Zambales mentioned in Lonely Planet's Top Ten Value Destinations for 2011

Lonely Planet lists the Philippines as one of the "Top Ten Value Destinations for 2011". Our lovely province Zambales gets a special mention as well!

The Philippines may be just about to rudely shove Thailand off the ‘best cheap beaches’ perch it’s occupied for the best part of two decades. While travellers argue long and hard about which is cheaper, there’s no denying Thailand is more popular. For those who desire nothing more than to find great, undiscovered beaches, surf the odd wave and eat unique, distinctive food for under US$20 a day, the Philippines has the edge. Add in the possibility of beach camping along the Zambales Coast or in the Bacuit Archipelago and you’ve got the recipe for timeless island hopping that suits any budget. Ferries link many idyllic destinations in the Philippines. Expect to pay around US$5 for each hour you’re on the water. (Source)

I heartily agree that Zambales has one of the best coastlines in the country and is easily accessible from Manila.

Philippines: 25 Best New Trips of 2010

The Philippines is included in the 25 Best New Trips of 2010, published in the November 2009 issue of National Geographic's Adventure magazine.

Summit to Sea

The Philippines has a PR problem. While it harbors as many islands as the Caribbean and some of the most spectacular reefs on the planet, the nation sees only a fraction of the visitors of nearby Thailand. Even travel companies, it seems, have bought the bad rap: Other than the occasional sea kayaking trip, U.S. guides have largely avoided the archipelago.

But Wilderness Travel has finally gotten wise. This May the outfit will lead clients high into the 4,000-foot Cordillera Central, then deep into the world’s most biodiverse marine environment.

The trip begins in Banaue, where travelers spend days hiking into terraced mountains and nights back at the town’s namesake hotel (pine cabins, private balconies, killer views). Then it’s down to the island of Cabilao, trading butterflies for fish� species of them. For the next five days, you’ll bob around reefs, scanning the area’s 350 varieties of coral (including table coral that’s a whopping nine feet wide).

But don’t forget: The best snorkeling starts at dusk. “It’s like being in a train station during commuting hours,” says Barbara Banks, Wilderness Travel’s director of new trip development. “The day fish are moving out and the night creatures like octopuses and eels are moving in.”

Links:
25 Best New Trips in 2010
Philippines – RP in National Geographic’s 25 Best New Travel Destinations in the World for 2010; Ancient Cultures, Structures and Biodiversity Cited

Time to shine folks!

Cross-posted: Candelaria, Zambales

News: Thousands still displaced by floods in Zambales

Thousands still displaced by floods in Zambales
By Robert Gonzaga
Inquirer.net

OLONGAPO CITY, Philippines — As more than 3,000 evacuees in Zambales started returning home on Monday after typhoon “Pepeng” crossed northern Luzon, thousands more in Botolan town remained in evacuation centers due to severe flooding there since August, local officials said.

Graciela Macabare, provincial disaster coordinating council chief in Zambales, said the 3,403 residents of Sta. Cruz town, who were asked to leave their houses on Friday to avoid the floods that would be generated by Pepeng, had gone back home.

She said the preemptive evacuation was ordered by Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. before Pepeng reached Sta. Cruz, the northernmost town of Zambales, because most residents there were living near the coastline.

“They are the ones usually hit when typhoons hit Northern Luzon,” Macabare said.

But in Botolan, which has been experiencing floods since a major dike was damaged by typhoon “Kiko” in August, floodwaters reached up to five feet on Saturday night when Pepeng dumped heavy rains in the area.

At least 2,120 families or 7,393 people have been staying in evacuation centers in the town since August.

Macabare said knee-deep water swamped the villages of Tampo, San Miguel, Batonlapoc and Paudpod on Saturday. In the villages of Paco and Carael, floodwater was neck-deep.

“We’re not sure when the supply for the [Botolan] evacuees will last. We still have some stocks. They will last for awhile, but if the rains continue and the number of evacuees rises, then we won’t have enough,” said Mayor Rogelio Yap.

Lorenzo Cailing Jr., 43, president of an organization of evacuees in one of the largest evacuation centers in Botolan, said they had started receiving a regular supply of relief goods from the town’s social welfare office.

Earlier, a group of evacuees complained that they had not been getting food and supplies for several days.

Yap said shortages would be inevitable.

“Our resources in terms of staffing and supplies are sometimes not enough to service all of them at once. But we are working hard to provide for all of their needs,” he said.

To ensure order in providing assistance and relief to evacuees, Yap asked donors to coordinate with the town’s social welfare office.

“What happens sometimes is that some evacuation centers are visited more than others by donors. Without coordination with us, then we cannot be sure that relief goods are going to those most in need of them. We ask the private sector to please help us and coordinate their relief missions with us,” he said.

Gov. Amor Deloso said the Olongapo-Bugallon Road remained impassable to all types of vehicles, cutting off access to northern Zambales.

He said the national road passing through Botolan was muddy and some sections were flooded.

“It’s hard right now to get around there. It is impossible to get from both ends of the province … You’d have to wait a few days at least before you can do that again,” he said.

