Northwest Luzon
is a part of the Philippines' main island much favored by foreign
tourists. And it is not to just one site where everyone goes,
as is the case with South Luzon or Mindoro, but tourism is equally
distributed throughout most of the region.
Among the
attractions, first is the shoreline. From Cape Bolinao at the
northern tip of the Pangasinan peninsula to Cape Bojeador on the
northern tip of Ilocos Norte province, the coast offers nice beaches
for swimming, sailing and surfing. The most favored stretch is
the middle section from Lingayen to San Fernando, La Union.
The strong
earthquake that battered northern Luzon on July 16, 1990, had
also had its effects on the beaches though rather on the infrastructure
than on the actual beaches. The buildings of a number of resorts
have been destroyed. Most of the researches for this edition of
our handbook have been made before the quake and therefore, a
number of the resorts listed may in 1991 and 1992 not operate
at full, or some of their facilities like tennis courts may not
be operational for a while. However, there can be little doubt
that tourism in the region will overcome the setback it suffered
from the quake. And the further north the visitor choses his destination,
the slighter the damages of the quake.
Largely spared
by the quake was the main architectural sight of the region, the
town of Vigan; Vigan is by far the best preserved Spanish town
in the archipelago.
In comparison
to other parts of the archipelago, northwest Luzon has few social
conflicts. First of all, land distribution does not seem as unjust
as on some southern islands. The northwest of Luzon which is also
referred to as Ilocandia (derived from the name of its major provinces,
Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur, and the local dialect, Ilocano) even
has in some areas a quite large petty bourgeois population. And
communities along the coast also often do not give an impression
of poverty on first sight, as do many of those on southern islands.
The towns of Ilocandia were given preference for two decades by
the government of deposed president Ferdinand Marcos who was from
Ilocos Norte. It is striking that many of the municipalities along
the coast have quite new market buildings, and town plazas are
often nicely decorated.
The people,
however, are to a certain extent more distant to foreigners than
those on southern islands, particularly Cebuanos. Furthermore,
Marcos is still much revered in all of Ilocandia, and some Ilocanos
blame the foreign media and the US government for his downfall
in 1986.
An exceptional
characteristic in the region is displayed by Baguio City, located
just some 40km (25mi) east of the coast but at an average altitude
of 1,600m (5,250ft). It is a new city that was built by the US
colonial masters to have a chance to flee the tropical climate,
particularly in the months of April and May. Even today, the city's
major industry is providing a comfortable climate with an appropriate
infrastructure for visitors from the lowlands.
However,
tourism in Baguio has heavily suffered from the quake of July
16, 1990. Not only were many hotels destroyed or damaged; worst
of all, the road connections were interrupted for many months
and for a long time, Baguio was only accessable over major deviations.
Easy access had always been a great asset of the city; it just
took an hour or less to reach the city from the coast. But when
Kennon Road was unleveled by the quake, Baguio was no longer easier
to reach than many other places in the Cordilleras.
It wasn't
the first time, thought, that Baguio was razed. In World War II,
liberation from the Japanese left the city in ruins and it resurrected
bigger and wealthier than it had been before. And while some parts
of Baguio might be gone forever, such as the HyattHotel that was
much patronized by the Marcos family, Baguio as a whole will,
I presume, after a few years be pretty much the same as before.
A second
economic line of Baguio, aside from tourism, has always been the
farming of vegetables and fruits of a kind for which the climate
in the Philippines is not usually suitable, such as lettuce and
strawberries.
In the region's
agriculture tobacco plays a major role. This situation stems from
Spanish times. The Spanish in 1781 imposed a socalled tobacco
monopoly on the area that meant that all suitable sites had to
be used for tobacco growing. As tobacco of course is no substitute
for edible crops and the gains from the trade of tobacco on the
world market were not made by the farmers but by the Spanish dealers,
the tobacco monopoly brought severe hardship to the people. After
Spain was forced to open the Philippines for free trade in the
middle of the 19th century, the tobacco monopoly was abolished
in 1883. However, even now a lot of tobacco is grown, and the
region is famous for the quality of its tobacco. Philippine tabacalera
cigars are among the best in the world, and many connoisseurs
switched to them when Cuban cigars were not readily available
on the world market anymore due to trade boycotts imposed on the
island after Castro's revolution.
Talking about
revolution, it has to be noted that the revolutionary forces of
the CPP and NPA are also active in northwest Luzon. However, they
are much less present along the Ilocandia coast than they are
in the interior of north Luzon.
Several revolts,
however, have occurred in the history of the region. One was the
revolt headed by Diego Silang in 1762. Another broke out over
the taxation of a native rice wine, called Basi, in 1807.
