Palawan's faraway tour spots: Brooke's Point, Pag-asa

Gina Lopez’s preserve-Palawan campaign must be hurting miners so bad that they’re resorting to lying about her. Target of maligning is her Bantay Kalikasan Eco Academy in the sleepy town of Brooke’s Point, at the southern tip of the elongated island-province.

Allegedly Gina’s green foundation wantonly cut down dozens of trees to build the eco-tourism resort around Sabsaban Falls. Worse, her troupe purportedly trespassed the Mount Mantalingahan government-protected site. Ironically, detractors sneer, this is the same area Gina swears to be saving from miners. Impliedly she is only preserving her eco-tourism revenues against mining. That is why supposed tribesmen there are up in arms.

The half-truths have wormed their way to the press with ease. Perhaps it’s due to difficulty of verification. Unlike other Palawan tourist towns of El Nido or Coron, there are no direct flights to Brooke’s Point. It is five hours by bus from the capital, Puerto Princesa. By contrast, the world-famous Underground River, beside a forest full of monitor lizards and monkeys, is only an hour away on well-paved road. Tourists mostly are content staying in Puerto Princesa, because there’s so much to enjoy in the city. There’s a crocodile farm, a firefly-viewing night river cruise, and a wade-in marine park. And of course Kinabuch bar-and-grill, owned by Tagalog-swearing Russian-American Butch Chase. The plush Dos Palmas island beach club in Honda Bay is but 25 minutes away by showboat.

Few go to faraway Brooke’s Point, known to traders for good fish catch. Gina’s Bantay Kalikasan built the Eco Academy for “glamping,” or glamorous camping by city slickers. There are four cottages and two-dozen tents. Campers are taught about forest, river and wildlife conservation. Food includes indigenous flora gathered by the tribe folk.

Sinking in P2.5 million, BK came in on the invitation of the registered organization of tribe folk. They used to subsist on slash-and-burn (kaingin) farming that destroyed the forest edge. Having opposed the entry of a giant mining firm, they needed alternative sources of cash. BK sought to prove that the locals could make better, cleaner living through eco-tourism. The waterfalls between Barangays Ipilan and Aribungos are outside the Mount Mantalingahan preserve. It is within a 22-hectare reforestation, BK’s specialty.

BK has a tie-up with the Brooke’s Point municipio, approved by the mayor and the town council. It was the officials who had the trees cut down, after due inspection and approval by environment authorities. Forty-four of the felled trees were overage gemelina softwood that were dying and rotting. One was an ipil-ipil, a small firewood species that had toppled down. The last was a kupang hardwood that foresters deemed defectively leaning.

The “complaining tribesmen” actually are former collectors of tourist fees to the falls before BK came in. Municipal officials were dissatisfied with their work, with the area littered with broken liquor bottles, plastic bags, junk food foil packs, and shampoo sachets. BK teaches camp visitors not only about forest flora and fauna, but also how to clean up after them, and to spread the word.

For inquiries and reservations, e-mail [email protected]. Or visit www.facebook.com/BK Eco Academy BP. Or call (+63 915) 5401070 or (+63 916) 3837337.

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As of last count, there are 81 civilian residents in Pag-asa, the only inhabitable isle of the nine occupied by the Philippines in the Spratlys. But its voters’ roster contains 216 names. Not that the rest are “flying voters,” Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon is quick to dispel suspicions. It’s just that the list needs purging. In the last local election in 2010, there were in fact 296 entries. Those who did not vote there for the second consecutive time were deleted, as required by law. Perhaps after the next balloting in 2013, the list would become accurate.

Or maybe it won’t. For, fishers and soldiers come and go to Kalayaan (Freedom), the sixth-class municipality of Palawan that consists of the nine islets and atolls. Some fall in love with the serenity and seclusion of Pag-asa (Hope), relocate their families, and register as voters. Still, when I last visited in 2006, there were more goats there than people. And the latter included a platoon of Army men, a shipload of provisioning sailors, and three visiting military pilots.

It was much different in my first visit, in 1983. Back then, there were more giant coconut crabs than people. Every so often a crab, about two feet in diameter, would clamber up a palm tree, snip off a coconut with giant claws, then scurry down to tear it open and scoop up the meat. The Air Force, Navy and Marines each had a contingent; there were no civilians yet. The rare terrestrial arthropods that date back to prehistoric times have since nearly disappeared. As in other Pacific isles they have fallen gastronomic victims to humans. Gone too are the once-abundant nautilus tentacle cephalopods. Their shells have become home trophy decors.

The development of Pag-asa as a tourist haven could help preserve its natural wealth. More especially since potential visitors would come to savor the sights of a “deserted isle.” One side of Pag-asa, populated, is being prepared for an influx of travelers. The runway has been repaired. The wharf nearby is being retrofitted for roll on-roll off vessels. Smart Telecoms has repaired its tower. There’s fresh water from a spring. And electricity from a huge yard of solar panels. All this, so that visitors can enjoy the other side, 15 minutes away by foot, a long stretch of white-sand beach, soft waves, and thick patch of coconut trees. And all-fresh seafood. One might even wave at the Chinese or Vietnamese sailors from the passing patrols.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

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E-mail: [email protected]