Supposedly good news, but largely ignored as the state of the sign shows

Back in Januray 2019 I wrote a very scathing piece about El Nido after a morning with a long term resident of the town. His family have many businesses in the town and have been well established there over many generations, They even once owned the land where El Nido Cove now sits. He told me how the town had been ruined by greed and corruption and drunken tourists ( and as we had coffee we watched two cavorting in the sea, naked and drunk, while the locals and families about to go off on their tours looked on.)

Each day hundreds of backpackers head off to the secret lagoon

The blog was entitled "If you are in search of Paradise ,do not come to El Nido" and it heavily criticized the then Mayor, who was on the Duterte Narco Politician list. The blog got 3000 readers in one week and the then Mayor wrote a scathing piece in the local rag, Palawan News, where she had friends on the Editorial team. This drove even more people to read the blog and many contacted me to say my comments were very true.

This is what she wrote:

El Nido mayor defends town vs. travel blogger

Jan 4, 2019 11:10 pm

Aira Genesa Magdayao

NEWS OF THE DAY, PROVINCIAL NEWS

837

El Nido’s Hidden Beach (Photo courtesy of Flight Network/File photo)

El Nido Mayor Nieves Rosento defended her town Friday against a Bahrain-based travel blogger who said it is a “mess” and a paradise no more.

Rosento told Palawan News that what the blogger described as a “mess” in his January 1 blog, including the empty alcohol bottles and cigarettes, were within premises of a business establishment and not on the beach.

“Hindi ko alam kung ano ang gusto niya pero nakikita naman sa post niya na ang piniktyuran niya na mga bote ng beer ay nasa isang establishment. It is within the premises of that establishment. Isa pa, noong New Year’s Eve natural may kasiyahan ang mga tao at may bagyo pa tayong binabantayan,” she pointed out.

(I don’t know what he likes but you can see in his post that the bottles of beer he documented are within the establishment. It is within the premises of that establishment. One more thing, on New Year’s Eve, it’s natural that there is merrymaking and besides, we’re monitoring a tropical depression.)

Rosento said El Nido will not be affected no matter how bad the blogger wants to paint it.

She also said the municipal government is doing everything to ensure that all environmental policies and laws are implemented accordingly.

“Naabutan kami ng holidays then nag-bagyo pa kaya ang ibang deni-demolish ay hindi na natapos. Then ang mga sinasabi niya mga kalat sa beach, hindi pa ‘yon nalilinis kasi nga nag-New Year baka naman sobrang aga niya doon kaya ‘yon ang nadatnan niya. Kung sinasabi niya naman na may mga naka-bikini, normal na ‘yon. Hindi ‘yan mawawala. Basta kami we are doing our best,” Rosento said.

(We were caught in the holidays and there was also a tropical depression that’s why the demolition was not completed. What he claimed as messes on the beach, they have not been cleaned up yet that time because of the New Year celebration and maybe he was too early there. If he’s commenting about the bikini-clad women, that’s normal. We are doing our best.)

In his blog, he said El Nido was beautiful and unspoiled during his first visit in 2014, and he could not believe that it has now changed.

“I could not believe it had got so bad so quickly,” he said, adding “a simple barefoot walk on the beach is no longer possible due to broken glasses.”

The Blogger, who said he will no longer go back to El Nido, also blogged about seeing drunken and naked tourists who were shouting and screaming early in the morning.

He said further that it is “hardly a family friendly place” anymore, and the locals have already been driven by greed, converting every available space into sales spaces legal or not.

“Surely those who take the money and sell the alcohol should do the cleaning up. If they make so much money getting the tourists into such a state that they cannot stand and face drowning in their own vomit in the sea they should take responsibility for the mess they create and clear it up. This should be done before they go to bed and the tourists arrive for their beach tours,” he said.

New Year;s day and the hungover backpackers wait for their tour boats

.... fast forward a year, the Mayor was voted out, three beaches were closed due to pollution, and many properties were closed due to lack of envoronmental permits, lack of waste disposal facilities, and other envoronmental offences like encroaching on the beach.

The Government started to pull down the illegal structures that had got too close to the sea

The biggest hotel company in the area saw fit to increase their rates from 5000 pesos to 150,000 pesos a night blaming inflation!

Hardely surpising then that I cancelled my initial plans to move to El Nido and Sibaltan and headed south for my new life in Palawan.

Throughout my life i have searched for quiet pristine sandy beaches to walk on and swim in. The problem is every time I find one and write about it millions of people go there and it is ruined, Boracay, Cebu, Palawan, all fell to the same fate- but I still continue my search for Paradise