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A boatman died while three South Korean tourists and the boatman's assistant were injured while cruising towards the Pagsanjan falls, a tourist destination, in the Philippines on Wednesday morning, police said.

Senior Superintendent Manolito Labrador, Laguna Province police chief, said that the incident involving the boat of Francisco Cataang occurred in the waters of Tibatib village in Cavinti town around 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday.

Cataang was transporting the South Koreans to the Pansanjan falls when a tree fell down on their boat, killing Cataang.

The injured were Cataang's assistant, Wilberto Juares, and tourists Kim Kwang, 65; Kim Chil Soo, 59; and Jeong Gyeong Jang, 49, Labrador said.

The injured were taken to the Pagsanjan Medical Clinic in Pagsanjan town "due to multiple abrasions at the different parts of their bodies,"he added.

What most people don’t know is that Pagsanjan Falls is not really located in Pagsanjan but in the town of Cavinti, also in Laguna. And the falls is locally known as Magdapio Falls. A website dedicated to Pagsanjan quotes from a book by Gregorio Zaide. Okay, I’m not a Zaide fan in the context of history but we’re talking about folk legends so let me quote parts of the story.

“Long, long ago, recounts one legend, there were no falls. There were only the foliaged highlands, the twin rivers, called Bumbungan and Balanac, and the alluvial delta (where the town of Pagsanjan now nestles). On the eastern bank of the Bumbungan River lived two old brothers named Balubad and Magdapio.

“For many years, the two brothers enjoyed a rustic life of peace and happiness. But one day calamity struck. A terrible drought brought ruin and death. No rains came for successive months...

“Balubad and Magdapio suffered immensely. Day and night, they prayed for rain, but the gods did not heed their prayers. The older and weaker of the two brothers, Balubad, died of thirst. Magdapio, with a sorrowing heart, buried him on the slope of the mountain overlooking the river delta. This mountain is now called Balubad.

“Left alone in a waterless world, Magdapio agonizingly trekked to the upper region of the arid riverbed. He reached the high rocky cliffs, after an arduous journey. To his utter disappointment, he found no water.

“‘Ye gods!’ he sobbed bitterly, ‘Where is the water?’ In despair, he angrily hurled down his big cane among the rocks. Suddenly, a spring bubbled on the spot where the cane fell. Rapidly it grew bigger. The fresh waters roared down the canyon walls, soon becoming a booming waterfall.”

According to the same article, an apparently geographically clueless missionary visited the falls in 1902 and wrote about Pagsanjan Falls in a newspaper. The name stuck and that’s how this famous tourist spot has been known since.

Right, a famous tourist spot. And what is it like visiting this famous tourist spot? The town of Pagsanjan (the town, not the site of the falls which is Cavinti) is peppered with tourist police and billboards. Apparently, because people come looking for the falls in the town of Pagsanjan, there has to be enough tourist police to point them toward the right direction.

And the billboards? Are they for geographic navigation as well? Not exactly. Many are obvious campaign billboards with the face of Jeorge Estregan (a.k.a. E. R. Ejercito), Joseph Estrada’s nephew and son of deceased actor George Estregan. Others contain warnings that are reproduced in the official website of Pagsanjan (www.pagsanjan.gov.ph):

“Don’t stop and deal with illegal boatmen flaggers running along the road. Go straight to any resort/hotel or visit the Tourist Information Center. Pagsanjan Falls boatride rate P1,000 per person, standard roundtrip rate. In case of emergency, harassment, overpricing, forced tipping by boatmen, call...” And phone numbers are provided.

Emergency? Isn’t that a strong word to use? Not really. See, we were among those clueless people who got lost last week. We were looking for La Corona de Pagsanjan and knew it was right by the river leading to the falls. We went to the town of Pagsanjan not knowing that the falls was located in Cavinti. Heck, I was still a gradeschooler the last time I was there. So, we had to ask for directions. We talked to the tourist police who were very helpful and we drove to Cavinti to look for La Corona. We left the main road and turned to a steep narrow lane that went down and down. When we got to La Corona, the guard told us that the scheduled re-opening in February did not happen and the place was still closed.

We drove up the steep narrow road from which we came. Where the narrow lane met the main road were two men in a motorcycle and they were partly blocking our way and trying to flag us. Smart, aren’t they? They knew we’d go looking for other accommodation once we found out that La Corona was closed. And they were already lying in wait. We would have been dead bait had we not read all the warnings on the billboards that we saw earlier. We didn’t even give them the chance to make eye contact with us. We just drove past them.

The question is how did they know where to find us? When we talked to the pair of tourist police, there was no one else within earshot. Did these men in motorcycle follow us or were they tipped by the tourist police? We’ll never know.

The presence of these shady characters is not unique to Pagsanjan. Their kind abound in most tourist areas. In Tagaytay where many visitors want to go on a boat ride to Taal Volcano, these roadside flaggers with their exorbitant fees are a dime a dozen. If it’s not a boat ride or a guided tour, it’s some other service. At the Cagsawa ruins, it’s a souvenir photo or booklet. All terribly overpriced. Some even wore some kind of ID to make them look “official.”

Unethical? Yes. Screwed up? Yes. Bad for tourism? Probably. Criminal? Not exactly. Tourism-related services do not fall within the label “basic commodities” so price ceilings cannot be fixed. In fact, if we consider the exorbitant prices charged by some resorts and hotels, they’d be in the same shithole as those illegal boatmen—they just charge more.

The bottom line? Be smart so you don’t end up being victimized.

Farmers are going bananas in Cavinti, Laguna.

Backed by a 1.4-million euro fund from the European Union (EU), farmers used to cultivating rice, coconut and root crops are now planting the lakatan variety to earn more cash.

The idea is to reduce their reliance on the traditional crops and indulge in the culture of cash crops to enhance their income security.

Agriterra, a Netherlands-based organization for agricultural development cooperation which believes it can lick poverty and wean communities away from subsistence farming, has partnered with the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) to convince the farmers to go for bananas.

FFF, which is largely aligned with church-based groups, believes it can work to restore food security to a country that has become a net food importer after the country acceded to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and embarked on trade liberalization.

Borderless trade was resisted by rice farmers and farm workers in 1995, arguing that it would open the domestic market to cheap farm products from other countries, including the Netherlands.

Cavinti farmers find the Agriterra support to be largely positive, with Alfredo Sanchez saying: “We are rice farmers and lakatan as an additional product would provide us with another source of income while waiting for the rice planting or harvesting period. We would also be able to use land which is not fully utilized for farming, making it more productive. We hope to earn better with this project on top of our usual income from other farm products.”

Laguna is not noted for producing marketable volumes of bananas but Agriterra and other non-government organizations (NGOs) believe banana culture could be profitable.

FFF thinks the lack of knowledge in caring for bananas is the reason why it had not been cultivated widely and says it will provide training, technology, organic fertilizers and other inputs to ensure a good harvest for the farmers.

“The variety (lakatan) we are introducing is not common in the area, giving it more stability in terms of pricing and marketing,” claims FFF project coordinator Jenna Zabala.

Another FFF officer, Amihan Jonos, says only 17 farmers have joined the big budget project since “they want to see first if the project will succeed and be able to provide them additional income.” The 17 farmers were given 500 lakatan plantlets for cultivation in the first phase of the project.