Does the Cebu provincial government need to create a special board to oversee the conduct of skydiving activities in light of last Saturday’s accident in Sta. Fe town in Bantayan island?
A chartered Cessna plane transporting Korean tourists on a skydiving lesson with their instructor made an emergency landing when the landing gear malfunctioned. The private plane landed nose down on a grassy field. Thankfully, no one was seriously injured.
The Cebu Provincial Board previously introduced a proposed ordinance seeking the creation of an Eco-Adventure Management Board to regulate eco-tourism activities like spelunking (cave-diving), canyoneering and other high risk activities.
The idea took shape after the death of 26-year-old Cebuano canyoneering guide Aldrin Carba in Alegria town in July last year. The proposal is still under study. Carba’s fatal plunge in a river didn’t deter other canyoneering trips by enthusiasts.
Would this board have skydiving within its ambit?
Sta. Fe Mayor Jose Esgana downplayed the hard landing of the Cessna plane which landed intact, albeit with some damage to the aircraft.
The mayor emphasized that what happened was an “incident”, not a crash, all the better to promote skydiving as a tourist attraction in his little town.
According to the mayor, participants pay P18,000 each to skydive and that celebrities like Raymart Santiago have tried it in Sta. Fe.
But again like canyoneering, spelunking and other extreme sports, safety is the no. 1 priority, which is guaranteed when skydiving is regulated.
Mayor Esgana said the town council is coming out with an ordinance to regulate the sport, but the Cebu provincial government should have a say in this, too.
And they will, when the ordinance is enacted and submitted for review by the Capitol.
Recall how the Cebu provincial government stepped in when whale shark watching became a craze. Competing groups of local fishermen and the municipality were vying for the tourist fees; environmental sustainability wasn’t on top of the list. A Capitol ad hoc committee facilitated the dialog. Today, a municipal ordinance regulates the activity, including the revenue sharing between barangay, municipality and fishermen organizaitons.
We don’t need to wait for a full-blown accident or loss of life in skydiving to take place before a system is in place to monitor and set up minimum standards for safety by commercial operators.
The group called Cebu Skydiving was able to secure a permit for their Sta. Fe adventure from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). But if someone leaps out of a plane and doesn’t land alive and whole, its Sta. Fe or the host locality that suffers the black eye.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
