Tourists flock to Hundred Islands even during rainy days

ALAMINOS CITY, Aug. 16 (PNA) -- Tourists continue to flock to the Hundred Islands in droves notwithstanding the rainy season.

This was disclosed by Alaminos City Administrator Wilmer Panabang who estimated the daily arrival in the province's number tourist spot to 200 and more than 1,000 during weekends.

In fact, he said, the number of tourist arrivals in the Hundred Islands improved this year as compared to last year and in 2008 and 2009 which were marked by down trend in tourism due to the effects on the industry wrought by Tyhoons "Ondoy" and "Pepeng".

Thus, even during the rainy season, tourists--mostly domestic, are arriving in droves, he added.

The number of foreign tourists arriving has not increased though but there was no downtrend in their number too. Most of the foreign tourists are Koreans and Japanese and a few Americans and Europeans.

Panabang said that more tourists will come to the Hundred Islands if they can cut their travel time in going to Alaminos from Manila which is five hours to only 40 minutes by means of air travel.

This can only be realized, he said, if the Pangasinan Airport, which is now undergoing construction, will soon be completed.

The project, initiated by Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza, has the backing of President Benigno S. Aquino III and Transportation and Communications Secretary Mar Roxas.

To date, land acquisition and earth movement are now ongoing at the proposed Pangasinan Airport using initial P200 million released by DOTC.

Panabang said of the amount, P50 million formed the first trance and the second trance amounted to P150 million. All these were used to acquire 80 hectares of land that will form part of the airport's runway of 150 hectares.

"Hopefully, the third trance of another P60 million will be released in the next few weeks, good for another 60 hectares of land to be acquired," Panabang said.

If completed, the Pangasinan airport will first serve domestic tourists and later expanded to an international airport. With a 150-hectare runway, excluding its access roads, the Pangasinan Airport will be bigger than the Laoag International Airport which is only 70 hectares.

He said a foreign investor is also keen on building an 18-hole golf course in Alaminos to complement the airport project. (PNA)

Hundred Islands draws 140,425

ALAMINOS CITY, Pangasinan, Philippines — The tourist arrivals at the popular Hundred Islands National Park (HINP) this year has reached 140,425. Reynaldo T. Livara, Jr., HINP technical consultant, revealed Monday that as of November 8, a total of 131,959 local visitors and 8,466 foreign tourists have visited the 1,800 hectare-park. By these figures, the HINP expects the tourist arrivals to top 160,000 by the end of the year, said Livara. He said this was a big jump in tourism not only for the Hundred Islands but for the country as well, noting that in 2005, there were only 63,656 tourists who visited the national park with only 3,733 of them foreigners. (Liezle Basa Iñigo)

Source: Hundred Islands draws 140,425
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HUNDRED ISLANDS FISHPONDS :Provincial officials to go after DAR, PTA, DENR

LINGAYEN -The provincial government cleared the city government of Alaminos of responsibility of allowing fishponds at the Hundred Islands National Park, and has trained its guns at the different agencies which allegedly allowed the structures to operate in the country’s first national park.
Provincial Administrator Rafael Baraan said the fishponds were established long before the city government took over the management of the HINP in 2004 through Executive Order 436.
He said, “It is admitted that the (structures) were there before Alaminos took over, so Alaminos has nothing to do with allowing structures to be constructed in Hundred Islands.”
“ (But) we wanted to dig deeper into problems such as how the structures came about, and why such activities were allowed in an area supposedly protected under the national integrated protected areas law,” he said during a press conference on Thursday.
Mayor Hernani Braganza said the city government could not act on the structures because they are covered by titles and are therefore private properties. But they still had to conform with the environment laws of the city for them to be granted permits to operate, he said.
Provincial officials last week held a press conference on November 4 announcing that new structures have proliferated inside the Hundred Islands, but later backtracked and said the structures were actually the 46-hectare fishpond of the Bolo Development Cooperative (Bolodeco).
Several agencies are responsible for the establishment of fishery structures inside the park. It was the Philippine Tourism Authority that granted a contract of lease to the Bolodeco on November 3, 1980, for 25 years and renewable for another 25 years.
The Department of Agrarian Reform granted the Bolodeco a certificate of land ownership in 1993. The PTA asked the DAR adjudication board to nullify the CLOA in 1999.
The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources also issued fishpond lease agreement to private persons covering 45 hectares since 1973, while 70 hectares are operated without any tenurial instrument issued by the government, he said.
“How come over a very long period these structures are still there? Why are they being operated as fishpond concessions, and why they look more improved than before?” Baraan said.
He said the provincial government is going to ask the Department of Agrarian Reform’s adjudication board (DARAB) why after more than 10 years, it has not decided yet on the petition to nullify the CLOA.
It will also inquire from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources why it allowed fishpond operation in the park which is a protected area.
In another press conference, Braganza said he welcomed the investigation of the problem which “has been here even when I was still a college student.”
“So nagtataka ako why biglang pumutok ang’ hundred islands vandalized’, as if it only happened during my watch as mayor,” he said.
A press release of the provincial government quoted an official of Bolodeco saying four Braganzas own fishponds at the islands. It also quoted an Inquirer story dated September 9, 000 that mentioned two Braganzas as fishpond operators.
“Not true. My relatives are not bad people. They own fishponds but these are located at the mainland, not at the HINP, and they have been operating those fishponds for decades already,” he pointed out.
He claimed that even a member of the provincial government’s Task Force Kalikasan, retired police office Tommy Cabigas, owns a fishpond in the city, but outside of the islands.
Braganza also showed an ortho-photo map of Alaminos showing the positions of the private fishponds. “I know the map of Alaminos by heart. I know where the problems are, including balding mountains.”
“There is no way you can see the fishponds when you go to the Hundred Islands, so yong sasabihin nila na mabaho ang Hundred Islands, imposible yon,” he said
A media tour at the Bolodeco site showed that there were no activities there, and a dike has been breached where water freely flows in and out of the pond.

