Escape to Bohol

The Professionals

The family trip was hatched months earlier. Two days after Christmas, we finally took a boat to the province of Bohol, ending a long period of anticipation and excitement. The boat, Cebu Ferries Vessel 1, was neat, clean and cool. It has spacious corridors one of which was transformed into a playground by my two little grandsons. The crew was courteous, helpful and accommodating. The meals served in its cozy restaurant were worth their prices. The boat punctually left the port of Cagayan de Oro at about 8 in the morning, traversed the Bohol Seas in 5 hours and 30 minutes, and docked at Jagna exactly at 1:30 PM, the estimated time of arrival (ETA) printed on our passage tickets.

The disembarkation was almost like a solemn church procession. Everybody silently fell on line and was patient and amiable in waiting for his turn down the gangplank. There was no rush. There was no noise. The porters were polite in negotiating their trade with some passengers.

Outside the pier, I looked for a vehicle for hire. I found none. A vendor informed me such vehicles were not allowed at port area. They were parked at the bus terminal, some half a kilometer away. I returned inside the pier to collect the members of my family who floated leisurely towards the gate with the bulk of disembarked passengers.

I was amazed by what I observed. I marveled at the punctuality and the professional services of the vessel. I was moved by the discipline exhibited by the passengers of the ship, by the porters, by the tricycle and taxi drivers, and even by the welcoming public that patiently waited outside the gate of the port. I am in the Philippines, I told myself. I am not dreaming. This is too good to be true!

Weird Sense of History

My family is very Filipino in size: 2 sons, 4 daughters, a daughter-in-law, 2 grandchildren, my wife and I. Eleven in all. Notwithstanding our number we fitted in surprisingly inside a tricycle, which hauled us, luggage and all, to the bus terminal.

For P2, 000 we got an air-conditioned L300 van to ferry us from Jagna to Panglao Island, a distance of about 85 Km, with stopovers for sightseeing at the Baclayon Church and at the Blood Compact monument.

A wedding was in progress at the historic church when we dropped by it. While the rest of my party viewed the relics in the museum, I moved around and took some pictures of the happy couple and the interiors of the old building. The glow of the Christmas lights tempered what otherwise would have been a solemn atmosphere inside the cavernous church.

At the Blood Compact monument in Bool, Tagbilaran, tourists took turns in taking their pictures with Sikatuna, Legaspi and their consorts. The monument saddened me because it is one manifest of our weird sense of history. Like our annual celebration of the ignominious Fall of Bataan, here in Bohol we honor and immortalize with the monument the deception and betrayal of the Filipino natives by the Spaniards who declared friendship but coveted our people and our land. Meanwhile, the people in the town of Loay wanted to correct history, claiming that the true site of the blood compact is not in Bool, Tagbilaran City but in Hinawanan beach (now Villalimpia), Loay. Similar monument would be erected soon in the place.

Panglao Island

The skies were a tinge of blue and grey after a downpour and before sunset when we arrived in Panglao Island. The island is very close to mainland Bohol and connects to Tagbilaran City via a relatively short concrete bridge. It has two municipalities: Panglao and Dauis. The white beaches of the island and the rich scuba diving sites nearby made the place a tourist destination beginning in the early nineties. Resort hotels of different stars and dive shops congregate and define the economy of the island, particularly that of the municipality of Panglao.

Most of the high-ends hotels and tourist establishments are located along Alona beach. Dive and dolphin-watching boats are moored near the beach giving the area a picturesque postcard beauty. Tourists from different accommodations in the island flock to the beach at dinner time to savor foreign and local cuisines and enjoy nightlife of music, dance, chats, and wine. Alona beach is awake and alive at nighttime, busy at dawn for the dolphin-watching trips, and is asleep the rest of the day.

