Tourism ruining islands' economy, environment

As a native of Alaminos in Pangasinan, I believe I may be rather better acquainted with the Philippines' Hundred Islands area than your travel writer Peter Kammerer, and must therefore protest about his misleading article (South China Morning Post, January 20), extolling its virtues as a tourist resort.

It is true that until the early 1980s Hundred Islands had been an idyllic holiday destination. But greedy entrepreneurs, insensitive visitors, poor fishermen desperate to survive, and entirely inadequate government regulation have since turned it into a depressing travesty of its former self.

'Tourist cottages' have proliferated along the shoreline at Alaminos and their raw sewage, inadequately cleared by tidal flushing, carpets the shallow bay.

At low water, warmed by the sun, this creates an almost unbearable stench. Litter and the rotting leftovers of picnickers are strewn about the islands' untended beaches, nourishing burgeoning colonies of rats.

It is hardly surprising that Kammerer makes no mention of recreational diving or fishing, for the pollution and intensive dynamite fishing have devastated the once-beautiful and richly populated reefs that used to surround each island.

The scenery beneath the water is now a grey submarine desert, with shattered, dead coral spread around. The seafood so enjoyed by Kammerer almost certainly was caught in more remote parts of the Lingayen Gulf.