He said no typhoon-related casualty was reported in the province but many houses and roads were damaged by floodwater and strong current.

Senior Supt. Rolando Felix, Zambales police director, said the five fishermen from Sta. Cruz, who were reported missing on Sept. 23, had been found.

News: Botolan flood misery refuses to end

Please don't forget the provinces. They still haven't recovered from the previous storms.

Botolan flood misery refuses to end

BOTOLAN, Zambales -- It is a test of resilience that residents of this town may not be able to bear any longer, forcing them to cry out loud for help.

In August, Typhoon “Labuyo” struck the town of more than 58,000 people, soaking clothes, appliances, mementos, food and lives in muddy, murky flood waters.

Labuyo struck just as the town thought it was on its way to recovery from previous flooding. Barely a month after, the rains poured again followed shortly by floods.

The disaster bore a different name, “Ondoy,” but it brought the same, if not higher, levels of destruction and suffering to the town.

Since August 6, thousands of evacuees in 16 evacuation centers here have become dependent on other people’s help since their houses were destroyed by floodwaters.

Forgotten

Now food is running out and most of the people are getting sick, according to Lorenzo Cailing Jr., spokesperson and president of a group of evacuees in Botolan.

He said in the last five days over 500 families in two evacuation centers have not received relief goods.

“Many people here think that we have been forgotten. We have not received anything ... We have been here for almost two months already,” he said.

He said the last batch of relief goods that came was from the social welfare department office of Botolan.

Each family got half a kilogram of rice, two sardine cans and two packs of noodles.

“We don’t know when the next relief goods would come. We’re sure that what they gave us won’t last long,” said Cailing.

The children are vulnerable to disease, although the elderly, too, suffer from coughs, fever, diarrhea and skin diseases.

“Our water source is also a problem,” he said.

A deep well that supplies water is 5 feet from a septic tank. Toilets don’t have doors “so we just cover them with umbrellas,” he said.

Nosebleed

The evacuees live in tents or shelter boxes donated by the Rotary Club International.

Rogelio Lima, 47, an evacuee from Barangay Carael, expressed gratitude for the shelter boxes but said the people could only stay there until 9 a.m.

“After that, it gets so hot your nose could bleed. We have to stay outside,” he said.

In Pampanga, the provincial government and private groups pooled funds and distributed relief goods to Ondoy victims in the province.

Governor Eddie Panlilio visited victims in Arayat town where 12 persons died in a landslide.

The provincial social welfare development office distributed more than P1 million worth of relief goods, including 60 cavans of rice, 140 boxes of canned goods, blankets, mosquito nets and kitchen ware, to flood victims in Masantol, Sta. Ana, Sta. Rita and Candaba towns and City of San Fernando.

Seeds, fingerlings and piglets will also be distributed to flooded villages while P12 million was allotted for the repair of dikes, roads and bridges and other government facilities.

Help coming

In Clark Freeport, the Clark Development Corp. (CDC), Clark locators, and the Philippine Air Force 600th Air Base Wing have raised more than P1 million to help typhoon victims.

Benigno Ricafort, CDC president, said the CDC and the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) each donated P250,000 while Cyber City Teleservices gave P100,000. Smart Shirts Phils. pledged P100,000 worth of clothes.

The National Information and Communications Technology Confederation appealed to all its member councils and partners to likewise help.

SM City Clark and SM City Pampanga have put up donation boxes inside their malls.

News: Flood after flood, Botolan victims kept from returning home, are now restless

Flood after flood, Botolan victims kept from returning home, are now restless

Written by Henry Empeño / Correspondent
Monday, 28 September 2009 18:20

BOTOLAN, Zambales—After losing their homes and most of their belongings to a series of floods that inundated 10 villages in this town since early August, residents who fled to the safety of higher grounds face new problems, mainly lack of food and medicine, as well as a stressful life in overcrowded evacuation centers that have served as their temporary homes.

“They badly need basic items like food, potable water, medicine, clothing, and most of all, housing,” said Vibelen Dimalupig, a social-welfare officer in Zambales, during a briefing at the capitol building in Iba on Thursday.

The relief goods issued by the government and those that come from donors “simply cannot cope” with the needs of the displaced families, she added.

The massive displacement of residents here began last month after heavy rains spawned by Typhoon Kiko combined with excess runoff from the mountains and packed a deadly headwater of debris-filled watery lahar.

The rampaging waters then breached a portion of the San Juan dike along the Bucao River, one of the major catch basins of lahar from Mount Pinatubo, and shifted the river course to nearby villages, sending residents scampering to safety.

In the aftermath of the typhoon, 4,783 families comprising 20,581 persons were displaced, a summary report prepared by the Zambales Provincial Disaster Operation Center showed. These included 4,913 persons from the riverside barangay of San Juan; 3,655 from the village of Carael, where the river passes through; 2,292 from Paco; 2,064 from Bangan; and about 1,500 each from the villages of Tampo, Batonlapoc, Paudpod, Capayawan, Beneg and San Miguel.

In the succeeding weeks when more typhoons brought torrential rains to Zambales, the number of evacuees in Botolan rose and fell along with the dreaded floodwaters, social workers noted.