Alona Beach

Alona beach was Tawala beach, being located in Barangay Tawala, before Alona Alegre in her almost naked beauty frolicked on its shimmering shores in the shooting of a Fernando Poe, Jr. film “Esteban” sometime in 1973. Alona is an elder sister of action star Philip Salvador. She is the daughter of actor Lou Salvador and Inday Jalandoni.

Accordingly, life stopped in Tawala during the shooting. All eyes were on Alona. When she rolled and crawled on the sand in all her breathtaking assets, Panglao changed and was never the same again. One day on the film site, a local fan planted in the sand a makeshift poster of cement sack scribbled in pentel pen with the signs “Alona Beach.” The name stuck and since then has been used by entrepreneurs to identify their tourist establishments. So there is Alona Beach Resort, Alona Palm Beach Resort, Alona Kew Resort, and Alona Tropical Resort to name the more familiar. The barangay where Alona beach is located remains though as Tawala.

Our accommodation was in Alona Studio, located in the inner section of Tawala, which is a 15-minute walk from the beach. The hotel was undergoing expansion and its 20 or so rooms were all occupied by Europeans, mostly Swedes. It has an 80 square meter triangular pool that was religiously checked, vacuumed and sanitized every morning. We were the only Pinoy guests in the vicinity.

The following day, a van arranged earlier by the hotel management at P2, 500/day, picked up and ferried us to the famous tourist destinations of Bohol. We first went straight to the chocolate hills and then made stops in the other tour sites on our way back.

Chocolate Hills: A Geologic Wonder

The chocolate hills continued to mystify me. It was already my third time to see the geologic masterpiece and yet I remained awed by it magnificent beauty and splendor. The dome-shaped 2, 268 hills that spread evenly on a 50 square kilometers landscape are really a wonder to behold.

On the human side, one could not just leave the place without also appreciating the very orderly and systematic manner the tourism staff handled the flux and movements of tourists. The tourist vehicles, upon depositing their passengers in a designated area in the viewing station, moved immediately down to the parking area at the foot of the hill. They remained there until the guards at the viewing station informed them by radio that their passengers were ready to exit. Thus swarming and traffic jams were avoided. Despite the economic crunch I noticed that the local tourists far outnumbered the foreigners who came to view chocolate hills.

We went back to the road and tried our nerves at the Sevilla hanging bridge in Bilar. The bridge was constructed with the assistance of the Australian government through AusAid not only to connect a local community to the road but also to enhance the ecotourism program of the province. The bridge is an interlaced of wire ropes and bamboo slats. It swung from side-to-side and up and down when crossed.

The Bilar-Loboc Forest: A Man-made Miracle

Our next stop was in the man-made forest that nestles across the towns of Bilar and Loboc. The forest is a dense single species plantation of mahogany trees in 8.5 square kilometers of steep and rugged hills. Most of the trees were about half a century old planted some time in the sixties and early seventies. The trees and their saplings were evidently competing for sunlight and their branches were reaching for the skies like human hands in the act of supplication. It was cool underneath the overlapping corollas. Inside the forest you’ve got this phantom feeling that the rain would fall any moment.

The Bilar-Loboc forest, together with the biggest (1,756 ha) man-made mangrove forest in Asia, located in Banacon Island, Getafe town, is a tribute to the foresight of the people of Bohol. The forest is truly a miracle because it is a human intervention in the environment made decades before everyone talks of global warming and bio-diversity conservation.

Kan-anan sa Suba

It was past 12 noon. We rushed to the mouth of Loboc River in the town of Loay where our driver earlier reserved, via text message, lunch for us in one of those mobile river restaurants. Our “floating restaurant” was an enclosed 8 x 7 square-meter bamboo platform that was roofed with nipa shingles and mounted on top of two catamarans. A separate motorboat pushed and moved the contraption along Loboc River. Actor Cesar Montano made the Loboc River famous with the shooting there of his 2006 WW II romance film “Panaghoy sa Suba.”