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Baraan: Why are the fishponds there?

LINGAYEN—“The issue is why are there fishponds in the Hundred Islands”.
This was stressed by Provincial Administrator Rafael Baraan, reacting to the outburst of Mayor Hernani Braganza on the issues raised by officials of the provincial government about the Hundred Islands.
“The issue here is why are there fishponds in the area. Whether these structures are old or new, the fact remains that they are still existing expansively in the area,” Baraan said in a press conference Thursday afternoon.

“What is worse is they used corals to construct dikes in some areas. This is a mortal sin,” said Baraan, who was joined by Task Force Kalikasan chief Paterno Orduna and Provincial Information Officer Butch Velasco in the press conference.

BARAAN

Baraan expressed dismay over the reaction of Braganza on the issue, which, he said, cropped up when the KBP invited Task Force Kalikasan for the update on the massive coastal and river clean-up in Pangasinan.
TFK Deputy Head Tomas Cabigas presented at the forum blow-up aerial photos of the Hundred Islands indicating dike embankments of supposed fishponds
.
Orduna admitted in that press conference that the photos given to him by a Pakistani piloting one of the trainer planes landing at the Lingayen Airport and were presented at the KBP forum without intent of any malice.
“Rather than facing the issue squarely, Mayor Hernani Braganza dared Governor Amado Espino Jr.  and First District Congressman Jesus ‘Boying’ Celeste to issue a public apology for allegedly giving false statements” on the Hundred Islands issue.


Capitol did not issue any apology and instead brought out more issues about the Hundred Islands.
Meanwhile, the governor has not reacted beyond saying he wanted the issue investigated.
In that press conference, Orduna asked on what Braganza did on the Bolodeco issue when he was Agrarian Reform Secretary.


The other issues that boggles the mind, said Baraan, is the fact that the Bolo Development Corporation (Bolodeco) was granted Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) No.92927 last January 1993 despite the issuance of then President Corazon Aquino of an Executive Order on February 18,1992 that excluded national parks and other protected areas from land distribution.


In addition, then President Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree No. 1173 in 1977 abrogating all leases and cancelling land titles and patents covering portions of the Hundred Islands National Park.”
He said then PNP Regional Director Amado Espino recommended to then President Ramos the cancellation of the CLOA issued to Bolodeco, citing the negative environmental effects of the fishponds in the area. The President approved the request and then Director then Secretary Ernesto Garilao and Energy Secretary Francisco Viray to institute cancellation proceedings.


In 1999 or six years after the issuance of CLOA, a petition was filed with the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) at Lingayen, Pangasinan for the cancellation of the CLOA.
Baraan accused DARAB of sleeping on its job because no decision has yet been issued by it while the case has been up for resolution in that body since February 1, 2000, or more than 10 years ago.
“What is keeping DARAB from resolving the case?” Baraan asked.


At the same time, Baraan said that the expose’ of Congressman Celeste that there are other private individuals who have bigger fishponds at the Hundred Islands than Boledeco is worth looking into, especially because three of the big time fishpond operators are Braganzas.
Baraan said the general principle is, all the islands clustered around the area are parts of the Hundred Islands. He said that if the fishponds are within the islands, most likely they must be part of the National Park.


