Iloilo athlete is Miss Universe PH contender

BY TARA YAP

Alexie Mae Caimoso Brooks, the athlete and contender for Miss Universe Philippines, continues to be a story of sheer determination.

BROOKS (FB)

But the 22-year-old Alexie never had an easy life.  She literally never knew her parents, including her Ilongga mother and her Black American father who met in Lebanon when her mother was working as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW).

After Alexie was born in Manila, an uncle took her to the mountain barangay (village) of Buga in Leon, a town in central Iloilo province. It was her grandmother Lola Basing, her aunts and uncles who raised her.

As a young girl, Alexie was bullied for her skin complexion.  Rocks were even thrown at her.

Despite the traumatic experiences, Alexie soldiered on and never complained. 

To help her Lola Basing make ends meet, Alexie would accompany her grandmother to Iloilo City to sell vegetables.

It was more than a decade ago when a coach saw Alexie’s prowess in athletics and that led to a sports scholarship at Iloilo National High School (INHS) in Iloilo City.

From there, Alexie won the high jump competition at Western Visayas Regional Athletic Association (WVRAA) and Palarong Pambansa.

Alexie clinched a sports scholarship at the National University. In 2022, she was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) by the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP).

Alexie later represented the country in the Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam.

It was Alexie’s sideline in modeling that led to her discovery as a contestant for Miss Iloilo, which she won last January. 

It was Alexie’s phrase of “abanse babae” that would garner her attention as a woman with brains, brawn, and beauty.

Intermittent rain floods parts of Western Visayas

BY TARA YAP

  

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ILOILO CITY – Several areas in Western Visayas have been flooded due to intermittent rainfall in the past two days amid the searing heat.

As of May 4, the Western Visayas-Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council recorded flooding in parts of Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo.

A HIGHWAY in Dumalag town, Capiz province is flooded due to intermittent rain.  (Dumalag MDRRMO)

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The RDRRMC-6 said this was due to the low-pressure area and the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ).

In Capiz, the towns of Dumalag, Dumarao, Sigma, Cuartero, Dao, Panay, Mambusao, Maayon, and Tapaz were flooded.

In Iloilo, some areas in the towns of Pavia, Calinog, Bingawan, Lambunao, Duenas, Zarraga, and the component city of Passi were flooded.

The RDRRMC-6 recorded soil erosion in seven barangays Dumalag and Dumarao. The Mait Bridge in Dumalag was impassable.

The road and bridge in Barangays Agba-o, Ngingi-an, Bulabog, and Tapacon in Bingawan town, Iloilo was also impassable.

A landslide incident was recorded in Barangays Toyungan, Cahigon, and Binolosan Pequeno in Calinog.

The RDRRMC-6 is still collating data on the number of displaced people.

Many classes were suspended on Thursday in most areas of Panay Island due to the intermittent heavy rainfall.

Coast Guard: No oil slick sighted in Boracay

by Tara Yap

PHILIPPINE Coast Guard personnel monitor the coast of world-famous Boracay Island after an oil slick from a sunken tanker in Oriental Mindoro reached Antique province. (PCG Western Visayas)

ILOILO CITY – No oil slick from the sunken tanker in Oriental Mindoro has been seen so far in Boracay Island, the country’s most famous beach destination in Malay town, Aklan province.

“We conducted monitoring since Saturday and we found none,” said Commander Jansen Benjamin, Western regional information officer of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), during a virtual press conference on Sunday, March 5.

The PCG was on alert on Saturday, March 4, after an slick reached three coastal barangays in Caluya town, Antique. 

Benjamin explained that Boracay, which is more than 27 nautical miles from Caluya, was spared because the wind was going the opposite direction.

“But of course, that could change if the course of the wind changes,” Benjamin cautioned.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) has issued an advisory to tourists at the resort-island to “take precautionary measures.”

“We are reminding our local governments and tourism establishments on the identified areas to provide assistance to tourists (if the need arises) to ensure their health and safety,” the DOT-6 added.

 

Paraw Regatta sailboat festival back in March

by Tara Yap

ILOILO CITY – This city is preparing for the return of the annual 50th annual Paraw Regatta Festival sailboat festival canceled by the pandemic and held online for the past three years.

COLORFUL native sailboats race on the Iloilo Strait in the Paraw Regatta. (Tara Yap)

The Iloilo Festivals Foundation Inc. (IFFI) announced on Wednesday, Feb. 8, that the Paraw Regatta Festival will be held in March. 