The restaurant served a buffet meal at P300/head. For the picking were pork barbecue, fried chicken, grilled squid and fish, ginat-ang lambay, adobong tangkong, ginat-ang nangka, leche plan, pineapple, watermelon, and bananas.

The restaurant moved upstream. A balladeer strummed his guitar and belted some native songs and old (60s & 70s) favorites while we were eating our lunch. After some 30-45 minutes of riverbank sightseeing, we dropped anchor at an Aeta village where some members of Aeta families danced for us in a square with the beat of a drum. Some boys tried to get our attention by their stunts of diving inside a ring of fire. Tourists took pictures with the village people with their weapons, python and bayawak. For everything, the Aetas were all smiles and asked nothing. A small donation box though was visibly ensconced on a 3-foot bamboo pole at one side of the square.

The Lazy Python and the Gentle Tarsier

Upon disembarking at Loay we drove to Albur Animal Sanctuary to see “Prony,” accordingly the biggest python in captivity in the world today. Prony, named after its captor Sofronio Salibay, was only 5 feet tall and weighed 5 kilograms when captured in October 1996. After 14 years of loving care and generous feeding Prony has grown into a 7-meter and 200-kilogram + behemoth. It is fed with 40-60 kg of healthy live pig once a month during the full moon. Prony just sleeps and hardly moves at all after devouring its meal.

Despite the risk, son Eric and three of the girls – Melanie, Augie and Cecile, entered into the cage and had their pictures taken with the giant python.

On our way back to Tagbilaran and Panglao we dropped at a tarsier garden to see the tiny, gentle and friendly primate. Tarsiers are night creatures with very large round eyes. Though probably tired and sleepy a tarsier was game enough to perch one at a time on the arms of the kids for picture taking.

Thus ended the sumptuous sight-seeing for the day. The following morning the kids went dolphin watching near the Balicasag island marine sanctuary. My wife and I could no longer join them because we ferried to Cebu and took an afternoon Cebu Pacific flight to Davao City. We had to abort our gallivanting in the land of Dagohoy to celebrate life, that is, the wedding of a young friend in the city that heavenly stinks of durian.

Boracay

One of the many little surprises in my life was to see a widescreen still picture of the sparkling white beach of Boracay inside a movie house – of all places - in the City of Sheffield, United Kingdom in July 1994. It was definitely a travel tour ads UK-based with this come-on line (If memory does not betray me): “Visit and enter paradise: Boracay, the Philippines.”

My lady companion, another British fellow from the Philippines, failed to hold her amazement and blurted quite loudly “Wow, that’s our country!” All heads within hearing distance turned to us and nodded approvingly.

On our way back to our respective flat we hardly gave notice to the performance of Hugh Grant on “Four Weddings and a Funeral” but talked endlessly on beautiful Boracay. “One day,” she sighed dreamingly, “I will bring my entire family to Boracay.” Because she grew up in Manila and most likely had seldom gone to the coastal areas, the wish was understandable.

Although the ads of the darling beauty somehow lifted my spirit with pride and joy the idea of exploring it someday never occurred to me. My birthplace in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte has two nearby small islands with equally wonderful beach resources. And although the sand is a little course and is not white, the beach of my adopted hometown in Naawan, Misamis Oriental has clear and unpolluted waters and is just a 5 minute walk from our cottage. Boracay did not register long in my consciousness.

Some years later when I would find myself in the pre-departure area of Manila Domestic Airport, the going and coming of planes to and from Caticlan-Boracay at short intervals, swallowing and disgorging a multitude of Caucasians and almond-eyed Asians intrigued me. I learned that special flights are even organized in peak seasons to fly more foreign and local tourists to the enchanting island. The coliform scare in the late 90s did not scare at all. The island began to fascinate me.

The opportunity to have a real glimpse of Boracay came some three weeks ago when Bing and I visited Nanay Padang (my dear 82-year-old mother-in-law) in Bugasong, Antique. Nanay Padang was seriously sick, was even in coma, last January but miraculously survived the ordeal and was so hale and sound on our arrival on May 31. So we decided to leave her two days after and were in Caticlan, the jump off point to Boracay, after a 2-hr bus ride from Bugasong.

