Tourism potential

Last Saturday I found myself back in the picturesque towns of Calauan and Nagcarlan in Laguna, and then farther south in Pagsanjan and Sta. Cruz, around Laguna de Bay and beyond, through Quezon province and the Sierra Madre range.

Lunch was at a bamboo hut in Real, a town in Quezon I had never heard of, which is a pity because the lunch stop offered a breathtaking view of the sea. The sparkling water rolled gently into the long, curving beach. I didn’t notice any foreigner or any woman in a swimsuit; all the ladies were in shorts and tees.

In other countries, the place would be packed with tourists especially on a weekend. But Real, a town adjacent to Infanta, is about 180 kilometers from Makati, or a drive of over four hours.

The drive through the Sierra Madre may be long but it was a delight. In such trips, getting there is truly half – and in this case, even more – of the fun. The well paved winding road through the lush mountain range reminded me of Kennon Road going to Baguio and the old highway dubbed “Bitukang Manok” through a forest reserve going to Bicol, except along this highway you get many glimpses of Laguna de Bay in certain spots and then later of Polillo Strait and Lamon Bay.

There were no tourist inns along the way, or even carinderias for those who don’t like packing lunches. A few resorts in Real offered huts and small wooden cottages for picnics.

In the mountains I spotted a souvenir shop or two selling hand-woven hats, some handicraft and brooms. There seemed to be little economic activity in the sparsely populated area.

I wondered what tourism development would do for these towns, including ridding the Sierra Madre of communist insurgents. Across Real and Infanta is Polillo Island, where the scenery must be spectacular, but the island can be reached only by a boat ride of two-and-a-half hours from the Infanta port.

For those who don’t care for long drives even through scenic mountain roads, the beaches in Southern Tagalog’s eastern seaboard, facing the Pacific Ocean, would be accessible to more people, particularly from Metro Manila, if the road network would be expanded or improved.

There is a road from Infanta to Marikina that cuts travel from Metro Manila by almost half. That’s a lot of savings in time and fuel. The Marikina-Infanta Road, built, I was told, way back during the Marcos regime, is still there, and there are signs in Infanta directing motorists to the road. But mass transport drivers and even a cop in the town said the road is rough in many places, and taking the road is a bad idea.

So returning to Manila means going back through the Sierra Madre and the towns of Laguna. No doubt the towns are scenic, but once you encounter Los Baños traffic on a Saturday afternoon you’ll have an idea of what hell in a very small place means.

The Marikina-Infanta Road should not be a white elephant. We don’t have to abandon anything that smacks of Ferdinand Marcos and waste tourism potential.

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TOUGH JOB: Speaking of hell, Iraq is not heaven, but it’s no hell on Earth. Why ban travel to Iraq and not to Afghanistan or, say, Somalia?

Wadee Al-Batti wants to know. Al-Batti, a nuclear physicist, is Iraq’s first ambassador to Manila since its embassy was shut down following the US invasion.

He must have one of the toughest missions in the world: persuading Filipinos that Iraq, circa 2011, is a different country from the one shortly after the invasion, and from Iraq, circa 2004, when Filipino Angelo de la Cruz tried to drive a truck to Baghdad for a huge fee, and found himself held hostage by Iraqi militants.

Today, Al-Batti told me, 50 countries have reopened embassies in Baghdad, including several Western European and Asian countries, with more preparing to follow suit as the American troop withdrawal nears completion by yearend.

Al-Batti noted with dismay that the Philippines is unique in that it is the only country whose citizens have their passports stamped in red: “Not valid for travel to Iraq.”

He has yet to hear from the Department of Foreign Affairs regarding his government’s request to have that stamp deleted and the travel ban lifted.

I told him that our government probably didn’t want another Angelo de la Cruz mess in its hands, and might be waiting for what would happen once US troops complete their withdrawal from Iraq at the end of the year.

Our perceptions of the situation in Iraq are shaped mostly by television news coverage: Baghdad’s heavily fortified “Green Zone” where US personnel and several thousand Filipinos stay continues to be a top target of attacks, while everything outside the Green Zone is even worse.

Al-Batti said the real situation is different. He said hotels of various stars are open in the capital, and the Baghdad airport, larger and more modern than the NAIA, is fully operational. The government is offering incentives for foreign investors, including tax breaks, full ownership of enterprises, and full ownership of land, unlike… never mind.

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Filipinos should feel some of Al-Batti’s pain. At the height of the kidnapping spree by the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan and Sulu, the country’s tourism industry saw business plunge, with even the best marketing programs unable to dispel international perceptions that the entire country faced the same security risks.

During that period I would tell foreigners during my travels abroad that the average Filipino never set foot in his lifetime on Basilan, Sulu and the other conflict areas of Mindanao. It was frustrating to see my statements always greeted with skepticism.

When the military, with a lot of help from Uncle Sam, evicted the Abu Sayyaf from their jungle strongholds in Basilan and work started on a circumferential road plus a widening of the provincial airstrip, the Americans talked of the “Basilan model” for counterterrorism.

The government waited for the private sector to help boost economic activity and jumpstart development in the island-province. Only fast-food giant Jollibee bravely waded in. The rest, fretting that security would not hold especially after US troops were gone, stayed away. Money is a fearful commodity.

That kind of fear, though valid for sensible businessmen, can be self-fulfilling. Eventually Islamic extremists and other troublemakers started trickling back into the province, staging brutal ambuscades of Philippine troops and harassing local residents.

In Iraq the government is hoping that foreign investments and visitors would speed up the restoration of normalcy in the country.

“It’s the land of a thousand and one Arabian nights,” Al-Batti told me. “We’re open for business.”

His first order of business is to have the Philippine travel ban lifted.