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Butanding
Festival in Bicol
DONSOL,
Sorsogon (April 19, 2007) – Once a sleepy coastal
village located at the northwestern tip of Sorsogon
province, this town now eyes to be a first-class municipality,
thanks to giant sea creatures that are now attracting
hordes of foreign and local tourists who infuse millions
of pesos into the local economy.
“Donsol
was elevated to a third-class municipality in 2006 from
a fourth-class status in 2003 and fifth-class in 1998,
because of the butanding,” Mayor Salve Ocaya said,
while giving tribute to the whale sharks, considered
as the world’s largest fish that have found a home
in the plankton-rich municipal waters of Donsol.
Tourism
Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, who attended the opening
of the four-day Butanding Festival along with Undersecretary
Eduardo Jarque Jr. on April 18, said Donsol, a town
of about 40,000 people, now has the chance to become
a first-class municipality through sustainable eco-tourism.
“It was really amazing to see them in water,”
said Durano, who dived three times to personally witness
the gentle whale sharks, some of which grow as long
as 18 meters and weigh up to 34 tons.
During
the past Holy Week, hundreds of whale sharks visited
the municipal waters of Donsol, attracting more than
300 tourists, many of whom checked in at hotels as far
as Legaspi City, because of full occupancy at Donsol’s
four resorts and 15 houses that have been accredited
for the home stay program.
“We used to treat butanding as enemies, because
they were eating our fish. Now, they are giving us our
income,” said Joel Briones, a former fisherman
who now works as a butanding interaction officer, with
much higher earnings.
Allan Amanse, a part of the first batch of butanding
interaction officers who quit his job as tricycle driver
eight years ago, said that at a good season, he could
earn up to ten times his previous income.
Amanse said he was earning P650 per three-hour boat
trip, and during a good season, he could have up to
three trips a day. The butanding season starts from
December and lasts until May. During off-season, Amanse
works as a dive master, guiding tourists at fascinating
dive spots in Sorsogon and Masbate.
There
are about 40 accredited butanding interaction officers
in Donsol, who accompany 60 registered boats, each of
which has three or four crew members. The boats can
be hired for a three-hour butanding interaction trip
for P3,500.
Maria Ong Ravanilla, the tourism regional director for
Bicol, said the boat fare was raised to P3,500 from
P2,500 to prevent them from overcrowding the butanding
habitat. Last month, she also issued a directive, limiting
to 25 the maximum number of boats allowed to cruise
the butanding area at a time.
Aside from the boat crews and butanding interaction
officers, the extraordinary growth of tourism in Donsol
has created job opportunities for thousand of others,
including resort and restaurant employees, home owners,
service workers such as spa therapists, souvenir producers,
vendors, fruit retailers, and transport drivers. It
has also given fishers an expanded market for their
catch, as tourists prefer fresh seafood.
Erna
Jimenes, a 61-year-old resident who opened her house
to tourists under the home stay program, earns P700
a night for each of the four rooms she made available
for rent by the tourists. At the town center, the ancestral
home of the Ravolan family was also opened to tourists.
Air-conditioned rooms are available for P1,200 a night.
A study by the environmental group World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) estimated the contribution of tourism to Donsol
economy at P50 million in 2006 alone when about 11,000
tourists visited the town, about 65 percent of whom
were foreigners. Arrivals were up from 7,000 in 2005.
Last year, Donsol received an internal revenue allotment
of P41 million. Durano said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
also ordered the release of P60 million for the expansion
of the Donsol bridge to enhance access to Barangay Dancayan,
the jump-off point for whale shark interaction.
The
municipal government generated taxes of P1.9 million
from tourist registration alone, up from P1.5 million
in 2005. Foreign tourists are charged P300 and domestic
tourists, P100 to interact with the whale sharks.
On top of butanding interaction, Donsol introduced another
natural wonder as an attraction – the firefly watching
at the Ogod River, where mangrove trees glow like Christmas
trees at night as thousands of fireflies inhabit the
area. The river also has the widest and clearest view
of galaxies of stars.
Durano stressed the need to sustain eco-tourism in Donsol
in order to keep the whale sharks in its waters. The
tourism department, he noted, has partnered with the
World Wildlife Fund in order to study how to sustain
tourism while protecting the habitat of the whale sharks.
“As
long as we protect their habitat, they will continue
to be here,” Durano said, while citing an initial
finding of the WWF that whale sharks do not actually
leave Donsol as they stay here all year-round. “They
just go deeper during some months of the year,”
he added.
The Philippine government now appreciates tourism for
its job generation capability. Economic Planning Secretary
Romulo Neri said that if the country can only attract
more than 10 million foreign tourists like Thailand
does, it can eliminate the problem of unemployment.
In 2006, the country drew 2.84 million foreign visitors.
Durano, however, said there is a limit to tourism growth
particularly in eco-tourism destinations such as Donsol.
“The limit should be if it starts destroying the
habitat,” he said.
Julia Campbell, the late New York Times journalist and
member of the US Peace Corps, started an eco-tourism
center in Donsol to help increase public awareness on
protecting the whale sharks. She was supposed to return
to Donsol to finish the project, until she was reported
dead in the bosom of the Moutain Terraces in the tourist
province of Ifugao on April 18.
Local officials in Donsol, who knew Campbell personally,
vowed to continue her project. Tourism officials also
agreed to control tourism movement for its sustainability.
The right formula, Durano said, should be “striking
a balance between mass tourism and preserving the natural
habitat.”
Durano also said that more people should feel the benefits
of tourism growth. “The more we spread the benefits
of tourism throughout the country, the better it will
be for the sustainable development of the Philippines,”
he said. Roderick T. dela Cruz
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