Shooting Pinatubo -1

ON June 15, 1991, Mount Pinatubo in Zambales awoke

like a sleeping giant after 500 years and shocked the world.

It was the world’s second largest eruption in the 20th

century after the Katmai-Novarupta, Alaska in 1992.

The date is significant to designer Barge Ramos and to

other traveling Filipinos who were to fly to Manila on that

day. They were stranded in their cities because Naia was

closed. Ramos was in San Francisco. In all the international

dailies, Pinatubo’s eruption hit the front page. Pictures

showed ash clouds 35 kilometers into the sky and hot

blasts scorching the countryside.

The ash fallout reached 450 kilometers south to other

provinces including Naia. The fallout reached as far as

Cambodia, South Korea and Malaysia. Lahar, a mixture of

volcanic rock debris and water, traveled at nearly 100 kilometers per hour. The

bank erosion and lahar left 50,000 homeless and affected more than 1,350,000

lives in Central Luzon. Some 250 died in the eruption and more than a hundred

drowned in lahar.

Back then Ramos couldn’t imagine the magnitude of the

natural calamity. Ten years later, he experienced the eerie

and mystical beauty of Mount Pinatubo. For Philippine

Daily Inquirer’s surreal fashion pictorial, he and four

designers created gowns, which also marked the beginning

of a series of events leading to the 10th anniversary

celebration of the volcano’s eruption.

Easy access

Mount Pinatubo is now a popular tourist spot. The locals

have benefited from tourism. On April 9, Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon will

accept the Pacific-Asia Tourism Association Gold Award for Ecotourism in

Kuala Lumpur. The Pata recognizes how tourism has improved the lives of the

people.

The project, the Mount Pinatubo Ecotourism Kabuhayan sa Turismo Program,

has helped provide a better quality of life especially for an obscure community

such as Barangay Sta. Juliana in Capas, Tarlac. Department of Tourism regional

director Ronald Tiotuico explained that locals lived in hand-to-mouth existence.

The natives gathered pumice stones and volcanic rocks from the river bead and

sold them to traders. These stones were used for stonewashed jeans.

In 1994, the DoT wanted to make Mount Pinatubo a travel destination. The

problem was how to get there in the least possible time. Two years ago people

discovered the fastest routes to the crater via Barangay Sta. Juliana. It was hick

town with a population of 3,000. In the past two years, the DoT has been training

the locals on how to serve the tourists. Now the efforts are paying off.

Tiotuico says since the volcano treks were developed, the DoT has been holding

seminars on ecotourism and has been helping to create jobs in the community.

Visitors pay P20 for the conservation fee and P500 for the guide.

The tourism income goes to the Sta. Juliana Tourism Council that organizes

community projects, street lighting, and the renovation of chapels. The community

also built a tourist center, which provides toilets and baths. The DoT trained

some households in Sta. Juliana for the Homestay program.

From Sta. Juliana, trekkers ride in 4x4 vehicles that traverse along the rough

rounds and streams through the O’Donnel River. It takes about 60 minutes to get

to Sitio Dapili; no cars are allowed beyond this point. They take a five-kilometer

walk to the crater takes nearly three hours. The crater is located in Botolan,

Zambales.

"It’s no longer a No Man’s Land," says Tiotuico. Last year, Mount Pinatubo had

an average of 1,200 trekkers a month. Sometimes there were about 100 visitors

a day. About 80 percent came from Metro Manila, the foreign tourists were

mostly Europeans. More than 30 local guides and 20 porters can assist the

tourists. The Air Force provides security. The peak months are from March to

May. During the rainy season, the locals start farming and they harvest in

November. The harvests are offered to Apo Malyari, the god of the volcano.

On Nov. 30, the Dot is organizing a trek to the crater similar to the pilgrimage to

Mount Fuji to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the eruption. Trekkers will offer

flowers and harvests to the Divine Protector of the Aetas.

Indiana Jones trip

This fashion shoot was for the books. The DoT fetched the designers, models

and photographers at the Holiday Inn Clark Field Resort at 5 a.m. The DoT

advises that Manileños should spend a night in either Clark or Angeles City the

night before the trek. The Dot served them a hearty Filipino breakfast at the

Tourism Center in Sta. Juliana.

The trip to the crater was as designer Noli Hans put it "like an Indiana Jones

adventure." Colleagues Frederick Peralta compared the trip to a roller coaster

ride. Everybody kept on screaming as the vehicle passed through the inclines and

fast streams. The driver assured them that they would arrive safely. When they

reached the slope, they had to make the customary salutations to Apo Malyari,

the god of the volcano.

A month earlier, Norwegian photographer John Mossige spent a night at the

crater for an ocular inspection of the site. Dream Trek accompanied him to the

tour. He took Polaroid shots and showed them to his agent in London. The agent

was surprised by that it looked like an ice cap.

Mossige returned to Manila to do some commitments for his local agent, Cal

Carrie. He then met the designers and asked them to make gowns that were vivid

in color and soft in silhouette to set off the earthy landscape. Other designers such

as Auggie Cordero and Mike dela Rosa also made gowns for the Inquirer

pictorial. The designers brought scarves and umbrellas to cover the models when

they changed.

The pictorial would have been perfect, what with a seasoned fashion

photographer such as Mossige, courageous and beautiful models such as

Georgette Nepomuceno and Joy Caralde, and gowns made by Cordero, Hans,

Peralta, dela Rosa and Ramos.

However, they were at the mercy of the fickle weather. The sun would shine and

suddenly hide behind the clouds. It would rain for 30 minutes, even if it was

summer, then sun would reappear. Just when the shoot would gain momentum,

the rain would come again and delay the shoot. Everybody would run a kilometer

to the vehicle for shelter. When the sun came out, they’d take a long walk to a

new location.

The landscape transformed every hour especially after it rained; sand mountains

were formed.