Palawan lacks tourism infrastructure

PUERTO PRINCESA – The arrival area at Puerto Princesa’s airport is a nightmare. No self respecting city that’s trying to attract tourists should have one that’s so Third World primitive. That poor excuse of an arrival hall — it is more an arrival hole — would have been messier still if it was raining.

Okay, a new airport terminal is under construction. But from the looks of it, that new terminal is so small it will outgrow its usefulness even before construction work is finished. It is obvious the new airport terminal was not built to accommodate the growth ambitions of a city that is supposed to be one of our stronger tourism destinations.

The three-hour road trip to the underground river is the other thing that would deter a more solid growth in tourist numbers. It was one hell of a rough ride that used to take over four hours. Puerto Prinsesa’s energetic Mayor Edward Hagedorn said he got tired waiting for the national officials to do something about it. Now, the city government is starting to cement the road and he confidently told me that by next year it will be all finished.

Over breakfast at Itoy’s, Puerto Prinsesa’s version of Starbucks, Mayor Hagedorn told me quite frankly that Palawan is not yet ready for the tourism big time. He said the local private sector has chided him for saying so but it is the awful truth. Before we even start inviting more tourists to come, he said, we must first put the right infrastructure in place. He is afraid that the horrible infrastructure will cause a boomerang in terms of word of mouth reviews that are less than enthusiastic.

The mayor said that in 1994, he was against the holding of a major Lion’s Club convention in Puerto Prinsesa precisely because they do not have adequate facilities. The private sector insisted and he said it was a horrible and sorry mess. They didn’t have enough hotel rooms. They didn’t have enough vehicles to ferry the delegates from the airport to the hotels and the homes that were opened to take guests.

They didn’t even have a convention hall large enough to accommodate the gala dinner so they had to do it in a basketball court. The men had to dump their formal suits because it was too warm. The make up of the ladies smeared on their faces. In other words, the event was a crisis almost like a bad typhoon or an earthquake striking Puerto. No one was happy.

The mayor got to say I told you so. And it is also why he is not about to commit the same mistake again. Right now, the mayor said he will not actively promote Puerto Prinsesa until they are able to put in place the right infrastructure to support tourism growth. But they are better off now because the city itself under Mayor Hagedorn’s leadership has invested in such things as an 8,000 capacity air conditioned sports stadium with emergency facilities, a bay walk and a take off pier for the boats that bring tourists to the scenic islands.

The mayor also said they need a modern medical facility with capability to handle all sorts of emergencies including heart attacks and strokes. He said that a number of groups who want to put up retirement villages have pointed out that such medical facilities are essential if Puerto wants to become a major tourist center.

Then there is the matter of preparing the people to interact with tourists. The Mayor is on a massive cleanliness campaign that would make Lee Kuan Yew proud of him. Everywhere in this large city are green garbage bins, similar to the type respectable cities abroad use. An ordinance is in effect that fines anyone who litters the streets or puts garbage anywhere other than these proper receptacles. Habitual offenders are jailed. Mayor Hagedorn’s cleanliness effort shows what sheer political will can accomplish.

Where does all the garbage go? Puerto Princesa has something that should make Metro Manila mayors and MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando green with envy. They have the country’s first and only scientific sanitary landfill facility. I visited the P300-million facility located in what used to be a mercury mine site. It had the proper plastic lining to prevent contamination of ground water by the leach or so called “garbage juice”. This juice is collected and processed in a wastewater processing plant to make sure it is clean enough before being disposed to a river.

Where did the mayor get all the money to do his projects? The landfill facility was 30 percent financed by the Asian Development Bank. The P350 million road to the Underground River is also financed by Puerto’s IRA or Internal Revenue Allotment. He explained that the basis of the allotment is land area covered and today, Puerto Prinsesa City is the largest city in the country, nosing out Davao by a few hundred hectares.

So, he said, it is all a matter of making the right spending priorities. Right now, tourism is the number one industry even if only 200,000 tourists come each year. That’s why he rightly thinks that it is government’s role to invest on infrastructure to make tourism numbers grow.

He belittled all the marketing and publicity effort of the Department of Tourism because it is putting the cart before the horse. You cannot market until the product is there and that includes not just the natural wonders but the hotel rooms, the road network, medical facilities and even trained people to run the tourist oriented establishments.

Speaking of trained tourism workers, I brought out to him my family’s experience in the hotel we are staying. Legend Hotel is supposed to be 3 star but ever since the regulation and rating of hotels and other tourism establishments were devolved to local governments, the star rating being cited can be misleading. I told him whoever is licensing hotels for him in Puerto Prinsesa does not know what he is doing, if our experience in Legend Hotel is any indication.

The first place I look at in a hotel is the public restroom. If it is clean and odor free, the hotel is well managed and I can trust the safety of the food served and the cleanliness of the rooms as well. Legend’s rest room in the first floor stinks. When I went up to the room assigned to my children, I noticed that there are water marks in the ceiling and the bathroom seemed less than clean.

If I thought my children’s so-called “standard room” was bad, the “de luxe” room my wife and I stayed in was even worse. The sink in the bathroom was somewhat clogged… takes more than 10 minutes for water to drain after something as simple as hand washing. The side of the bath tub had unsightly, actually yucky shit-like brown discoloration around its top side. I decided to wear my rubber slippers when I took a bath. The bedside reading light was not working.

What finally sealed my utter disgust with the hotel’s management was what I observed on day two. The room opposite my children’s room apparently had room service sent up because when we arrived that evening, there was this pile of plates and left over food at their door. That pile was still there the following morning.

Someone should teach the hotel’s manager to manage by wandering around his hotel. As I was telling Mayor Hagedorn, it is his duty as the hotel’s regulator to evaluate the establishment based on some clear national criteria established by the Department of Tourism. The city employees tasked to do this should also be trained by the Department of Tourism.

I am told that the owner of Legend Hotel just bought the shattered Asiaworld Hotel, which used to be the only 5 star hotel in Puerto Prinsesa. Puerto badly needs a good 5 star hotel. But if it will be managed as badly as Legend, then Puerto Prinsesa may as well forget being taken seriously for big time tourism.

Lucky for Puerto Prinsesa they have a fantastic mayor who is determined to make his city ready for the tourism big time. If only for that, I am certain that the right things will be done… from building the right infrastructure to making sure Legend gets better management in place.

The bellboy

“And will there be anything else, sir?” the bellboy asked after setting out an elaborate dinner for two.

“No thank you,” the gentleman replied. “That will be all.”

As the young man turned to leave, he noticed a beautiful satin negligee on the bed. “Anything for your wife?” he asked.

“Yeah! Thats a good idea,” the fellow said. “Please bring up a postcard.”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]