Repost from the Sunday Punch

Gov’t agencies accused of sleeping on their job for Hundred Islands

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Nov. 13 —Different government agencies that have oversight function over the Hundred Islands National Park (HINP) have been accused of sleeping on their job in the face of continuing existence of a 47-hectare fishpond right in the heart of the reservation area.

“Either some government agencies are doing something against the law or they are not doing their job or sleeping on their job,” said Pangasinan Provincial Administrator Rafael Baraan in a press conference on the Hundred Islands issue on Thursday.
The fishpond is owned by the Bolo Development Cooperative (Boledeco), a group of more than 200 fish farmers who petitioned and were granted Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) by the Department of Agrarian Reform in 1993.
Baraan said that the Alaminos City government took over the jurisdiction of the Hundred Islands from the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) by virtue of Executive Order 436 issued by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on June 21, 2005.
He said that the city of Alaminos had nothing to do with the construction of the fishpond structure as these were built long before it took over the islands from PTA.
Records showed that the 47-hectare fishpond was segragated from the the national park in favor of the DAR during the administration of the PTA and which conveyed the same to Bolodeco by issuing CLOA to the same.
Considering that there are government agencies having an oversight function over the national park, Baraan wondered what these entities may have done when they saw the fishpond rising as they know this was already inconsistent with the current uses of the place as tourist spot.
He singled out the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which, by virtue of the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS), has regulatory control of the HINP, especially on matters which pertain to protected areas.
Baraan asked: How come that over a period of years this structure is still there, how come it is still operated and how come this become improved more than before?
Mayor Hernani Braganza of Alaminos City told newsmen there was a time some DENR officials were selling some fore shore lands of the HINP, near the Lucao wharf, to private individuals although the same was not yet segregated from the park and proclaimed alienable and disposable.
At the same time, Baraan chided the Department of Agrarian Reform Adjudication Board (DARAB) where a case seeking the revocation of the CLOA issued by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Bolodeco had been filed since 1999.
But sadly, he said, DARAB has not issued any decision on the matter despite the fact that the body, which is a special court for settling agrarian dispute, terminated the hearing case way back in February 2000.
“DARAB is already sleeping on this case. . There is no reason for it (DARAB) to allow this thing to remain hanging, Baraan said in that press conference also attended by Provincial Information Officer Orpheus Velasco and Paterno Orduna, head of the province’s Task Force Kalikasan.
Asked on what the provincial government can do to facilitate the decision of the case since the parties already ended presenting their evidence way back 10 years ago, he said Governor Amado Espino Jr. may write the DAR to demand and early resolution of the case.
DARAB is under the supervision of the Department of Agrarian Reform where the three-term Mayor of Alaminos City (Braganza) was once a secretary but said he adopted a hands-off policy on the issue at that time, lest he be accused of being biased since he is from Alaminos.
“We all know that the case was submitted for decision 10 years ago and there is no reason that DARAB has not resolved or cannot make a decision on the matter,” he said.
Baraan said that the issues on the Hundred Islands just surfaced when provincial officials came across aerial photos of the Hundred Islands taken by a Palistani student pilot whose plane was landing regularly in the Lingayen Airport.
But somebody should act so that all unanswered questions about the Hundred Islands could be answered, adding that this was actually what the provincial government did. (PNA) RMA/Lvm/lvmicua/rma/jsd

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Prov’l. government is after Hundred Islands’ management

"It’s a deliberate attempt to get the Hundred Islands from us, nothing more nothing less."
This was the strongly worded statement of Alaminos City Mayor Hernani A. Braganza during a press conference held yesterday at Island Tropics Hotel in Lucap Bay Area here overlooking the majestic Hundred Islands National Park (HINP) which became the center of irresponsible expose made by the provincial government.

Braganza cried foul over the issue that city’s icon has been vandalized and that the fishponds were illegally constructed within the national park and allegedly the cause of unpleasant smell in the area.

“This is unfortunate and irresponsible,” stressed the former two term first district congressman who in his first term led the dismantling of fish pens, fish cages and fishponds in the Hundred Islands.

“We are saddened by these negative reports because we are doing all our best to promote and protect our national park,” he continued.

“What really is the intention of this picture?,” asked the mayor as he shows an aerial photo of the park which includes the Bolo Development Cooperative (Bolodeco) area.

“Is it really to expose an old problem in the national park? Or to get from Alaminos the management of the Hundred Islands?”

