Underground river creates jobs, other opportunities

The Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) has spawned livelihood opportunities for the people in Palawan particularly Puerto Princesa City.

Transport vans, who used to be around 200 hundred, now reportedly number about 500, busy fetching visitors and tourists from hotels, inns and pension houses to their destination - the now world famous PPUR. And the number of vans is growing steadily, says Rico Fernandez, who drives his own newly-acquired van servicing guests in this city.

Hotels are sprouting too in Palawan particularly in tourist destination areas, reveals Gov. Abraham Mitra during the Philippine Economic Briefing on Thursday at the Hotel Centro here led by Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga.

The number of motorized bancas which bring tourists to the underground river from the Sabangan wharf is growing too. And from the mouth of the river, boatmen who double as tourist guides are earning enough for the day's needs.

It was gathered that a boatman can make up to eight trips a day. Making trips beyond that average is not advisable though as it is not that easy to paddle the boat up to almost two kilometers inward and back and do the talking at the same time as tourist guide.

After the PPUR trip, the vans on their way back to the city proper usually drop by a restaurant nearby where the visitors are treated to a buffet lunch.

Apparently, there is some kind of business arrangement between the booking offices, transport operators, banca owners and boatmen and the food servers.

Makers and sellers of souvenir items like key chains, T-shirts and cultured pearls are making a killing too. It is almost natural for a guest to look for souvenirs so this business clicks in a tourist spot like PPUR.

Travel and tour offices are seeing a sharp increase in their bookings, notes Nelson Guerra, a licensed tourist guide who fetches his clients from their hotels as early as 6 a.m. for a 9:30 a.m. date at the underground river.

Daily visitors to PPUR now number from 700 to 800 hundred visitors and even peaks at 1,000.

Travel time from the city proper to the wharf in barangay Sabang is about one hour. It takes about 20 minutes for the motorized banca to reach the mouth of the river.

Guerra says it is easier for a visitor who booked his trip to the PPUR and other destinations like Honda Bay to get through the registration process at the wharf and at the river itself, noting the steadily rising number of visitors daily.

About 800 visitors are said to be daily flocking to the river since its inclusion in the New Seven Wonders of Nature. Less than half of that number had been eager to visit the place before.

Discovered sometime in the 1880s and opened to the public in the early 1970s, PPUR provides a living for the people here not only for those directly involved like Guerra and Fernandez but also small businessmen including street vendors.

The new Nature Wonder's ripple effects to the city's economy is truly remarkable and it benefit both the city administration and its people.

It is a big challenge therefore for the city's leadership to provide the needed facilities and amenities for the growing tourism industry.

by Danny O. Sagun (DOS/PIA Mimaropa)