Remote Philippine island group prepares for UNESCO heritage listing

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.