Plan a put for Hundred Islands festival

ALAMINOS CITY – The tourism world will soon see the rebirth of the Hundred Islands, which hibernated since the Hundred Islands Summer Festival in the Gulf of Lucap stopped more than 10 years ago. These islands at the mouth of Lingayen Gulf seem to rejoice with the news that the 100 Islands Summer Festival will be held on May 1.

This early, inquiries about the revival of the 100 Islands Summer Festival are being received via the Internet and The Hundred Islands Resort Hotel (THIROH 2000) which ‘balikbayans’ from California and Wyoming, USA who are on medical missions patronize every year.

Mayor Nani Braganza has just returned from the US where he presented the local government’s tourism-oriented programs to Fil-American Associations. Braganza is now embroiled in his private war against illegal fishing and drug-use in this Southern quadrant of Lingayen Gulf to complement the campaign of Bolinao Mayor Celeste along the West Coast fronting the China Sea.

These US-based Fil-Am associations have been elbowing each other every year in bringing in millions of pesos worth of cheers and socio-medical relief to their native town, and THIROH has been their host since it opened five years ago.

Former Department of Tourism (DoT) Region I Director Ernesto Malay, now City Administrator, said that "the centerpiece program of the new administration is tourism development to make this City the Tourism Capital of Pangasinan."

The Hundred Islands is a retreat where families can escape urban contamination. And unlike man-made resorts, the many white beaches of these islands are bleached and tide-washed daily under tropical sun and rain. "That is why we in the hotel industry is opposed to the plan to build cluster houses on the water in the Islands," said Barangay Lucap Kagawad Teddy Ferrer.

Ferrer, who is also the interim vice chairman for Western Pangasinan of the Pangasinan Tourism Council (PTC) added that, "besides competing with the local hotel industry, this plan is not conducive to an ecologically balanced environment in the 100 Islands."

"The pristine state of these islands is the reason for being of our tourism industry here," he said.