Richard's Mainland Samar Inquiries.
I spent several days gathering information travelling between Calbayog and Allen along the coast of North Western Samar fronting the Island of San Antonio.
In the fishing village of Viriato which is one of the main fish landing places it was confirmed that most of the fish landed there was caught by dynamite fishermen including some from the Island of San Antonio.
However it was the "Fantastic" stories of the place that really triggered my interest.
I heard of, Smuggling, Prostitution, Drug fabrication, Pediophile activities and to top it all, "White Slave trading" and it was this last mentioned that I decided to investigate.
A 1995 report from the Department of Tourism in Tacloban asked for an inquiry into these illegal activities in relation to a strange boat landing people and goods in the middle of the night at a beach between the Flying Dog resort and Burabod village on San Antonio Island.
The report was instigated by the Regional director for Tourism, Miss Norma Morante.
I crossed again to the Island and went to the Flying Dog resort and there spoke with Mr Tony Cummins one of the owners of the place.
I asked him about the strange boat that arrives in the night. Mr Cummins said that there are lots of boats coming and going and a lot more that pass by, he said that he too had heard the story but said he had never seen anything out of the ordinary and in any case he said that he rarely goes to Burabod.
But when I mentioned the report of White Slave trading he relaxed and laughed saying, Ah! thats from Miss Morante! Right? He then told me that in his opinion Miss Morante was somehow connected to the dynamite situation and for that reason all talk of Drugs and White slave trading was simply a way to stop any tourists from visiting the Island and indeed all of Northern Samar. He said that if there were White slaves and the like he would know about it and indeed so would the entire population of the Island.
Unfortunately the travel agents in Manila he said, have been fed these stories by the likes of Miss Morante and they rightly refuse to deal with us or send any tourists here. In fact if you ask any travel agent in Manila about the Flying Dog or even this Island they will tell you that we don't even exist! The same goes for the Cocobeach Resort down the road, they haven't had a tourist all year! Now I ask you, why would a Tourism director instigate such a thing? When its her job to attract tourists to this area? You've seen for yourself its a great place, so find the reason why she did such a thing and indeed continues blocking tourism here and you may find a connection to the dynamite or something else but as for Pediophiles and Slaves forget it! he laughed.
I asked about the possibility of Drugs being smuggled or manufactured in the area and he said that his Resort was once raided by the Military who were acting on information that again originated from Miss Morante but they found nothing as there was nothing to find. That was just another attempt to close us down he said.
As for the village of Burabod, apart from making dynamite and a few guns which is common knowledge, he knew nothing about other activities in the village and didn't want to know nor did he want to become involved.
In the Ferry Town of Allen however, it was a different story.
There the people were convinced that the activities slated by Miss Morante were true.
Apart from repeating the dynamite supply story, they pointed to the fact that most of the boats from San Antonio Island were unregistered, the motorbikes too had no registration numbers because most were smuggled or stolen but what got them most upset was a seemingly small fact that on the mainland motorbike drivers, by law, all wore helmets but on San Antonio Island they could ride without helmets, they said that was the proof that the place was full of illegalities.
And in all the years of the N.P.A insurgancy problems they said, the Island had never been attacked like they had been, it was a known safe haven.
In the market I was informed that dynamited fish were no longer allowed to be landed in Allen and that the local police regularly control fish landings confiscating suspected dynamited fish.
In the small town of Geratag I found it common knowledge that two Dolphins had recently been killed by dynamite fishermen but when trying to go any deeper in my questioning I was left in a common silence, in fact everyone had heard of the event but said they knew no details.
(Richard is now in Thailand.)
(We are attempting again to contact Miss Morante via the Department of Tourism Manila and hopefully we will publish her comments here.)