Samal Island tourism in danger of decline?

A book of verses underneath the bough

A jug of wine, a loaf of bread — and thou

Beside me singing in the wilderness —

O Wilderness were paradise enow!

– Omar Khayyam

SAMAL island is a 30 square kilometer piece of wilderness that in yesteryears was settled only by Indigenous people composed of Mansakas, Mandayas and Muslim Samas coming from the various parts of the then undivided Davao province. In 1998 it was converted into a component city by Republic Act 8471, which merged three former municipalities of Davao del Norte — Samal, Babak and Kaputian — into a single local government unit by turning them into districts, now officially named the Island Garden City of Samal (IGaCoS). The new entity was composed of 46 barangay, all of which largely depended on agriculture for livelihood, with farming and fishing as the major sources of the natives’ income. Classified as a fourth-class component city, Samal receives an average of P92 million internal revenue allotment from the national government.

But for all its apparent backward economy, Samal’s pristine natural wealth has remained largely preserved over the years: powdery beaches, spectacular marine reefs and tranquil waters that lure tourists from all over the world, especially to Talikud Island.

It was a matter of course that in due time, Samal would enjoy a reputation as one of the Philippines’ great tourist attractions. True enough, tourism has risen as Samal’s biggest industry, accounting for the employment of thousands of workers and thousands more in the informal sector. Today, Samal is considered the country’s largest resort city. A Business Mirror report illustrates the true impact of this assessment: “Currently, there are 85 registered resorts with a combined inventory of about 1,000 rooms. While Samal is known for the iconic ultra-luxe Pearl Farm Beach Resort, scores of middle-end accommodations have been sprouting, the most notable of which is Club Samal Resort opened in April by President Duterte himself.

“The island’s other must-see attractions are the 80-hectare Sanipaan Shoal Sandbar and the IGaCoS Mangrovetum, the first of its kind in Mindanao that serves as a laboratory for scientific studies on the mangrove ecosystem.

“Another must-visit is the Monfort Bat Sanctuary, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the largest concentration of fruit bats of the Geoffroy’s rousette species. The area is home to more than 2 million fruit bats that help fruits to pollinate and limit the population of harmful insects.

“Samal is also the diving haven in southern Mindanao, because of its lush and diverse marine life. Talikud Island recently hosted the first-ever Dive Festival of the Visit Davao Summer Festival, a program of tourism stakeholders in the region supported by the Department of Tourism 11. The daylong dive event gathered 30 volunteer divers to take part in ‘scubasurero’ underwater cleanups, and extraction and lethal injection of crowns of thorns whose proliferation damages the health of coral gardens.” It is alarming, therefore, to hear that tourism is in danger of serious decline in the locality. In a recent airing of “Partners” at RMN DZXL 558, engineer Pastor Lozada Jr., president of the Samal Island Resort Owners Association, went into great detail about this matter.

“Nagkakasira ang mga appliances namin gawa ng madalas na nagbobrown out. Pagkatapos kung kailan kang maraming guests, doon brownout. Alam mo kapag walang kuryente sa resort, napakalaki ng epekto niyan,” he said. “Unanguna, wala kaming tubig diyan… ito pa namang Samal Island, we are reputed as the nearest tourism island dito sa Davao City (Our appliances break down due to frequent brownouts. And what is worse is when there is a big influx of tourists, that’s when brownouts occur. You know, lack of electricity has a wide-ranging effect. For one thing, under the situation, there is no way we can have water. To think that Samal Island is reputed to be the nearest tourism island to Davao City).” It turns out that the sole provider of electricity in Samal island is the Northern Davao Electric Cooperative Inc. (Nordeco).

According to the resort owners association head, Nordeco has been poorly serving its customers over the years. “With only a rural electrification rate of 63.56 percent, one can say that almost 40 percent of the population it must serve does not have electricity in its household. But even for rural households that have electricity, they still can’t fully enjoy the benefits of electricity because of frequently recurring brownouts,” Lozada, the engineer, said.

Lozada lamented, “For Samal Island, there is a major threat that its great potential as a tourism island may never be fully realized. Why would people go to Samal if they know the supply of electricity there is not consistent? Why would they risk ruining their vacations due to the brownouts?” The program host, Charlie Manalo, contributed his own details on the Samal Island electricity woes: “The system loss rate of Nordeco at 18.92 percentis very high. This is beyond the cap of 12 percent set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).” This means Samal Island consumers of electricity are billed at a rate higher than what the law prescribes in this regard, or 6.92 percent more. So, necessarily adding to power outage woes by the Samal folks is the unlawful increase in Nordeco’s charges.

“So, hindi lang pala kakulangan sa supply ng kuryente kung hindi pati iyong mismong sinisingil sa atin, sa mga consumers eh mataas din (So, not only is the problem a lack of electricity but also consumers are charged high),” Manalo said.

What is ironic is the revelation by Lozada that this problem of power outages on Samal Island should have been solved long ago.

According to him, the resort owners association had a proposal five years ago to build a solar hybrid power plant on Samal to be done by a Japanese company on a build-operate-transfer scheme. That would enable the community to generate its own electricity in the island free of brownouts. He decried that too much bureaucracy in the government caused the project to stay dormant all these years.

Manalo disclosed that despite Samal, Davao del Norte and Davao City being neighbors, there is a significant difference among them on the price and quality of electricity. Davao City is superior in these areas, primarily owing to the fact it does not rely on Nordeco for its electricity, unlike its two neighbors. He pointed to data showing Samal and Davao del Norte residents pay P10.60/kwh as of June 2021, compared to P8.93/kwh for Davao City residents. “Ultimately, the issues of expensive electric bills and frequent power outages are rooted in Nordeco’s incompetence,” Manalo declared. “What’s to be done? With Nordeco showing no signs of improving its services, it is better to terminate its franchise to stop its incompetence that has already hurt its customers for so long.” Well, certainly, Samal island is too much of a “paradise enow” to be left to the mercy of demons.