Southern
Luzon, commonly called Bicol, and made up of the provinces of
Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, and Sorsogon, is a difficult
tourist destination. The region has a number of attractions primarily
for moun-taineers but it certainly lacks infrastructure. Bicol
as region probably has the lousiest roads in all the Philippines.
Even the main traffic artery which connects the whole peninsula
to Manila is merely a narrow two-lane road. Often large sections
are under repair and then traffic is diverted to dirt lanes. However,
these lanes are not much worse than the ordinary road. Because
of the many potholes, the trip is uncomfortable even in the most
comfortable of buses - no com-parison to bus travel on the excellent
roads in Northwest Luzon and even Mindanao. But the roads are
not the only problem in the region. Two other problems that should
be considered by those who plan to go there are weather and insurgency.
Bicol is
a land of rain and typhoons. Particularly the typhoons are a handicap
for the development of tourist infrastructure and infrastructure
in general. Among the typhoons which hit the region in recent
years, the most devastating was Sisang November 26, 1987. It caused
great additional hardship in the already poor region. Typhoon
Sisang killed more than 650 people in Bicol, mostly in the coastal
town of Sorsogon. Some 500,000 people were rendered homeless,
and some 95% of the coconut and banana planta-tions were wasted.
Sisang also destroyed a large number of resorts along Bicol's
Pacific coast. As gathered from the owners of many resorts particularly
in Albay province, a large number will not be rebuilt. Anyway,
the beaches of Bicol have not enjoyed much preference among foreign
tourists as most of them have a dark gray volcanic sand.
Even when
there is no major weather dis-turbance, Bicol tends to have a
lot of rain because not only the typhoons but also the tropical
depressions normally have their origin East of Samar and Bicol;
therefore these two areas are always hit first by bad weather.
And the bad weather not only spoils the days at the beach, it
can also cause problems when trying to return to the capital.
Though PAL and Aerolift have regular flights to Legazpi, Naga
and Daet, they may not always be a much more comfortable alternative
to the bumpy roads because of turbulence.
For those,
of course, who take pleasure in seeing nature go wild Bicol is
the best place to marvel at the powers of wind and rain. And occasionally
Bicol even presents the spectacle not only of raining cats and
dogs but also ashes and rocks. In addition it is a land of volcanos,
with several still active. However, even as volcanos sound more
dangerous than typhoons their eruptions have had less devastating
effects in recent years. Although the Mayon Volcano near Legazpi
City erupted September 1984, it only ejected light muddy particles
which put a wide area surrounding the volcano under a gray veil.
Except for that economically, people were not hurt.
The biggest
recorded eruption of the Mayon Volcano was February 1, 1814 which
killed thousands of people and buried the town of Daraga and the
Cagsawa church except for the tower.
Other volcanos
of the region include Mount Isarog near Naga City, Mount Iriga
near Iriga City, and Mount Bulusan near Sor-sogon. As is the case
with the Mayon Vol-cano, the immediate surroundings of a vol-cano
are often declared National Parks.
Besides its
destructive potential, Mayon Volcano has its good and beautiful
sides to it. Actually, Mayon Volcano is considered one of the
most beautiful of its kind as it is shaped as an almost perfect
cone, just as Mount Fuji in Japan. For its beauty, the Mayon Volcano
is a major attraction for mountaineers. As the volcano is well
ex-plored and as guides are readily available, Mayon Volcano is
one of the safer destina-tions, a neophyte climber may choose
in the Philippines. Even as further eruptions are ex-pected, they
do not have to be feared by the climber as a volcanological institute
located there would give early enough warning of any dangerous
activity of the volcano.
That it attracts
tourists who spend money is one good side of the Mayon Volcano.
Another is the fertile ground it provides to surrounding areas.
Around the volcano, a lot of rice is grown. Otherwise, the main
crops of the region are coconuts (because of their resistance
to typhoons but that didn't work out with Sisang), bananas, and
abaca from which hemp is produced which is woven into rope, hats,
baskets, and mats.
In Spanish
times, there used to be gold mining in Camarines Norte, especially
near the towns of Paracale and Mambulao, but today, gold mining
there is no longer of major importance. It still has beautiful
beaches at Bagabas, Lanot and San Jose. There are two waterfalls
- Kanapap and Itol - west of Daet.
Bicol, by
the way, was easily occupied by the Spanish from 1570 on, and
for some time later, Bicolanos were exempt from paying tribute
for immediately acknowledging Spanish sovereignty.
On the contrary,
the current Philippine state does not enjoy this acknowledgment
by all Bicolanos. After a lot of recruiting, propaganda and grass
root organizing, the area has become known since the change in
The Country 's administration in 1986 for its numerous NPA operations.
In Bicol, a lot of daring ambushes were undertaken by the NPA
which often cost the lives of a larger number of government troopers
than am-bushes in other parts of The Country . An ambush which
attracted nationwide attention hap-pened February 27, 1988, when
a military group was waylaid at Guinobatan in Albay province and
12 soldiers including the son of a prominent colonel were killed.
This par-ticular ambush caused a furor because it was attended
by foreign journalists and even filmed by a TV crew which allegedly
paid some 40,000 pesos for this privilege. The ambush therefore
was tagged Ambush-for-a-Fee.
Spectacular
NPA operations in the Bicol region also included the cutting of
traffic links between central and South Luzon in 1987.
These economic
sabotage acts started September 7, 1987 when two concrete bridges
in Sipocot and San Fernando towns in the province of Camarines
Sur were dynamited. Two days later, another bridge near Guinobatan
in Albay province was blown up. And September 20, 1987, some 500
NPA rebels hijacked a Manila bound train just before the town
of Del Gallego in Albay province, rode the train to the town and
there attacked the police and constabulary detachments, killing
17 and wounding 7 government troopers. Next, they blew up the
Quilbay railway bridge to also cut North-South rail traffic.
The NPA claims
to rule in many rural areas of Bicol. It also boasts of having
implemented its own land reform in many municipalities where either
lands owned by landlords have been confiscated outright and given
to farmer's cooperatives, or where landlords are forced to hand
over a big share of the agricultural produce on their lands to
farm worker's organizations.