The said photo entitled ‘Hundred Islands Vandalized’ and was published in a local newspaper and uploaded in website appears to be either old or digitally enhanced.

This had sparked an outrage from the city’s tourism sector and local residents that have directly benefitted from the booming tourism industry for more than five years now.

Bolodeco is a cooperative organized by local fisherman in the city in 1980 with the purpose of developing a swampy mangrove area within the park into fishpond.

A 45-hectare area which was originally part of the Hundred Islands was leased to the group during the Marcos regime.

During the time of the late President Corazon Aquino, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has granted certificate of land ownership agreement (CLOA) to the 221 members of the cooperative.

Former President Fidel Ramos then authorized the issuance of the original certificates of transfer to Bolodeco which said to have been registered with the Registry of Deeds of the province.

It was learned though that there’s still pending petition of PTA at the DAR’s adjudication board (DARAB) on the nullification of the Bolodeco’s CLOA.

Braganza said “we could probably accept if the title of the photo should have been “Hundred Islands vandalized 20 years ago”.

“But the implication is that we did it during our time which is totally unacceptable, unfair and incorrect,” added the concurrent secretary general of the League of Cities of the Philippines.

The mayor believed Governor Amado Espino was definitely misinformed by his allies that there are illegal structures within our 1,844 hectare marine sanctuary and that the dikes in the Bolodeco were made of corrals.

“There is only one big fishpond in the Hundred Islands and this is owned by Bolodeco. All other fishponds which could be seen along the shorelines are part of the city’s mainland,” he said.

In a recent interview, Congressman Boying Celeste, claimed that aside from the fishponds inside the Bolodeco area, there are some private individuals who own and operate fishponds within the Hundred Islands.

The allegation was declared by the mayor as a blatant lie citing that the fishponds that the solon had mentioned are actually located at the mainland.

The incumbent legislator is the elder brother of Arthur Celeste, a former congressman whom Braganza had beaten in the recent mayoralty race here.

The younger Celeste was the main proponent of House Bill 4995, which seeks to reclassify a certain portion of the HINP and shall be awarded to private individuals including his relatives for them to venture on tourism related industry.

Fortunately, Braganza learned about these evil motives of some greedy politicians from his friends in Congress and concerned private entities and succeeded in blocking the said bill.

Proving his critics wrong and to clear the issue once and for all, the hardworking mayor personally toured the members of Pangasinan media to the Bolodeco area and around the province’s premier eco-tourism destination.

The mediamen actually set foot on the dikes that were constructed using limestone taken from the mountains and mangrove roots, as explained by newly elected Pandan Barangay Captain Ricardo Legaspi, and not from corals as alleged in the previous reports published in the papers.

Regaspi, who was among those who first built the dikes, said they never used corals because it is illegal and second it floats in the water and can easily be crumbled.

Most of the dikes were already eroded and destroyed by previous typhoons that hit the city. Thus, they could not see an operational fishpond within the Bolodeco area.

Also, contrary to the governor’s statement in an interview with a local TV station that the area is emitting foul smell posing danger to the residents and tourists’ health and the marine environment, the media practioneers instead enjoyed the refreshing sea breeze.

And so, as soon as they left the Bolodeco area to visit the famous Governor’s Island and pass the breeding station and mariculture center of BFAR at the national park, the media group already knew who were really lying.

Certainly, not Mayor Braganza who had done everything to get back the Hundred Islands from the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA) in 2005 in order to fully conserve, protect, and rehabilitate this God given gift to Pangasinenses.

And definitely not the city government with its sustained tourism promotion and major improvement in the park had lured an average of 150, 000 local and foreign tourists a year on visiting the Hundred Islands and the province of Pangasinan.

As one of the media practioneers said, it seems that Braganza administration is just being politicized by the provincial government in retaliation to the mayor’s stand against illegal numbers games and Governor Amado Espino shotgun project.

There’s likewise the sinister plot to destroy the image of the visionary city mayor and the glaring attempt of provincial government to take over the management of the park, another media man hinted.

When told that the provincial government had already asked the DOT, DENR and PTA to investigate on the Bolodeco issue, Braganza’s reply was quick.

“We welcome any probe. I’m also inviting our good governor and our congressman to visit us so that we could conduct an ocular inspection in the area together.”
After all, there’s nothing wrong in the HINP and that the City government has nothing to hide.

And therefore, Gov. Espino and Cong.Celeste should start asking for the Alaminians’ forgiveness for their false and irresponsible statements that affected the city and the province’s tourism industry. (CIO)


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