Adventure at center of Danao’s ecotourism

DANAO, Bohol—With mouth wide open, 11-year-old Chad Mickel Batuan looks up at the man flying with a motor-driven propeller strapped to his back and a parachute.

He knows the activity to be “paramotoring,” which he had read at the entrance of Danao Airpark and Paramotoring School in Barangay Sta. Fe in Danao, an interior municipality 72 kilometers from Bohol’s capital city of Tagbilaran.

“This (place) used to be covered by trees. Now, we see people coming here and flying,” Chad says in Cebuano.

Paramotoring (short for powered “paraglide”) uses a motor to generate wind. A motor-driven propeller blows at a parachute to lift a rider up in the air.

More offerings

The thrill event is now being offered along with the “Suislide” and the “Plunge” by the Danao Adventure Park (DAP) under its Extreme/Economic/Educational Adventure Tour (EAT) program initiated by the municipal government, according to tourism officer Jerome Labra.

The Suislide traverses around half a kilometer from one mountain to another, while the Plunge (or canyon swing) gives the thrill seeker a 45-meter fall into a gorge that is 200 meters deep and 300 meters wide before swinging like a pendulum.

The park also offers sky ride, river trekking, tubbing and kayaking, wall climbing, village tour, organic farm visits, camping, rappelling, root climbing and caving.

“We think that paramotoring has a big potential in Danao especially in tapping the expat market. This is a natural extension to the adventure activities that we already have,” Labra says.

Charter Day

The “airpark” was inaugurated on July 9 during the 50th Charter Day celebration of Danao, an event that also launched “Xsanity,” a 1.5-kilometer zipline touted as the longest in Asia.

Labra says the local government is investing P7 million in the joint venture with Philippine Paramotoring School. The bulk of the amount goes to infrastructure, including a 400-meter airstrip and at least two “ultralight” aircraft.

DAP consultant and paramotor pilot Niel Pinongcos says aerial tours would be offered, too, to give tourists a view of Chocolate Hills from as high as 18,000 feet.

Community impact

The establishment of the park was initiated and managed by the local government unit. The place used to be the base camp of Boholano hero Francisco Dagohoy who led the longest revolution against Spanish rule in the Philippines.

Although the heart of the three-year-old park is in Barangay Magtangtang, the facilities extend to Barangays Carbon, Taming and Sta. Fe.

Danao Mayor Louis Thomas Gonzaga says this arrangement goes well with the plan to decentralize park activities. “Spreading out our operations to adjacent barangays can open-up new opportunities to these barangays in terms of employment and generation of small businesses,” he explains.

Social services

The existence of the park is also a move to deliver social services through eco-tourism. Gonzaga says the program’s initial allocation of P3 million a year will cover subsidized healthcare, rural scholarship grants and microfinance.

The impact of the healthcare component was felt in October 2010 with free municipal ambulance services. In the long run, the program will subsidize the hospitalization of Danao’s poor constituents.

One to two college students will receive yearly scholarship grants from each of the town’s 17 barangays.

The microfinancing component aims to help aspiring overseas workers from Danao to cover placement fees and air fares. “With this fund in place, outgoing overseas workers will no longer be compelled to sell their carabao or pawn their land just to get that overseas job,” Gonzaga says.

Changing landscape

To DAP employees, like Julio Bongato, 61, and Jeffee Navarro, 40, the park has positively altered the economic landscape of the town.

“We suddenly became known to the world and at 61, I found myself meeting different people of different nationalities which make my job as park security staff more exciting,” shares Bongato, who used to be an elder for a Christian church.

Navarro, an electronic technician, says it is heartwarming to see people coming back to visit the park. Apart from the extra income, he says gaining friends is a major reward for being a park employee.

Role model

Danao is the best example of how other towns can make full use of their resources, according to Rowena Montecillo, regional director of the Department of Tourism. They can draw inspiration from Danao with its move to push public-private partnership, she says.

“It’s a blessing to have a dynamic LGU in Danao which thought of developing its natural resources to attract tourists. The nice thing about it is that the officials don’t have to cut trees or destroy nature. Nature is their attraction, Montecillo says.

The launching of the park’s new attractions, for instance, was held in tandem with the 1st Danao Highland Races, a national outdoor event featuring The North Face 11-kilometer Trail Run, a 40-km Columbia Mountain Bike Cross-Country race, and the Mountain Hardwear Wall-Climbing Competition.

It also coincided with the 1st Danao Misty Mountaintop Music Festival, which was highlighted by the performances of Joey Ayala and Lolita Carbon of Asin.

The proceeds of these activities will go to the information and education campaign for rural communities in planting indigenous and native tree species in the park.

“Danao is proof that it can be done. The DOT can help in marketing, promotion and training (of human resources) but we need a forward-looking government to push for the development of their town. We see it in Danao,” Montecillo says.