When Typhoon Maring lashed the province on September 7, for example, 4,673 families were again affected by flash floods.

Of these, 718 families said their houses were totally damaged, while 333 reported that theirs were partially destroyed, a report by Botolan social-welfare officer Isagani Ecle said.

The new floods again led 1,931 families to seek refuge at evacuation centers, and 1,277 others to stay with relatives elsewhere.

Because of the recurring floods, 2,141 families composed of 7,942 men, women and children are still housed in 12 evacuation centers scattered in this municipality as of September 24.

But the relative safety of evacuation centers has apparently started to wear thin and exact some toll on the evacuees over time.

The emerging culprit, evacuees complained, is overcrowding that has inevitably strained the facilities and resources in the evacuation centers.

At the New Taugtog resettlement area, for example, a total of 901 evacuees from 235 families share a warehouse-like structure previously occupied by the Technology Learning and Resources Center.

Camping inside the building, the evacuees erected makeshift rooms that they share with family members and occasionally, household pets like dogs.

Over time, however, the noise and smell became hardly bearable that it was hard to sleep, said 74-year-old Gloria Dimacusa, who evacuated with her six grandchildren.

To make matters worse, the building has only three toilets to serve the whole evacuee population.

Social workers in this town admitted that the situation could be worse in other evacuation centers like the Babon San Juan, which has 1,771 evacuees, or the so-called Tent City, which has a total of 1,288 evacuees.

Gina Acuña, a rural health officer in this town, said the unsanitary condition in the evacuation centers, coupled by lack of adequate food and medicine, has made some residents sick.

Most of those afflicted have acute respiratory tract infection, fever, colds and cough, headache, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Acuña added.

Severino Magsanop, a 93-year-old retired soldier, has been living with his wife Felisa, 80, at the Taugtog resettlement site ever since their house in barangay San Juan became flooded last month.

Magsanop said the government should do what it can to help evacuees rebuild their houses and their lives.

“It’s very difficult to live in this kind of place,” Magsanop told the media in Pilipino during a visit last week. “We’re overcrowded in here. The place is dirty and it smells bad.”

The same plea came from Ester Josafat, 69, and Andres Bulanhigan, 65, who also left their family homes in San Juan when the floods ran roughshod over the village.

Bulanhigan, a vegetable farmer who has three children ages 5 to 16, said it is important for them to have a new home.

“We can make do with not much food, even with a few belongings, but we need to have our own house,” he said.

Typhoon Ondoy

Hello everyone. I hope you're all doing well after all that's being on with Typhoon Ondoy. I haven't had a chance to update, as I lost my Internet service last Saturday and could only use the Internet at work.

Anyway, I'm sure you've read and head a lot about what has happened over the weekend. The greater Manila area, and nearby provinces, experienced the worst rainfall ever last Saturday, about six months worth of water in about six to twelve hours. Many families lost their homes and belongings, some were unfortunate to lose their lives. Those who made it safely to the evacuation centers were all just thankful that they still have their families together.

For those who wish to help, here's three sites that might prove helpful (via MLQ3's Twitter).

List of Places to Donate
Map Update Form (places that still need rescuing, etc)
Ondoy Victim Directory

Also,let's not forget the people in the provinces who were affected by previous storms and were still having trouble recovering. They could also greatly use your help.

Stay safe everyone.

News: Flood overwhelms Philippine rescuers, death toll at 20

Flood overwhelms Philippine rescuers, death toll at 20

BOTOLAN, Philippines: Rescuers struggled to evacuate hundreds of villagers caught by rampaging flash floods in the northern Philippines on Saturday as the death toll rose to 20, officials said.

Police said the bodies of eight of 12 miners buried Friday by a landslide that hit a mining area in the northern city of Baguio have been recovered.

Provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Danilo Pelisco said they were still looking for six other miners.

Some 173,171 people in seven provinces in the northern island of Luzon have been displaced by flooding and landslides in the wake of Typhoon Morakot, which grazed the country before making landfall in Taiwan overnight, disaster relief officials said.

Among those also killed were two French tourists and a Belgian who went hiking on Mount Pinatubo volcano on Thursday despite warnings from local officials of rampaging waters on its slopes.

In the northern town of Botolan in Zambales provinces, rescuers on Saturday were battling strong currents to evacuate hundreds of residents marooned in their homes after rainwater and mud from the slopes of Pinatubo breached a dike.

A portion of the main highway leading to Botolan had been transformed into a rampaging river, and the current had swept away entire homes, trees and vehicles, an AFP photographer said.

"We are going to look for higher ground," said Joey Tiago, a member of the ethnic Aeta tribe, after he and his family managed to escape. "The water came suddenly Wednesday night, and we fled quickly toward safely with just our clothes on."

He said his home had been washed away.

On Friday, the air force said helicopters had plucked out about 300 children from submerged Botolan homes.

The government has declared Zambales under a "state of calamity" and released emergency funding to help the provincial government.

The state weather bureau said that while Morakot had now passed the Philippines, it would continue to bring rains across Luzon that could cause flash floods and landslides.

This video was taken by my mom yesterday around noon.