By Ricardo Lo
Funfare Column
Philippine StarI stayed overnight last weekend in Bohol, at Metro Center Hotel (by all means, stay there, and enjoy to the hilt the warm Bohol hospitality), with my friend Raoul Tidalgo and his sister Nenette (and husband Carl Supe) as hosts.
As in previous trips, we visited the Loboc River (set of Panaghoy sa Suba, starring and produced by Cesar Montano, a Boholano who owns a vacation house in Baclayon, his hometown) where we had an eyeball-to-eyeball moment with the Tarsier, the famous Chocolate Hills (one of FPJ’s favorite location sets), the old churches and later got a massage at the Panglao Island Nature Resort (owned, like Metro Center and the hotel, and operated by the family of Raymond Ong) which is the perfect place for recharging and soul-searching, providing an enchanting view of the sunset from any of the cottages built around trees.
Besides Raoul and his family, Raymond and the Veloso family (led by its matriarch, Primetiva and son Toto Veloso, vice mayor of Tagbiliran City, and his wife Tata), Rose Soy also acted as a guide during our quick tour, with a short stop at Amarela, a new resort ideal for artists because of its antiques as part of the interior decor. I learned from Boy Echavez, another prominent Boholano (and a good friend of DENR Secretary Lito Atienza, also a frequent Bohol visitor) that it was Rose who jumpstarted the tourism industry in Bohol as early as 1976.
But I was sad to learn that Jerome Sala, another Boholano, winner of the ABS-CBN talent search Star in a Million, is back in his hometown a few kilometers from Tagbilaran, earning a living by driving a jeepney. What!?! Has the ABS-CBN Talent Center "abandoned" him? What a waste!
Aside from Cesar Montano (and, among others, the late Yoyoy Villame, Luke Mejares and Giselle Sanchez), other Boholanos in showbiz include Rich Asuncion, one of GMA’s 2007 Starstruck finalists, who as a little girl used to help her fishing family sell fish.
Last year’s Bb. Pilipinas-World winner, Anna Marie Igpit, is also from Bohol.
Three nights ago, over dinner at Manila Hotel’s Cafe Ylang-Ylang with Raoul, Boy Echavez, "Miss Melody" and I, Bohol Rep. Edgar Chatto (married to Pureza Veloso, sister of Toto and New Jersey-based nurse Betty Veloso-Garcia) was upbeat about turning Bohol into one of the country’s top tourist destinations.
Funfare suggested something like the "Amazing Thailand" tourism campaign, so why not... Beautiful Bohol (Not Just The Place, But The People)?
Perfect! Once you visit Bohol, you will go back again and again.I should know.
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