The IFFI has lined up a series of activities for the March 12 to 19 event – a miniature paraw-making contest, a mural-making contest, a body-painting contest, a lighted paraw contest, beach volleyball games, dance performance contest, job fair, photo contest, and a lechon (roasted lechon) contest.

This will be the first time that the IFFI is managing the physical festival previously held by the Iloilo Paraw Regatta Foundation Inc. (IPRFI).

The IPRFI jointly managed the event with the Department of Tourism-Region 6 (Western Visayas) when the festival began in 1973.

In the Paraw Regatta, colorful native outriggers race on the Iloilo Strait, the body of water separating this city from the island-province of Guimaras.

Int’l cruise ships due in Boracay this year

by Tara Yap, MB 

A FOREIGN tourist relaxes in a secluded beach resort in Boracay Island with international cruise ship, MS World Dream, in the background in this photo taken in January 2018. (Tara Yap)

ILOILO CITY – Several international cruise ships are set to dock in world-famous Boracay Island this year.

The Department of Tourism-Region 6 (Western Visayas) has released an initial list of these ships confirmed to stop in the country’s most popular beach destination.

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The first will be MS Seabourne Encore on Feb. 13. At least 600 tourists are expected to explore the resort-island for eight hours.

The second will be MS Nautica on March 6.

MS Westerdam of Holland America is scheduled for two visits on March 3 and Nov. 7. MV Norwegian Jewel is set to visit thrice this year – on Nov. 3 and 29 and Dec. 1.

Others visiting are MS Seven Seas Mariner on March 8, Star Breeze on Nov. 6, and MV Seven Seas Explorer on Nov. 17.

Tourists from these liners are given eight hours maximum to explore the white-sand beach, the secluded Puka Beach, souvenir shops, and restaurants. 

Iloilo likely to host international dance festival in 2024

Published January 31, 2023, 11:39 AM

by Tara Yap

ILOILO CITY – There is strong indication that an international dance festival will finally be hosted by this city and the province of Iloilo next year.

“We want to continue our commitment to Iloilo,” said Marichu Tellano, deputy executive director of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA).

Tellano was referring to the Philippine International Dance Festival which Iloilo was supposed to host in 2020 but it was cancelled due to lockdowns and travel restrictions that followed the declaration of Covid-19 pandemic in the same year.

Around 200 foreign participants from Asia, Europe and Oceania were supposed to fly to Iloilo in what was an attempt to assemble the world’s biggest unity dance and possibly earn a place in Guinness World Records.

It seemed people behind this idea are well determined to push through with the unity dance.

“We have unfinished business [in Iloilo],” Tellano told Manila Bulletin. 

Tellano and NCCA’s Committee on Dance chairperson Dr. Shirley Halili-Cruz had just wrapped up the Dance Xchange: Live in Visayas.

In partnership with the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation Inc. (IDFI), the NCCA gathered 15 dance groups from the Visayas to perform live in Leganes town, Iloilo province.

Tellano said the Leganes event served as a test for Iloilo in its bid to play host to the proposed hosting of foreign dance groups next year.

“I believe Iloilo is ready. We were ready in 2020. We are ready for next year,” said Maria Luisa ‘Marissa’ Segovia, IDFI treasurer.

Segovia, who’s also the chairperson of the Regional Culture, Heritage and the Arts Committee (RCHAC) of the Western Visayas Development Council, said hosting international arts and cultural events could be of great help for the local economy that is bouncing back from the pandemic.

DOT bares 8 new tourism circuits in Western Visayas

by Tara Yap, MB

ILOILO CITY – The Department of Tourism (DOT) has revealed eight new tourism circuits in the Western Visayas region. 

VISITORS enjoy the sunset at world-famous Boracay Island. (Tara Yap)

“The new tourism circuits for 2023 will not only focus on sun and beach or cultural tourism. This will be different from before,” said newly installed DOT-Region 6 Director Crisanta “Krisma” Marlene P. Rodriguez.

Three are in world-famous Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan – the Boracay Biking Tours, the Boracay Wellness Workation (combining wellness and work retreat), and the Boracay Food Crawl.

These new offerings want to tap the other potentials of the country’s most famous beach destination.

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Another is the Western Visayas Dive Circuit, which will boost dive sites in Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, and Negros Occidental.

The DOT-6 is also promoting the Fun Farm circuit for farm tourism, the Slow Food project for culinary tourism, and the Western Visayas Sugar Heritage Trail for the robust sugar industry.

