Resort bars off-roaders from Pinatubo trail

PUNING Hot Springs and Resort was built by a Korean amid canyons of lahar washed down by rains from the flanks of Mt. Pinatubo. E. I. REYMOND T. OREJAS/CONTRIBUTOR

ANGELES CITY—A group of Filipino, Malaysian and Spanish off-roaders complained on Saturday that they had been barred by a Korean company from using a trail at the boundary of Angeles City and Porac town below Mt. Pinatubo in Pampanga province.

Rene Romero, private sector representative for trade and industry in the Regional Development Council, said this was the second time Puning Hot Springs and Resort tried to bar noncommercial off-roaders from traversing the Sitio Puning (Barangay Inararo, Porac)-Sitio Target (Barangay Sapangbato, Angeles) trail since February 2014.

Off-roaders refer to driving enthusiasts who take unconventional paths like trails and gravel roads to reach travel destinations.

The management of the resort “merely required coordination with travelers,” said an official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak for the company.

“We are trying to avoid accidents because the trail is narrow. We don’t want tourists to be hurt,” he said.

The Puning resort, owned by a Korean who is married to a Filipino, operates 11 hot springs at the lower flanks of the volcano’s Porac side. Its resort is in Sapang Bato.

Romero said his group’s convoy of 14 vehicles, mostly Land Rovers, took off from Barangay Haduan in Mabalacat City after watching the opening of this year’s hot air balloon festival at the Clark Freeport.

The Haduan trail is on the bed of a tributary of the Sacobia River.

Reaching what residents call “PTA,” a road supposedly built by the Philippine Tourism Authority, the convoy was stopped by a resort guard who pulled down a steel barricade.

“I informed him that the area is public property and, therefore, we could pass through it. But the guard said there has been a policy to prohibit the passage of 4 x 4 vehicles. I argued until he allowed us to pass,” Romero told the Inquirer.

PINATUBO TRAIL The road to Puning Hot Springs and Resort is actually a riverbed filled with volcanic debris. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Past the section where a huge boulder towers over the river, Romero said an Aeta guard pulled down a barricade, helped by another staffer who asserted his employer’s off-limits policy.

“I can’t understand why as taxpayers we are being denied access to public areas. We were the ones who discovered this trail after the [1991] eruptions,” Romero said.

The spa is a favorite destination of Korean tourists. Mario Manialung, Sapang Bato village chief, said the council had not issued any resolution restricting access to the trail leading to and from Puning.