international flights just like Cebu and Davao have done. From what I’ve repeatedly heard the same thing is going on in Laoag up north.

To do so, you need an international airport. The biggest complaint I got from guests/tourists back in my resort days was the wasted time and money sleeping in Metro Manila, then getting a domestic flight to Palawan or wherever. Even the temporary citizens of the island of “BORA” don’t like the two-hour jungle ride from Kalibo “international” airport.

At the moment the “tutubi” flights into Caticlan airport is not something to look forward to especially if you tend to scare easy or eat too much. Small planes on shorts landing strips are never about smooth and easy.

Whether you like it or not, competition comes and change will take place. I have no doubt that there are still some sincere people in Boracay who care for the environment and their ecology, but the real story to the “Conflict in Caticlan” has nothing to do with the ecology or the environment.

I suspect that the conflict is and has always been about the Filipino fear and inability to deal with serious competition. Undoubtedly, some “tutubi airlines” are afraid that they will lose their market leadership once the big boys come to town with their big planes”.

The local boys are rightfully afraid that the backyard way of doing things will immediately become a thing of the past when machines and technology take over humans and muscles. When security systems eradicate access and informality. When improvement takes away influence.

I remember a gathering of the country’s company presidents that I attended. I challenged all of them to explain why their organization had not even attempted to do something to end red tape in the Philippines. I asked them, I badgered them.

Then one brave soul spoke up: “What makes you think we want to?! Did you realize that if we remove red tape in government and in business in the Philippines, this would immediately attract big investors and foreign companies? That would be the end for us. How can we compete with their size and their resources?”

Sadly, it is the Filipino’s fear that paralyzes his growth, and it his selfishness that blinds all of them from realizing that there are enough of them to build up huge corporations, large airlines and a booming economy instead of their “Mom and Pop” operations that are about to be made extinct by healthy competition.

Business is good if it’s good for all and for the country and not just for those who want to keep things small for as long as they can. They had their chance, they have their profits it’s time for them to move on and get out of the way.