There is also Inter-Regional products, which will create a tourism circuit for diving, pilgrimage, and motor tours across the Visayas in collaboration with the DOT regional offices in Central Visayas and Eastern Visayas.

83,942 tourists visit Boracay from Jan. 1 to 15

by Tara Yap

TOURISTS at the white beach at world-famous Boracay Island. (Ernesto Cruz)

ILOILO CITY – A total of 83,942 tourists visited world-famous Boracay Island in Malay town, Aklan province from Jan. 1 to 15.

According to the Malay Municipal Tourism Office in a report released on Monday, Jan. 16, domestic tourists comprised majority of the visitors with 63,753. 

The office said there were 14,812 foreign guests and 5,377 Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Boracay from Jan. 1 to 15.

The high number of visitors was attributed to the influx of tourists for the New Year when the resort-island brought back its spectacular fireworks show and the Ati-Atihan Festival in Kalibo, Aklan.

Among the foreign visitors was Filipino-American comedian Jo Koy and his family.

More than 1.75 million tourists visited Boracay in 2022.

Boracay in danger of collapsing as 815 sinkholes discovered

by Tara Yap, MB 

THE Sun sets at world-famous Boracay Island on Nov. 24. (Tara Yap)

ILOILO CITY – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB) has warned that world-famous Boracay Island could collapse after 815 sinkholes were discovered.

“There is danger if there is overcapacity. Only time will tell when structures will collapse,” warned Engr. Mae Magarzo, chief geologist of MGB in Western Visayas region.

Magarzo told the Manila Bulletin in a phone interview on Wednesday, Dec. 14, that the number of sinkholes at the country’s most popular beach destination in Malay town, Aklan province gradually increased in the past four years.

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The MGB-6 found 789 sinkholes in three barangays during a hazard assessment in 2018, the year when the Duterte administration implemented massive rehabilitation and banned tourists in Boracay for six months.

By 2019, the number of sinkholes rose to 801. By 2022, these increased to 815.

Magarzo said that Boracay is susceptible to sinkholes since the ground is made mostly of limestone. 

She added that sinkholes are very hard to predict as these suddenly happen and there are no prior indicators.

The MGB-6 Coastal Geohazard Map also found key areas in the resort-island that are susceptible to erosion.

“The main beach is already showing low erosion,” Magarzo said.

Magarzo is calling for the stronger implementation of Boracay’s carrying capacity.

In 2018, the government set a maximum of 19,215 tourists in the resort-island per day with only 6,405 new tourists allowed to enter.

The DENR has yet to release Boracay’s new carrying capacity which was supposed to have been released when the term of President Duterte ended last June 30.

Tourist arrivals in Boracay increase in first half of October

by Tara Yap, MB

ILOILO CITY – Tourist arrivals in the world-famous Boracay Island resort in Malay town, Aklan increased in the first half of October, 2022, the Malay Tourism Office reported.

Based on the MTO data, a total of 65,427 tourists visited the country’s most popular beach destination from October 1-15, which is 7,640 more compared to the same period in September that saw 57,787 tourists’ arrivals.

The increase paled in comparison to the first half of August where 81,574 tourists visited the island resort.

Boracay Island during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Tara Yap/File/Manila Bulletin)

Most of those who visited Boracay, or about 55,658, were local tourists who came from different parts of the country. Last September 1-15, there were 50,697 domestic visitors.

The foreign arrivals also increased for the first half of October with a total of 8,725 tourists. In comparison, there were 5,613 foreign visitors for the first half of September.

Only tourist arrivals of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) dropped for the first half of October with 1,287. In comparison, there were 1,477 OFWs last September 1-15.

Boracay tourist arrivals down in September

by Tara Yap, Manila Bulletin

ILOILO CITY – Tourist arrivals at world-famous Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan are down 34,695 as only 122,373 visited last September.

A COUPLE walks on the beach in Boracay Island. (Tara Yap)

September was the second month in a row in the pandemic period that tourist arrivals plunged.

In July, 183, 076 came. A month later, numbers went down to 157, 338, and figures dropped further in September to 122, 373.

Majority of Boracay’s tourists were still domestic.

However, only 106,776 visited last month, down 26,044 from 132,820 in August.

Foreign and OFW visitors also dropped in September.

Only 12,513 foreigners arrived compared to 19,609 in August, a decrease of 7,096.

Only 3,084 OFWs were in Boracay, down 1,825 a month ago with 4,909.

Boracay tourism stakeholders are hoping that the number of arrivals will pick up again to sustain the socio-economy of the resort island.