Gaining ground vis-a-vis the Ayala Watershed

(Published in Zamboanga Today on January 16, 2008.)

As observed from previous months, one has yet to see an honest-to-goodness, true environmentalist from among this batch of local legislators that we presently have in the Sangguniang Panlungsod ng Zamboanga. The natural environment is a great come-on for Zamboanga to boost the growth of tourism in the city.

Some outsiders ask, ‘what else does Zamboanga have save for the Pasonanca Park which is too public for comfort, the Barter Trade with its prices also soaring, the Fort Pilar which houses the National Museum and which has on the side the Shrine of the Lady of the Pillar, the Paseo del mar which some people fear will be another white elephant with its ‘Do Not Enter’ sign turning a visitor off, and the far-from-sandy Zamboanga Golf and Country Club Beach Resort.

The City Government should consider the natural environment as a jumping board to rake in more investments for the city. Convening the tourism-related establishments like hotels and resorts and working hand-in-hand with them is a good start. Getting them involved into the solid waste management program is another step. And supporting them by providing them trainings on how to develop the city as partners in the promotion of Zamboanga as Asia’s Latin City, is another good move.

One wonders however, who is doing the planning for the development of city tourism in Zamboanga? What exactly is the agency doing this? It is observed that the present City Tourism Office is merely carrying out the usual October fiesta, Christmas festival, the annual kite festival, and an exhibit or two in a year. But there is more to fulfilling a tourism program than these festivities.

It means a year-round tourism program not just to invite non-Zamboangueños to come over especially for fiestas, but also to undertake steps to enhance and empower tourism-related establishments.

In last year’s elections, the City Tourism Office organized a Media Awards Night that never came to pass, that even the judges wondered what they did it for. No one knew the official results, but a rumor just spread among the media grapevine that one of the nominees complained—whether it was formally lodged or not, was unclear.

In fact, when Mayor Celso Lobregat was hit the hardest for its action to change the city brand to Asia’s Latin City, it should have been the City Tourism Office that advanced to the frontline and got its gears moving.

The City Tourism Office could perhaps consider the Ayala Watershed as a stepping stone for a future promotion. To develop such would perhaps entail development of the roads going up, inviting small-to-medium enterprises to venture on businesses along the way, and perhaps for the city government to embark on developing a viewing area within the watershed—even leading to the site where the mining area is.

To anyone who has not gone up the vicinity of the Ayala Watershed, it is a (literally and figuratively) cool place, so picturesque that it gives a visitor a great opportunity to commune with nature and find rare varieties of plants that could only survive within the area.

Indeed, there is more to the stones and minerals that one can find in the Ayala Watershed. It is one of Zamboanga’s springwells.

And we should not leave it at that. (Frencie L. Carreon)