Tourists unfazed by damage to Ifugao terraces

Foreign tourists visiting this upland province may not mind the damage that bad weather and soil erosion have wrought on the world-renowned Ifugao rice terraces amid local concern over their degradation.

A French-Canadian couple, Yohan Rodericks and Cyandra Carvallo, who trekked the severely cracked 5.8-kilometer trail to the Batad terraces here on Friday, said there was more to see at the place than its beauty. “[The damage] is not really disappointing for us, as much that it is disappointing for [the people]. It really pays off to see the terraces up close and realize how much effort the Ifugao people have put into it,” Rodericks said.

“The place is beautiful, the food tastes great, but most of all, the people are very nice,” he added.

Officials earlier expressed concern that media reports about the growing damage to the terraces may have turned off tourists and deprived the people of livelihood opportunities to augment their income from farming. “This is the reality that we have to face. [Sections of the] terraces have been damaged or destroyed, and we have to tell [the public] the truth,” Representative Teodoro Baguilat Jr. told the Inquirer.

Last month, Baguilat, Senator Francis Pangilinan and representatives of nongovernment organizations launched the “Save the Ifugao Terraces” campaign to raise money for the repair of damaged portions of the clusters of terraces here and in Kiangan, Hungduan and Mayoyao towns. The sites are inscribed in the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

According to the Ifugao Cultural Heritage Office, the repair work would cost about P122 million.

For Australian Keith Twartz and British couple Chris Morgan and Nicci Hawkins, hearing about the damage to the terraces in news reports did not prevent them from going to Batad. “Was it damaged? Where?” Twartz asked as he moved to take a clearer view of the amphitheater-like terraces formation from the deck of a village inn.

Of the Unesco World Heritage Sites, the Batad terraces cluster bore the most severe damage with 32 layers of rice paddies, stretching about 200 meters downhill, buried by soil erosion either caused or aggravated by recent typhoons.

Barangay (village) Batad chair Romeo Heppog said he had noted a 50-percent decline in tourist arrivals since Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel” damaged roads and pathways leading to his village in September and October. Batad receives an average of 500 tourists a month, providing income for residents who are owners of inns and souvenir shops and who act as tour guides and porters, he said.

The number peaks from August to December, with Europeans comprising the biggest number, Heppog said.

“In our desire to reopen the roads and open our place to tourists, the people in the village volunteered to clear the trail coming here, even with hand tools,” he said in Filipino.

Five souvenir shops dotting the footpath to the Batad view deck have closed and are now abandoned due to the slump. “[The owners] will surely return once they sense that tourist arrivals will again start to pick up,” Heppog said.