The weather was mean and it was no longer the peak season for tourists, yet we have to wait for two hours for the 10 minute fast craft ride to Boracay. The Caticlan ferry terminal was swamped with mostly young Korean tourists in unbelievable number. When our turn to ride the sea craft with some of them came, the weather went wild and the waves turned monstrous and tossed and punished our vessel with stomach-wrenching blows. The Koreans panicked and demanded for plastic bags to avoid the embarrassment of puking. But the trip was very short and we were soon in Boracay port at no time at all.

Bing and I were “peso” tourists. A cousin guide had earlier reserved us an accommodation at Faith Village Resort Hotel at P350/person/day. The room is air-conditioned with a comfort room/bathroom and additional wash designed to accommodate 8 tenants. We paid P1400, equivalent for 4 occupants, and the room became an exclusive use for us for the duration of our stay.

Our accommodation, located in Station 3, Barangay Manok-manok, is only a 3-min walk to the White Beach, the very heart of Boracay tourism. The Faith Village Conference Center is organized by a Christian group that offers religious retreats, seminars, conventions and conferences to different publics. Its dormitory facilities, with family rooms, with air-conditioner and fan amenities, accommodate a total of 270 persons. Its Function Hall sits 300 participants. It has a restaurant on buffet service.

Our partial explore of Boracay showed us the two faces of the island. The 3 km or so stretch of White Beach, from Station 3 in Barangay Manok-manok to Station 1 in Barangay Balabag, is the tourist hub of the island where all of tourism related businesses are found – hotels and resorts of different stars, restaurants, nightclubs, bars, pubs, banks, money changer shops, tour travel offices and many other amenities and services. A beachfront pathway separates the beachfront establishments from the shore. Cheaper accommodations are found in Station 3. The nightlife funs that last to the wee hours are generally in Station 2. Station 1 offers the high end and classier hotels, is less crowded and a comfortable distance away from the noise of Boracay nightlife.

Some 5 km away from Station 3 is Barangay Yapak. Two high end impressively big hotels, Alta Vista De Boracay Hotel and Shangri-La s Boracay Resort and Spa are nestled on its rocky but lush forest far from the hoi polloi and the maddening crowd of the island. The wonderful thing about Yapak is that its equally white beach borders immediately with a rocky forest and is free or is sheltered from establishments. It has remained unspoiled, almost spotless, and is wrapped with an ambience of a deserted paradise. When we strolled and bathed at the place from 7 – 10 in the morning in the second day of our stay we could only count with our fingers the people who went there. The place is so serene and meditative. If you are a bookworm, you may spread a towel under some coco trees and read to your heart’s content. If you are an adventurous soul you may try crawling inside some mysterious caves beneath the coralline rocks.

Boracay is not really that expensive as touted. You have a lot of options to enjoy the place within your budget. Near our accommodation was a little restaurant that served home cooked dishes – plenty of vegetables and fish at very affordable prices. You can have your fill at P60. At the main street of the island there are litson manok stalls that offer other dishes aside from their litson at prices common in urban centers.

We only stayed in the island for some 24 hours but had seen enough to convince us to return there by the last week of December and explore the place further with the entire family.

Clean, Honest, Peaceful and Inexpensive Elections

Unless we can have clean, honest, peaceful and inexpensive elections we can never ever stop corruption in this country. Until we successfully get rid of corruption in all levels of government our country will never see progress and the people will continue to wallow in poverty.

Scandalously Expensive, Dirty

And Dishonest Elections

Election is essential in a political democracy. It is the process that translates into behavioral activities the democratic principle that the governed participate in their very own governance.

The process requires that some people run for elective posts in the government while the rest makes and legitimizes the choice through the ballot.

