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DAVAO CITY DESTINATIONS

DAVAO City - 25 February 2008

Travel and airline executives met in this city over the weekend to develop and promote the sub-regional group of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines - East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) as one tourist destination.

"We have to brand it as one destination," said Wee Hong Seng, president of the Sarawak Tourism Federation.

BIMP-EAGA is a sub-regional group of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) formed in 1994 to help develop the economic well-being of the member countries through various tourism and trade exchanges and programs.

In particular, these areas include Brunei ; Central Kalimantan, Sulawesi provinces, Maluku, and Papua in Indonesia ; Sabah and Sarawak states and the Federal Territory of Labuan in Malaysia ; and Mindanao and Palawan in the Philippines.

"We should not be competing against each other. We should be complementing," Seng said during the Davao Travel Show at the SM City in Davao attended by Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano.

Ang Kian Guan, BIMP-EAGA chairman for transport, infrastructure and information technology, said airline executives were joining the meeting to discuss the possibility of adding more intra-regional flights.

At present, there are only five airlines connecting the major cities of EAGA. These are Royal Brunei Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, Asian Spirit, Batavia Air and Merpati Airlines.

In the Philippines , the only carrier flying from Davao City to other parts of EAGA is Merpati Airlines with flies to Manadao in Indonesia . Asian Spirit flies from Zamboanga to Sandakan in Malaysia.

Other major cities in the EAGA sub-region are Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei , Kota Kinabalu and Kuching in Malaysia , Puerto Princesa ( Philippines ) and Pontianak in Indonesia.

There are now plans to add new routes, including Davao-Bandar Seri Begawan by Pearl Pacific Airways, Puerto Princesa-Kota Ki-nabalu by Southeast Asian Airlines and Davao-Kota Kinabalu by Cebu Pacific Air.

Other proposed routes are Kuching-Bandar Seri Begawan-Kota Kinabalu by Air Asia and Pontianak -Kuching- Bandar Seri Begawan by Batavia Air.

Durano earlier said the Philippines expects to strengthen its relations with other countries, help establish business linkages among the private sector participants, as well as exchange information on the latest developments in tourism.

The DOT promotes the pristine beaches, natural wonders and colorful culture of Mindanao and Palawan as a part of the BIMP-EAGA sub-region.

Seven-hectare resort to rise in Samal

DAVAO City - The Bangayan Group of Companies is building a nine-hectare resort-residential complex on Samal Island that is expected to drive tourism activities in Davao region.

Under construction is the Holiday Oceanview Resort & Spa, which includes a 120-room hotel, a 400-room condominium complex, a marina, and a subdivision. The whole project is expected to be completed by 2009.

Brokers of the P300-million complex, however, are already selling the residential component of the project and participated in the Davao Travel Show at the SM City.

Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, who attended the travel show and inspected the different tourism projects in Davao over the weekend, said the rise of Davao as a major tourist destination is encouraging the development of hotels and resorts.

Davao is being promoted as an achor destination of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Growth Area.

Nearly 600,000 foreign and domestic tourists went to Davao region in the first nine months of 2007. Davao region groups the provinces of Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Island of Samal and Davao City.

Art Boncato Jr., director of sales and marketing of Marco Polo hotel in Davao, confirmed that both foreign and local tourists have been flocking to Mindanao in recent years.

He said occupancy rate at Marco Polo reached a record high of more than 70 percent in 2007, and signs are looking better this year.

Despite the new projects rising in Davao, Boncato said Marco Polo will remain the most luxurious accommodation facilities in the city.

The growth of tourism in Davao city has also triggered investments and projects in other areas of Davao such as Tagum.

Tagum City Mayor Rey Uy said tourism has been inducing economic growth in his city. Tagum is being promoted as the festival city of Mindanao.

Eagle losses habitat to mining

DAVAO City - The Philippine eagle, which serves as the symbol of conservation efforts in the country, has been losing its natural habitat to mining, which is rapidly encroaching into the forests of Mindanao.

Once described as the “world’s noblest flyer” by aviator Charles Lindbergh, the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) is now rarely spotted at the country's remaining virgin forests and is mostly concentrated at the captive breeding grounds of the Philippine Eagle Center, which recently received a P5-million financing from the Department of Tourism for its new entrance lounge.

Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano visited the center over the weekend to inspect the new entance lounge in place of the old dilapidated structure. His department released the amount to improve the entrance lounge of the center, which in 2007, received more than 100,000 foreign and Filipino guests.

The eight-hectare Philippine Eagle Center, which is being run by the non-profit group Philippine Eagle Foundation in Malagos, Baguio District in this city, has emerged as one of the prime tourist destinations in Mindanao .

Elsa Delima, manager of the center-based education, said that only 500 pairs of the world's largest eagle in terms of wingspan live in the wild of Luzon, Samar and Leyte, and Mindanao . The Philippine eagle has an average wingspan of two meters, the broadest among eagles in the world.

The number of eagles in the wild, she said, was only an estimate and was based on the nesting sites found in the forests.

What is clear, she said, is that there are only 500,000 hectares of old-growth or virgin forests remaining in the country, and this area is being threatened by human activities such as mining.

The Philippine eagles were mostly sighted in virgin forests of Luzon, Samar and Leyte and Mindanao . The fact that Philippine eagle is endemic to the Philippines proves that the archipelago is not connected to the islands of Indonesia and Malaysia .

However, millions of hectares of forest areas from Cordillera and Sierra Madre to Bicol to Samar and Leyte down to Caraga and Davao region are now the subject of mining exploration applications. These are the areas where Philippine eagles were spotted in the past.

About 383 mining tenements have been approved and registered, while 1,846 other mining tenements were being processed as of January 2008, according to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau.

A mining project, including exploration, normally covers an area of 1,000 hectares to as large as 100,000 hectares, mostly in forests.

Domingo Tadena, deputy director for captive-breeding in the center, said the giant raptor is endemic to the Philippines and is sensitive to its environment. The species is known to be solitary and fiercely territorial.

The eagle center currently takes care of 36 Philippine eagles. The center has bred 22 eagles since January 1992, when Pagasa was hatched in captivity.

Tadena said the center plans to release an eagle named Kagsabua (which means hope in Higaonon), in Mount Kitanglad to reintroduce it to the wild on March 6. Kagsabua was rescued from the same forest in Bukidnon with a bullet wound in September 2006, which suggests that the eagles are still being targeted by poachers despite government protection.

Durano earlier advised local government units to disallow mining activities in areas being developed for tourism. "Tourism and mining do not mix together," he said.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), however, claimed that it has recently added four new entries to its list of protected areas.

From 103 in 2006, there are now 107 proclaimed protected areas under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS), covering a total of 3.34 million hectares.

Protected areas are identified portions of land and water set aside by reasons of their unique physical and biological significance.

These include national parks, natural parks, marine parks, marine reserves, game refuge and bird sanctuaries, wilderness areas, watershed forest reserves, mangrove swamps, protected landscapes/seascapes, natural monuments/landmarks, resource reserve, wildlife sanctuary, and natural biotic areas.

The four new protected areas cover a total of 19,829.13 hectares. These are the Mt. Balatukan Range Natural Park in Misamis Oriental, Mt. Inayawan Natural Park in Lanao del Norte, Kalbario-Patapat Natural Park in Ilocos Norte and Mt. Palay-Palay Mataas na Gulod Protected Landscape in Cavite.

Other eagles that are considered among the largest in the world are Harpy Eagle and Crested Eagles of the Americas and the New Guinea Harpy Eagle.

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