by Luz Rimban

DONSOL, SORSOGON — As far as Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon is concerned, Donsol is heaven-sent. Since his first visit to the town in May, he has not stopped gushing about its tourism potential. He has been pitching the place as the best thing that has happened to the Philippines, the perfect "tourism product" to sell to foreigners, especially now that it's "Wow Philippines!" or Visit Philippines Year.

	The whale shark or butanding has become the biggest crowd-drawer in Donsol, Sorsogon, now the Bicol region’s top tourist destination. [underwater photos by Karina Escudero]

Gordon has reason to be awestruck. Flying in by chopper, he had a bird's eye view of at least 20 whale sharks or butanding swimming in the clear waters of Donsol, a town in Sorsogon province, on the southwestern edge of Luzon. Once on land, Gordon was hauled by local officials and environmentalists into a banca that carried him off to sea, where he was then lowered into the waters for a mind-blowing experience: a face-to-face encounter with the butanding.

This interaction with the whale sharks may have been novel to Gordon, but it has been experienced by thousands of tourists who have been flocking to Donsol in increasing numbers the past five years. Previously, marine scientists thought that whale sharks — the world's largest living fish that could be anywhere from six to 18 meters long — were found only in the waters around Bohol island and some parts of the Visayas and Northern Mindanao. Donsol was never mentioned until 1998, when from out of the blue, Sorsogon province launched a campaign to stop the killing of butanding.

Known as the gentle giants of the deep, butanding had been sighted — and slaughtered — in some coastal towns of Sorsogon, but in greater numbers off Donsol, as far back as local residents can remember. Many fisherfolk here recall childhood encounters with whale sharks. Residents also say that a butanding can sell for as much as P20,000 apiece. Its fins are used for soup. Buyers, however, do not really go for the epicurean pleasures offered by the soft butanding meat, which has a consistency similar to tasteless tofu and melts easily into oil. Rather, say local residents, whale shark meat is used as an ingredient for perfume and scented candles much preferred by Taiwanese or Chinese traders.

But since that campaign to save the whale sharks, the townsfolk here have seen that they could live off the butanding without having to kill them. The butanding are a magnet for tourists, who have brought the town much-needed business. From being a fifth-class town in 1998, Donsol is now on its way to becoming a third-class municipality. Local officials, on the prodding of green groups, passed municipal ordinances to protect the whale sharks. These included regulating and supervising the entry of visitors into Donsol's waters.

This system now runs like clockwork. A visitor to Donsol has to register with the local tourism office, which has a list of resorts or home-stay accommodations. Local tourists pay a registration fee of P100; foreigners, P300. Visitors who want to meet the butanding up close are told to rent bancas from any member of the Boat Operators' Association. With the boat comes not only a boatman, but also a spotter, a local resident who is trained to do just that — spot a butanding. Visitors who plan to venture into the water may hire the services of butanding Interaction Officers or BIOs, usually local folk who are trained divers and who can give tourists a literal in-your-face experience with the butanding.

For the last five years, Donsol has pretty much existed on its own as an ecotourism haven, with minimal supervision from the Department of Tourism (DOT). It is true that facilities and services need improvement, but on the whole, tourists have been coming despite, or maybe because of, the rustic, provincial third-world state of affairs here.

THIS may all change soon if Gordon has his way. Tourism officials in Bicol say the tourism chief wants to keep the town the way it is, but there are plans to expand infrastructure. He is considering building an airstrip in Catundulan Point on the northern edge of town for Korean and Taiwanese visitors who may wish to fly direct to Donsol on chartered planes, and is even mulling the activation of the old airport in Bacon town, an hour's drive away. The DOT is also toying with the idea of building "floating hotels," the kind that can be pulled back into land during the lean season. A restaurant by the sea and a five-star hotel are also on the list of possibilities.

	Dolphins have also been spotted in the waters of Donsol.

But townsfolk shudder over what the DOT plans may bring. They fear seeing Donsol turn into either the next Puerto Galera or the next Boracay. "I've seen what happened to Boracay," says Allan Amanse, head of the 22-man BIOs in Donsol. He says Boracay "is great for businessmen because money really pours in." But Amanse says the downside has been Boracay's transformation into a haven for drugs and prostitution.

Dr. Placido Alcantara, owner of one of the two resorts on Donsol beach, echoes this fear. "Building an airstrip might destroy the whole thing," he says. Alcantara foresees the time when Donsol will be teeming with more tourists than the town can handle, and not all of them would have the protection of the environment and the butandins on their minds. Alcantara recoils at the thought that Donsol might become another Sabang, a tourist section of Puerto Galera where flesh shops are wedged helter-skelter amid an assortment of inns and restaurants.

Already, Donsol has become the most popular destination in the Bicol region, which abounds with tourist attractions, among them the perfectly symmetrical Mayon Volcano, the ruins of the Cagsawa Church, and Tiwi Hot Springs. This year, even without the benefit of an all-out advertising campaign, the number of visitors who descended on Donsol for the butanding season of March till May was an unprecedented 2,000. Most were local tourists discouraged by the SARS scare from spending their vacation time and money going to Hong Kong, Singapore, or Thailand.

As the influx of tourists grows, local officials and townsfolk alike believe that reworking the rules and regulations are in order. Vice Mayor Salve Ocaya even says this should be part of a tourism master plan for Donsol. Ocaya thinks that there should be a holistic ecotourism program that would take into consideration not just supervising visits to the butanding habitat but also deciding which areas could be developed for tourism and what these would be for. This, however, can be done only if the town has a land-use policy. Unfortunately, Donsol doesn't have one. And so what master plan has been drawn up so far is merely a listing of possible infrastructure projects that will rise in the town.

Ocaya worries that if tourism here is allowed to flourish unmanaged, Donsol may have the same problems as Boracay, where tourist numbers exceed the island's capacity. The depletion of the town's water resources is one concern; another is setting up a sewage and waterworks system that will prevent a repeat of the coliform problem in Boracay.