However, because our legal and moral norms are twisted, to run for an elective post in this country is to engage in a very expensive enterprise. The higher the position sought the greater is the expense to incur. So much money is needed to run and, much more, to win a campaign.

Consider for instance the current electoral contest for the presidency. Even prior the campaign period, i.e., from November 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010, six of the ten presidential aspirants already spent a total of P2.1B on TV ad spots to gain public visibility. And to think that these politicians are vying for a government post that offers a measly compensation of only P762, 300/annum!

Villar topped TV ad spending at P1.1B, followed by Teodoro, P407M, Aquino, P269M, Gordon, P245, Villanueva, P90M, and Estrada, P84M. With 30% discount mandated by the Election Code, these candidates may pay only 70% of the of the actual TV ad value. Yet that is still a lot of money and the campaign period has just begun. To remain in the public mind, it is estimated that a serious presidential candidate has to spend P2M /day for eight 30-seconder prime-time TV spot ads. For a country where 70 percent of the people are poor, the huge expense for media projection alone is already vulgar and scandalous.

Much more money is needed to litter the highways and byways with one’s avatar and promises, to finance provincial sorties, to contribute to local campaign funds, that is, to buy votes, and to grease to one’s favor the operations and activities of the military, the police, the media, the teachers and the COMELEC functionaries.

At the local level, election has become a field contest for the most effective strategy in the use of “gold, guns and ghosts” to win a campaign. Such that in recent memory the country had been rocked by political scandals and tragedies, the most abominable of them were the Jocjoc Bolante fertilizer anomaly, the “Hello Garci” election scandal, the missing Bidol and his election paraphernalia, which was eventually capped by the monstrous Maguindanao Massacre.

Election Spending, Corruption and Poverty

Pera’t Pulitika (PAP) came up with these estimates of the campaign expenses for the major electoral posts in the country based on its study of the 2004 and 2007 elections, namely: Presidential campaign, P2.5B – P5B; senatorial campaign, P150M -P500M; congressional campaign, P3M –P100M; gubernatorial campaign, P5M –P150M; and mayoralty campaign, P1M-P100M.

Take note that these ground estimates transcend the campaign spending caps set by law which is P10/registered voter for presidential positions (president and vice president) and P3/registered voter for all the rest of the positions, the total amount of which may differ on the size of each constituency. In other words, with a current voting population of 50M, a presidential aspirant is allowed by law to spend only P500M plus P250M from party contribution (P5/registered voter) or a total of P750M. At P3/registered voter, a senatorial aspirant is only permitted to spend P150M.

Although the regulations on campaign spending are unrealistic and never strictly monitored and controlled by the COMELEC, they have been imposed supposedly to level the playing field for candidates. The fact remains, however, that the cost of running for a political position is very prohibitive. And from the look of it, only the economic elite have actually the opportunity to participate and have the biggest chance to win elective positions in government.

The political race naturally spawns fund raising activities from various sources and in different forms the dire consequences of which may subvert and frustrate the national will. Politicians dip their fingers into sources of funds other than from their own pockets. For incumbents, funds may come from the coffers of the government through the like of the notorious fertilizer anomaly and through pork barrels and over-priced and sub-standard public infra projects that materialize few months before the election season. Contributions to the campaign kitty may also be solicited from big business, lobbyists, gambling and drug lords, and from big-time smugglers. It is also no accident that a year or so before and during elections, bank robberies, kidnappings and plain banditries become very pronounced in different parts of the country.

Our kind of political election evidently does not serve the purpose for which it is undertaken, that is, to produce democratic and socially responsive leaders and lawmakers to lead our country to progress and peace. Instead, it has become the mother of all corruptions that prostitutes our morals and values. It has become a nasty business where people trade their souls for some economic incentives. Decision-makings are thus compromised and governance is sacrificed in the altar of payback development. Sadly, the citizens have lost the moral ascendancy to criticize or demand anything right from the government because they are, in the first place, greatly responsible in putting the wrong people there. So long as corruption remains in our electoral process, our government will remain inefficient and ineffective in the delivery of public services. Consequently, the people will remain marginalized and dehumanized. And the cycle of poverty and corruption goes on and on to eternity.

