The havoc of tour agencies as DOT checks on Sagada’s tourism woes

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE - They came. They saw. And they conquered.

The sudden rush of tourist vans going to sitio Danum the past long weekend for their tourist-passengers to see the popular Besao sunset at Danum Lake spelled disaster and created an uproar on Facebook among netizens from Sagada and Besao both living abroad and in the Philippines.  

Vans of tour agencies conquered the narrow streets of Sagada and congested a three - meter narrow road into three lanes of vehicles going towards the direction of Sagada-Besao road resulting to motorists going and coming from Besao unable to move towards and from Sagada.

This, as regional officers from the Department of Tourism (DOT) and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the local government unit had a meeting with tourism stakeholders in town last December 4.

Long- time suggestions on issues on traffic and “carrying capacity” were reiterated most of which are online recommendations during said meeting. 

Online pictures of congested Sagada-Besao street showed a congested road of white colored vans heading towards sitio Danum for their passengers to see the popular Besao Sunset; and along the Dantay-Sagada road towards Marlboro Hills to see the Sagada Sunrise the past heavy weekend.

Police Chief  Basilio Hopdayan Jr said it was “just minutes”.   Hopdayan assumed office  a few months ago.

“Minutes” when tour vans rushed to sitio Danum late afternoon of December 1 to see the grandiose sunset that’s going to happen in seconds and caught off-guard traffic policemen and other supposed volunteers to help in manning the traffic.

Hopdayan  said there are only nine policemen manning the busy streets of Sagada during heavy tourist days-  four stationed along the streets of Poblacion area and five in the busy streets of inn-heavy Dagdag down to Ambasing where the popular Sumaguing Cave is found.

In an interview,  the newly installed chief appealed to barangay chairmen and members of the Barangay Peace Action Teams (BPATS) to take action as force multipliers to support the thin composition of Sagada police whenever heavy tourist days peak up.   

Sagada Mayor James Pooten said he will be seeking the support of Highway Patrol Group (HPG) to check on  vans and other passenger colorum - vehicles operating as commercial cars.

In an interview, Pooten said, preventing colorum vans to enter the town shall lessen the influx of cars coming to the narrow streets of Sagada.

Tourists coming to Sagada take the bus- GL Trans, Lizardo Trans or Coda Lines- which directly come from Baguio or Manila, he added. Otherwise take vans which have their license to operate commercially. 

There are 65 tour agencies registered in this municipality having their own hired or own vans licensed or not to operate commercially.  In northern Sagada, it was learned that there are four colorum vans which parked having no franchise to operate during the previous weekend.

Sagada has good practices to learn from in managing tour vans three years ago during the tourist-heavy Lenten season in 2014.

Some 50 police assisted by volunteers  under the leadership of then police senior inspector  Benedict Gangaoen were stationed at Kiltepan hub and directed vans to public parking lots and at parking lots of inns where their passengers were booked at.  Outside vehicles were not allowed to be plying the streets of Sagada as the ones to ply the streets and ferry tourist are local vehicles. Of the 50 police some were  deployed in other sections of the streets in town  going to  northern, southern and western directions.

Otherwise, visitors were encouraged to walk and the town then called as a “walk town”

And so that happened and Sagada was in control when there was a traffic plan with volunteers helping to  man the traffic in heavy sections of the road.

Momentarily.

Until this time again that tour agencies are running the show.

Tour agencies collect a sum of a low of P1,800 to P4,000 per passenger for 1 day and  2 nights package to 2 nights and 3 days tour to Sagada. The costs include tours in their strictly timed itinerary packages for accommodation, day tours to  sites accessible by road, registration fees,  side trips to Banaue and Baguio City  and eventually included  in their package guide fees to sites excluding caving.    

For some years, tour agency-vans whether hired or not have been coming to Sagada. They became acquainted with the sites and soon included tours in their itineraries with their own drivers or coordinators acting as guides.

This left local guides at a loss in supposedly guiding tourists to the town’s tourism sites which resulted to some angry confrontation between driver and guides. 

                Much more left local transport un-utilized as outside tour vans are the ones which bring their passengers to the sites which also led to some heated talks between tour van driver and local-based driver from Sagada.    

Tour agencies with their packaged tours include site visitations to Marlboro hills, sunset at site Danum, and other sites close to roads where they can park except in caves they are not adept at to guide tourists in spelunking.

A long time suggestion both online and from local consultations was to let outside cars park during their duration of stay in Sagada and inside cars to shuttle tourists to tourism sites in town was repeated during the DOT-DENR-LGU and tourism stakeholders meeting last December 4.

Officer in Charge Jacqueline Joven of the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-Mountain Province  in a separate interview said Sagada can come up with an ordinance prohibiting outside cars and bringing tourists to the town’s attractions and let inside local cars be the ones to ferry tourists to sites.

There is still no municipal ordinance on this.

Otherwise, to make Sagada a ‘walk town’ is the heavy suggestion of netizens in Save Sagada Facebook Page.

Heavy tourist days are usually seen last week of December, first week of February on the celebration of the town’s Etag festival and the Lenten season.