Paradise postponed

All eyes are still focused on the frenzied rescue and recovery operations in the mudslide-engulfed area of Southern Leyte. Soon, they’ll no longer be speaking of "rescue" – for those buried and suffocated in mud and flood can no longer be expected to be dug up alive. The recovery of bodies, sadly, will be the next endeavor.

Many who heard of how rescue teams were digging through the muck with their bare hands were surprised and somewhat shocked at this painstaking type of rescue operation – but utilizing picks, shovels, or heavy equipment could only harm, or kill any survivors still "breathing" underneath all that slime. Hope to find more, however, began fading yesterday with the fading of the light.

You’ve surely noticed that our armed forces personnel and even cadets are prominently involved in the rescue effort. Two United States navy vessels are likewise on the scene, one of them the helicopter-tender and assault ship, USS "Essex," the other a ship which is a virtual floating medical center.

Many other countries are donating substantial aid, including the People’s Republic of China. I happened to be in Boracay when the Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission, Minister Deng Xijun, rang me up on my cellphone to alert me on the aid pledged by China’s President Hu Jintao.

We thank the responding nations for their help and their concern, of course. But this brings me back to my original proposition. How long will we continue relying on borrowed aircraft, navy ships, and equipment from friends like the US military? Someday, Uncle Sam may not be in the neighborhood to help us in times of disaster and tragedy.

We must develop our own capability to cope with disaster and dispatch relief to the distant islands of our archipelago.

Other nations do this: it’s time we did the same, instead of depending on "the sympathy of strangers" – or friends and allies.

* * *

It’s surprisingly easy to get to Boracay island, the gem of all our tourist destinations, in effect one of our National Treasures. It’s when you get to Caticlan airport on the Aklan mainland that your "obstacle course" begins.

If you arrive aboard one of the commercial flights, like Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Asian Spirit, SEA Air, and so forth, a porter grabs your bag and puts you on a vehicle to the jetty port. When your vehicle, or bus, gets to the jetty port, another porter takes your bag and loads you on a boat to Boracay Island – a 15 to 20 minute boat ride. When you land on the island, either you scramble aboard a flat little boat to get ashore, or a boatman carries you on his back to the beach, or – if it’s happily low tide – you can splash ashore yourself (shoes off, naturally, and pants rolled up) in water up to your knee. The latter method of wading ashore is even viewed as "romantic" and adventurous fun by many of the foreign tourists.

But your travails are not over. Another porter gets your bag and puts you on a vehicle to your hotel. By the time the traveller or tourist reaches the chosen hotel, he or she is probably exasperated and almost "out of pocket" from having had to tip each of the seven persons one needs to hustle tourist and its luggage from airport to hotel, and, when the visitor departs, vice-versa.

By golly. For the past 20 years, our government has been bragging that Boracay is slated to be our Number One Tourist Destination – but why is getting there from Caticlan airport still being handled in such primitive and backward fashion?

We have our Department of Tourism and Philippine Tourism Authority spending hundreds of millions of bucks trying to entice tourists to come to the Philippines, as well as encourage domestic tourism.