Clean, Honest, Peaceful and Zero-Spending

Selection of Leaders

The only way to break the cycle of poverty and corruption is to have an honest and responsive government. We may be able to have this kind of government if we reform our electoral system by expanding and leveling the opportunity of participation and reducing to zero the spending for those who aspire for political posts. To do this, let us drop election as a method of choosing our leaders and replace it with selection through draw-lot method of pre-screened and qualified candidates to any position of leadership and decision-making in the government.

Basic Selection Policy

We envision an ‘electoral law’ that strictly prescribes the highest or best qualifications for any contested position of leadership and decision-making in the government. In this highly competitive and globalized world where we have remained laggards, we need leaders who do not only know how to read and write but must have the capacity to think creatively and critically, and must have the necessary experience to manage resources and to produce results. The higher the position sought the more stringent will be the qualifications required of the aspirants.

The primary role of COMELEC, or however this body to conduct the selection process may be called, is to screen the candidates to the various positions based on established qualification standards and to set up open, public and the most transparent draw-lot mechanisms in their selection. The church, the media, the academe, and civil societies may participate as watchdogs of the entire process.

Consider, for instance, the selection process in a municipality. Let us assume that the following qualifications are prescribed by law for the position of municipal mayor, vice mayor and members of the Sangguniang Bayan, to wit:

1. At least a college graduate
2. At least five years work experience, either as an employee, an entrepreneur, or as self-employed worker
3. Resident of the municipality for the last five years before the selection day
4. Mentally and physically fit
5. Not convicted of any crime punishable of one year imprisonment and higher
6. Shows willingness and commitment to serve

The COMELEC shall receive applications and screen applicants on the basis of the above qualifications. The CVs and supporting documents of aspirants to the different positions shall be submitted to the COMELEC one year before the selection day. The COMELEC shall find ways within six months to verify documentations and to conduct interviews of aspirants if necessary. After six months, it shall publish the names of qualified candidates and those who failed to qualify. Within the next five months, it shall settle and resolve protests on the candidacies.

The Selection Day

The selection of candidates employing a draw-lot method shall be held in a public plaza. An elevated stage that is visible from all sides and covered with closed circuit televisions (CCTV) shall be installed in the center of the plaza. A clear glass selection drum or tambiolo shall be placed in the middle of the stage for everybody to view. On the moment of selection, a COMELEC official shall show the name of every qualified candidate to the public via wide viewing screens and drop the ball bearing the name into the tambiolo. Once all the names of candidates, say, for a mayoralty position have been dropped into the tambiolo, it shall be closed and allowed to roll for five minutes. Afterwards, a mechanical arm shall pick up at random a name from the tambiolo and place it on a verifying machine for everybody to see. The person whose name was chosen in that random manner shall be declared by the COMELEC as the winner of the mayoralty post. The candidates for membership in the Sangguniang Bayan shall undergo similar process.

The selection method may also be applied in filling up other political positions, say, at the provincial and national level, with corresponding strategic modifications. The selection for higher positions may, for instance, be done by stages of elimination. Suffice it to say that there is a need to reduce time in the verification of the identity of the candidates, in assuring that all names of qualified candidates go into the process until eliminated or finally chosen, and in ascertaining that the conduct of selection remains random, public and absolutely transparent.

This method of choosing political leaders will certainly do away with mud-slinging, expensive self-advertising, vote-buying, terrorizing, and in degrading of the environment in the wanton campaign for votes. The preponderance to cheat and rob the government and the people to get back election investments may be greatly reduced if not totally eliminated. Therefore, the delivery of basic government services will also greatly improve. And this country will experience peace and finally march to progress.