Camotes’s growth has always been slow. When Emilio Osmeña was governor, a forum of developers designated Camotes as a spot for tourists. The islands then could only be reached by pumpboats from Danao City and a rusty ship and a wooden banca (ship with outriggers) from Cebu City. In my recent visit, barges from Danao City and Liloan town now ply the Cebu to Camotes route.
Camotes is part of the fifth congressional district whose representative in the House is Duke Frasco, husband of the daughter of former governor Gwen Garcia. I take it that Christina Frasco is also a government official in one of the towns in the said congressional district.
I admit that the Camotes group of islands has grown since those times decades ago when I was younger and visited the place almost every school vacation. Rusty barges have replaced pumpboats as a preferred mode of transportation. As a result, people in Camotes are now familiar with modern four-wheel vehicles, especially after former governors and district reps have also improved the road networks there.
The ports in Danao City and Liloan town may not be that modern already but they are definitely an improvement from the old times. With this, the number of tourists visiting the place has grown although tourism in Camotes is focused on one island straddled by the town of San Francisco. San Fran has white beaches and resorts. It is also where Lake Danao is located. The lake, of course, is “for your eyes” and for fishes only. It is not ideal for swimming.
In this sense, I would say that Gov. Pam Baricuatro and the Cebu Provincial Board (PB) members representing Camotes should work hand in hand with the Frascos to find ways to continue pump-priming the Camotes economy. The first goal, of course, is the promotion of the tourism potentials of the other towns, particularly Pilar, which is nearer to Ormoc City in Leyte than to Danao City in Cebu province.
My dream is for the town of Poro to increase the plains in its town center via a reclamation project similar to that in the City of Naga in mainland Cebu. Poro already had a good port built when Gloria Arroyo was president and Agnes Magpale was the district rep in the PB. Representative Frasco, Governor Baricuatro and the PB members now representing the fifth district should find more ways to push Camotes’ economic growth further.
Gov. Pam styles herself as “the people’s governor.” Can she also be the ideal governor that people from Camotes can look up to? I say she can be, especially now that this group of islands is growing. “Just do it,” Gov.!
