ShareThisALAMINOS CITY, Pangasinan — The Hundred Islands National Park (HINP), the first nationally-declared marine park in the Philippines, continues to awe tourists from all over the country and various parts of the world.
Streams of tourists riding in air-conditioned buses continue to disembark almost endlessly at Lucap Wharf, the jump-off point to the Hundred Islands.
There, they will take motor boats for a close to 30-minute drive to the Quezon Island, the now famous Big Brother Islands and any other islands where they can relax, enjoy the scenery and swim till sundown.
Declared as a national park by President Manuel Quezon in 1941, the HINP continues its legacy as Pangasinan’s top crowd-drawer even after the city government of Alaminos wrested control of HINP from the Philippine Tourism Authority (PTA).
A report of Reynaldo Livara Jr., HINP technical consultant, showed that tourist arrivals as of Nov. 8 this year reached 140,425. Of this number, at least 8,466 were foreigners.
The number was only some 4,000 smaller than the tourist arrivals in 2009 at 145,200, at least 8,466 of them foreign tourists.
The city government took over HINP from PTA in September 2005 by virtue of Executive Order No. 436 signed by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The turnover finally satisfied the provision of the city charter of Alaminos that the HINP, comprising of 123 islets of different sizes and shapes, is within its territorial jurisdiction.
The Alaminos City government noted that there were only 63,655 tourists that were recorded in 2005 as there was no record of arrivals from June to September.
Livara said that what were available were records from January to May 2005 under PTA; and October to December 2005 under the city government.
But with the whole of 2004 as reference, the record of arrivals that year was 95,008 with at least 4,111 of them foreigners.
Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza said since the city government took over the HINP, tourist arrivals breached the 100,000 mark — 111,784 in 2006; 148,458 in 2007; 140,258 in 2008; and 145,200 in 2009.
The Alaminos City government continuously promotes the HINP through the holding of the yearly Hundred Islands Festival, which offers array of fun-filled activities that coincide with the city fiesta.
From mere swimming and sight-seeing, tourists going to the Hundred Islands can now do kayaking, scuba diving and bird-watching as side activities.
Braganza said he expects more tourist arrivals with the completion of the Pangasinan Airport whose construction started since the early part of this year.
The city government is also building its own Alaminos Hotel in Barangay Lucap where tourists who may want to stay longer can be billeted.
The hotel that the city is building will have facilities for big national and even international conventions.
The city government borrowed P35 million from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and put up P7 million as equity in order to build the hotel.
Through its Bantay Dagat, the Alaminos City government stopped blast fishing, poaching and other destructive methods of fishing which used to be rampant within the Hundred Islands.