Samboan’s tourism loses at least P2 million

Samboan host seven waterfalls such as this one. | CDN file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Samboan town in southwestern Cebu has incurred around P2 million worth of losses as a result of lockdowns imposed in the previous months, its mayor said.

Mayor Emerito Calderon Sr. said they were not able to collect approximately P2 million from entrance fees of the town’s popular sites for almost four months.

“Due to the lockdown that spanned for a couple of months, we lost around P2 million. Before the pandemic, we were able to collect around P1 million to P2 million on entrance fees from our falls alone,” said Calderon in a mix of English and Cebuano.

Samboan is a fifth-class municipality located 150 kilometers southwest of Cebu City, the province’s capital.

The town is not only known as a gateway between the islands of Negros and Cebu but also for hosting at least seven waterfalls within its territory.

One of them is Da-o Waterfalls in Barangay Suba and believed to be one of Cebu’s tallest with an estimated height of 90 feet.

Other more popular falls in Samboan town are the five-tiered Aguinid Falls, and Bonbon Binalayan Hidden Falls or also known as Triple Drop Falls due to its trident-like curtain formation when water cascades down from the mountains.

But tours to these majestic waterfalls have been suspended for almost four months after Cebu province was placed under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, most parts of Cebu province are gearing up in reopening the tourism industry under a state of modified general community quarantine (MGCQ). The Cebu Provincial government has conducted multiple stakeholders meetings as part of their effort in coming up with a set of guidelines needed for the relaunching of tourism enterprises.

Calderon said their local government had been coordinating with the Capitol in coming up with the protocols on the matter. However, the mayor said they were not keen on reopening the town’s falls to the public yet due to two reasons.

Citing present MGCQ guidelines, Calderon said swimming for leisure purposes was not yet allowed.

“We are preparing for the protocols but right now, under MGCQ di pa gyud tingali mi makahimo nga maka open up kay ang under MGCQ viewing lang ang waterfalls, murag sight seeing ra (we might not open up the waterfalls just yet since under MGCQ, only viewing and sight-seeing is allowed),” said Calderon.

The second reason raised by Calderon is that the past summer has resulted in Samboan’s waterfalls to lose their charm.

A photo showing Da-o Waterfalls in an almost empty state is recently making the rounds on social media but Calderon debunked reports that it was a result of Friday’s earthquake.

“It’s not defaced. The reason why it turned out like that was because there was little to no rains in the summer, and not enough water to cascade down,” said Calderon in Cebuano.

“This is why we’re also mulling to delay the falls’ reopening to a few days just to give time for the water (in the mountains) to replenish. If mag sight-seeing pero bati kaayo ang tubig kay hinay pa (It would not be a great idea to do sight-seeing when water is running slow),” he added. /dbs