Thursday, July 31, 2008 So: Those Hilutungan fees By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
A weekend dive in Mactan led me to call up Mayor Adelino Sitoy last Tuesday. My apologies to the Cordova mayor if I had to let him repeat almost every word he said to me.
We haven’t met but I get the sinking feeling that he thinks I’m somewhat deaf. Mayor, I may be bungol but I am gwapa somewhat.
The business of the phone call? The Koreans collecting “user’s fee” in Hilutungan Island.
A diver friend told me about the P300-P500 user’s fee being collected by the Koreans in Hilutungan, one of the best dive sites in Mactan. Hilutungan, a marine protected area, is also among the best places to snorkel.
The fees are prohibitive: P300 per user if he dives and P500 if he takes videos underwater. To snorkel or even just come within the buffer zone of Hilutungan, one is charged P100.
Few local divers go to Hilutungan now. Fewer still are the snorkelers, who used to be seen floating like jetsam and flotsam in the area. The snorkelers are in nearby Nalusuan, an island also in Cordova that is titled to Democrito Mendoza and his family.
Michael Mendoza confirmed this to me in a phone call. User’s fees in Nalusuan are P150 per diver and P300 per videographer. Like Hilutungan, Nalusuan is an MPA. “But our concern is not on commercial value but on conservation,” he said.
The private managers of Hilutungan and Nalusuan islands pay the Cordova municipal government a fixed share of the user’s fees collected. Sitoy said this saves the local government the headache of collection and reduces the risk of corruption.
In Hilutungan’s case, the local government contracted the Fil-Korean firm Sei Yang Sports Management to develop the island within three years from May 2008.
Sitoy said Hei Yang has paid P3 million to Cordova and is obligated to pay P500,000 a month to the town. The contract, pegged at P18 million, was bid out.
A source who knows some unfavorable side of almost every politician in Cebu said the contract with Sei Yang “appeared to be in order.” “Murag limpiyo,” my source said in his text to me a few minutes after I inquired about the contract’s legitimacy.
Sei Yang has until 2010 to develop and manage Hilutungan island, including its buffer zone but excluding the core zone. The core zone, or the sanctuary, is an exclusive territory of the Cordova Government.
“Any destruction of the core zone will cause the cancellation of the contract,” Sitoy said. The mayor should know because he’s a lawyer.
Sei Yang can improve the pier for everyone’s use and put up a restaurant, and if things work out as envisioned, supply power and water in the island.
This is an altruistic vision if only the Koreans didn’t have a spotty reputation in Cebu. Their presence in Hilutungan can drive away non-Koreans from going there.
With very little economic activity now going on in Hilutungan, how can Sei Yang recoup its investment, unless it targets the island as a Korean tourist destination?
Mayor Sitoy is barely worried. “Bahala na sila ana. The smaller the patronage in Hilutungan, the better for the sanctuary.” This remains to be seen given the propensity of many Korean tourists to vandalize local property.
He said he had the management of Hilutungan contracted out because he wanted to get rid of “anomalies” and patronage in the use of the area, such as recycling of tickets and requests for free use by fellow public officials and friends.
So there, that explains why Koreans are now collecting the user’s fees in Hilutungan.
