From The Editor’s Desk

Busuanga / Coron, like many locations in the Philippines, is struggling to balance the need to feed an ever growing population while protecting its environment for the future – if only so that tourism can flourish. Being one of the more well known tourist destinations in famed, “environmentally–aware” Palawan, I had imagined that environmental protection would have taken root and that fine examples would have been apparent that I could promote so that others could learn.

Sadly, with few exceptions, Busuanga / Coron has accomplished little since 1999 – when I first visited its shores to celebrate the turn of the century, as crew amongst a flotilla of sailing yachts from Manila, Subic Bay and Puerto Galera.

The exceptions include: a marine park has been established to protect just one of the area’s many shallow reef areas; education about the long–term damage caused by dynamite and cyanide fishing has taken root and the practice is now almost non-existent; and, the Tagbanua, the indigenous peoples of northern Palawan, have been granted dominion over at least one small part of their ancestral domain – Coron Island – and are keeping the developers out.

Conservation comes at a price and, if we want more, we must learn to pay. The price of landing on Coron Island is Php200 per person and it must be said that the Tagbanua, on-station to collect the fees, offer little actual welcome apart from an unofficial receipt. The price of conserving the marine park is Php100 per person who arrives to snorkel and admire the very varied corals and shoals of colorful fish that would otherwise have been someone’s supper long ago. Most beach owners on the outer islands now also charge a landing fee of Php100 per person.

All of this is a far cry from the Coron of a quarter century ago, when Gunter Bernert was granted a mayor’s permit to operate Discovery Divers, with a handshake and some extreme, jovial skepticism. Then Mayor Enriquez was incredulous at the former’s answers to questions like: so your divers will come to spear fish? “no”; your divers who come to hunt for treasure? “no”; “they will come to marvel and enjoy and take only photographs”. Mayor Enriquez laughed and simply offered, “good luck Gunter”. The rest, as they say, is history; the Coron Wrecks are today one of the three best places in the World to dive on World War II wrecks (the others being Truk Lagoon in Chuuk and Scapa Flow in Scotland).

My journey started at the other long-time venue for Coron scuba divers – Sea Dive Resort. Sea Dive sits at the end of a short pier that used to be the farthest man-made protrusion into Coron Bay. Sea Dive’s once prominent pier is now dwarfed by the new “reclamation”, that threatens Coron town’s waterfront and for which nobody I found could offer a coherent purpose. The reclamation was reportedly built against the advice of the best environmental science available and the town’s once clean waters are now threatened by the depleted tidal–circulation. I saw no children swimming in the water off town’s piers as I had a decade earlier.

On the bright side, one Teddy Aquino is spearheading a move within the business community to form a functioning, enterprise–wide Chamber of Commerce that aims to offer the municipal and provincial government new, workable private sector initiatives with the objective of increasing ecotourism to replace the former livelihood of the community that has been lost through abuse, neglect and lack of education in sustainable practices. In Busuanga too, new developments at Puerto Del Sol Bay give hope for sustainable progress and livelihood development without rampant destruction.

But before we get into all of the surprises found in the modern Busuanga / Coron, a few events are recorded here for their contribution to the spectacle of water sports in the Philippines. Enjoy!