Remote Philippine island group prepares for UNESCO
heritage listing

Sun Mar 27, 4:31 PM ET

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BASCO, Philippines (AFP) - Nothing much has changed in
Batanes in a hundred years or more. There are no
shopping malls or luxury apartments, electricity is
relatively new and telecommunications remain a novelty
in this remote corner of the Philippine archipelago,
separated only by the Bashi Channel from southern
Taiwan.

So isolated are the islands that make up the country's
smallest province that they are often left off local
maps of the Philippines altogether.

But all that is about to change.

Batanes, with its mix of unique and ancient archeology
and architecture, has been nominated as the sixth
"world heritage" site in the Philippines by the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO).

The listing carries a certain amount of prestige and
could help raise awareness about its preservation.
Authorities may also receive financial assistance or
expert advise from UNESCO about ways of maintaining
the site.

For locals like Florentina Estrella, 79, more used to
a quiet village existence, it has opened her tiny
world to many visitors. Dozens of Filipinos and
foreigners now call on her each year.

Her tiny, low-lying house made from lime and sea
stones with its highly polished floors, has withstood
the battering of typhoons and a tsunami that wiped out
nearly the entire coastal hamlet more than 50 years
ago.

Her house, locally called a sinandumparan, is the
oldest stone structure in Batanes, and is included on
the UNESCO list expected for grading by June or July,
nine years after the local Batanes Heritage Foundation
invited a team to visit the islands.

But Batanes' growing reputation as a new frontier
tourist destination has been greeted with mixed
feelings by the local government, which while partly
relying on revenues from visitors is under pressure to
limit the number of tourists who might overwhelm
preservation sites, officials say.

As word spread about the nomination, local and foreign
tourists have been braving high winds and rough seas
to get to Batanes, and Estrella, with her easy smile
and friendly but weather-beaten face, has become the
subject of many postcards and promotional calendars.

"This is something new to me. I have been visited by a
lot of people who give me donations and take my
pictures. We want the world to know about how we
live," Estrella says as she proudly shows a blue
logbook containing the names of visitors over the past
year that includes Australian and Canadian tourists
with notes urging authorities to help preserve her
house.

"I now have many friends," Estrella beams.

Estrella's grandfather Jose Dacay built the house in
1887, cobbling together corals washed from the shore
and stones that are abundant in the coastal town of
Ivana, one of six municipalities in Batanes.

Like all other sinandumparans, it is low-slung, with
walls about a meter thick and a roof made from grass
tightly bound and woven together to make it water
proof.

The family had moved elsewhere in the country in the
early years, but Estrella said they returned to the
area when she was 12, and had stayed ever since.

She has never married and many of her childhood
friends have died.

"I have seen time come and go, but our place has not
changed much," she says.

She recalls a major tsunami in 1953 that wiped out a
nearby coastal village, as well as an earthquake when
she was young that caused the ground near her house to
open up and spew spring water. "See, its still there.
And my house is still here," she says, but adds that
the roof needs repairs.

The Batanes island group is nearer to Taiwan, just 190
kilometers (118 miles) north, than to Luzon, and is
860 kilometers north of Manila, accessible by small
60-seater turboprop planes.

The group consists of three inhabited volcanic islands
surrounded by picturesque white sand beaches,
breath-taking limestone cliffs and virtually
unexplored interior forests. Rolling hills are covered
in strikingly-green patchworks of reeds and tall cogon
grass that sway in the harsh winds blowing in from the
sea.

The capital Basco is located on the island of Batan
which lies under the shadow of the majestic
1,009-meter (3,310-feet) high Mount Iraya, an active
volcano that last erupted in 325 BC triggering the
creation of the two other islands -- Sabtang and
Itbayan -- that now comprise the tiny provincial
archipelago of 17,000 people.

Currents from the Pacific Ocean to the east, and from
the South China Sea to the west clash to form rough
waves that the locals have learned to conquer using
wide-bottomed and bath-tub shaped boats called
fallowas.

The islands are virtually untouched, and little has
changed over the past century. Electricity arrived
only in the 1980s while telecommunication facilities
followed in the 1990s. In many parts, power is still
rationed. Transportation is also difficult, with less
than 10 jeeps ferrying people to and from the coastal
towns.

The Batanes are home to the Ivatans, gentle fisherfolk
and farmers who are believed to have descended from
the first wave of people who left Taiwan as early as
3,500 years ago, according to research by the National
Center for Indigenous Peoples here in Basco.

Spaniards who came to colonize the country in the 16th
century inter-married with the locals, resulting in
the Ivatans' almond eyes, aquiline noses and high
cheekbones.

The Ivatans constantly battle the elements --
extremely hot tropical summers from March to May, and
with bitterly cold winds blowing in from China from
November to February.

The rest of the year are given to strong rains and
stormy weathers, because historically it lies in the
Philippines' typhoon belt and nearly always has to
endure the estimated 19 typhoons that pass the country
on average every year.

Governor Vicente Gato says he is hopeful that UNESCO
will give its nod to the Batanes to be included in its
list of "world heritage" sites, and by doing so open
up the islands to more assistance from both the
government and from other groups that could provide
endowments or grants to preserve the Ivatan sites.

He says the number of tourists has been increasing
every year, although provides no official figures.

"While we can't prevent those who have money from
visiting us, we prefer to have the quality tourists
who would appreciate our culture and those who would
help us preserve our heritage," Gato tells AFP.

"We don't have an ambition for too many tourists that
we can't support with our facilities because
development is not as fast as the increase in
arrivals. We would not be able to accommodate them
all."

He agrees however that the money the tourists bring
and the UNESCO nomination have helped put Batanes back
on the national map.

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