Paradise Lost?

Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia

My first time in Sumilon, the skies were gray and low over the sea. But even that dullness couldn’t keep the island’s emerald tongue of water from surprising the deep blue of Bohol Strait.

Sumilon Island, 15 minutes by boat from Barangay Bancogon in the southern town of Oslob, is home to a 32-year old marine sanctuary, the oldest in the country. It is the shallow waters of the sanctuary that sparkle green even from the highway overlooking Bancogon. With stands of forest on a hill in the middle of the 50-hectare island, and lush mangroves surrounding a freshwater lagoon right beside a long stretch of white beach, Sumilon was also declared a municipal tree park in 1990. A lighthouse and a Spanish-era Moro watchtower stand on top of the hill. Sharp rocks line its coves and cliffs. These, and the intricate patterns of trees shaped by wind and salt, hint of a wildness in the island’s natural beauty.

Underwater, the view is as breathtaking. Even beyond the 39-hectare marine sanctuary, massive corals that once were reduced to rubble by muro-ami now thrive and provide shelter to a rainbow of fairy basslets, damselfish, lapu-lapu, and schooling fusiliers. Large parrotfish come to feed at the rocks near the shore. Surrounding the island are 250 hectares of continuous, gradually sloping reef that lead to a wall where lionfish hide in crevices and garden eels make their home in sandy areas.

Because of this beauty, locals from the mainland towns of Oslob, Santander, and other parts of Cebu come here for Sunday picnics, or a swim to relax before the start of another work week. Since the island is owned by the municipality of Oslob, people are charged only P10 each to enjoy the island.

Fishermen also find shelter here in bad weather, and depend on the island’s abundance of fish to feed their families. In a ritual of sorts, bubo operators come every Friday to dive to the island’s sandy bottom 150 ft below, together hoist the heavy fish traps to collect the catch, and afterwards gather on the sandbar near the sanctuary for lunch and a celebration of the harvest.

As for me, a city dweller, it was the amazing blue waters that made me come back last month to take a break from the urban rush. To my surprise, I was told that a resort was being built on the island, making it exclusive to foreigners and the few Filipinos who can afford the dollar rates. Despite Sumilon being declared a marine reserve and tree park for everyone’s benefit, the resort owner will only have to pay P1,000 a month for exclusive use of the island. This is the ludicrous rate they will be paying for 75 years; at present, under the management of the local government of Oslob, Sumilon earns P30,000 to P50,000 a month from entrance and diving fees alone.

The local fisherfolk I talked to are worried they will lose their fishing grounds, since the waters off the island have been declared an area for swimming, jetskiing, and other recreational activities for resort guests. It isn’t that they want the resort gone, they said. They simply want their concerns respected by the resort owner, that as residents of Oslob, they and their grandchildren will still have access to Sumilon’s beauty and bounty that are their birthright. Since they have worked so hard to protect it from illegal fishers for so many years, I can only agree. Besides, as an ordinary Filipino, I wouldn’t want to be deprived of the island, either, just because I don’t have as much money as a Japanese tourist.

But with the resort opening this month, only the municipal officials of Oslob can regain paradise now. They can still review the agreement with the resort owner signed in 1998 and claim in behalf of the people what is rightfully theirs. Then this paradise on Earth can be enjoyed by more of God’s creation. I pray my last trip to Sumilon won’t be my last time there.