An airport worker walks in front of the posters announcing the new terminal at Caticlan Airport worth a total investment of 2.5 billion pesos.

The poster advertising the launching of the development upgrade project of Caticaln Airport in Malay , Aklan.

The passenger terminal in the poster looks ultra modern with beautiful high windows. Boracay will surely reach 1 million yearly arrivals with this new airport project .

Here’s some good news for travellers heading to Boracay . Over the next seven  years Caticlan Airport will  have a major upgrade with runway lengthening(from the present 950 meters by 30 meters to 2100 meters by 40 meters ),   a brand new passenger terminal ,a vehicular parking lot,a fire station , and installation of fencing and navigational aids.The lengthening of the runway will allow for bigger aircraft like an Airbus or Boeing brand of planes.

The President of the Philippines ,Gloria Arroyo , led the ground breaking last month for the  new ultra modern airport at Caticlan Airport in Malay ,Aklan .This new airport development  project of the Philippine Government  is worth an astounding 2.5 billion peso , and is expected to bring bigger jet aircraft , and potentially one million visitors to Boracay every year .I guess the next question is can Boracay infrastructure  handle one million visitors. Only time will tell .

The new airport is a joint  project of the Department of Transportation and Communications,the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines , and the Caticlan International Airport Development Corporation (CIADC).The CIADC is owned and operated by George Yang ,Rafael Puno, Lino Barte and just recently the San Miguel Holdings Corp . has bought a majority stake in the CIADC. Yes , San Miguel Beer is diversifying into infrastructure projects to help develop the Philippines. 

 By the pictures above the new Caticlan airport is going to be an ultra modern ,   high tech airport , giving the travellers a wonderful  travel experience .The better travel experience , the better word of mouth advertising for Boracay  , which means  more tourists will come  to the island in the future .I really look forward to the future airport opening in Caticlan so Boracay tourism can reach it’s full potential . I ’m  also going to like travelling in a jet  to Manila .

Yours truly,

John Munro

Boracay’s toughest job , cleaning the sewage pipes of 35,000 islanders .I would not be smiling either.

Wearing a full wetsuit the BWSS worker sits on Boracay’s Main Road contemplating another dive into the human excrement to unclog the sewage line .

Up to his chest in sewage it’s no easy job pulling the rope through the pipe to unclog the blockage.

If you’re sitting at home reading this blog and you dread having to go to work as you hate your job , have a look at the photo’s above and maybe you feel better about your job.Maybe that 9 to 5 grind isn’t so bad after all .

Boracay’s toughest job is working for the Boracay Water Sewage System(BWSS) as a pipe cleaner .Having to swim in human excrement is no laughing matter . I take my hat off to those guys  from BWSS that spent the morning up to their eyeballs in crap .Most of the islanders that witnessed the workers swimming in the man hole were amazed and shocked. People just stopped ,   shook their heads ,and were probably very  glad that they weren’t the one’s having to unclog the island’s sewage pipe .

I admire and respect the workers of BWSS for being dedicated and loyal to their job . It’s definitely Boracay’s hardest job but also one of the most important as we need the sewage line clean and flowing at all times.Thank you BWSS for a job well done .

Yours truly,

John Munro

Van’s footwear  streamers hanging  all over the coconut trees along Boracay’s Main Road .Ugly or nice , you decide. 

Where’s the beach ?Marlboro and Bacardi umbrella’s blocking the view.Tattoo’s anyone?

Giant billboards on the cliffs of Boracay advertising the loudest event of summer .

Globe telecom’s booth along the beach trail of Boracay where holy week is about sell ,sell, sell, and not about relax, relax, relax.

This was a common sight along White Beach .Havaianas gave away hundreds of flip flop air mattresses.

Not even the sail boats are spared from advertising . Tanduay rum leaving their mark on holy week 2010.

Giant Nivea billboard right on White Beach .Not a pleasant sight.

Smart telecoms advertising on a sandcastle . Every inch of Boracay was an advert trying to sell you something during holy week 2010.

Commercialism rocked Boracay this holy week . The floating car is an Austin Mini Cooper . A floating car !! .

This one took the cake , walking billboards on White Beach . When I first saw them I was like thinking to myself , I think it’s time to find another island .

Holy Week on Boracay means big business . With thousands and thousands of tourists arriving for the extended 4 day holiday , it seemed everybody  was trying to sell something to somebody . The island was bombarded with marketing ploy’s from the bigger businesses of the Philippines to  some international brands like Lee Jeans,Austin Mini cars,and Vans footwear . I’ve seen it all this past week from floating cars to walking billboards . Big business tried to out market each other by hanging hundreds of streamers along the Main Road , by setting up their respective booths along White Beach , to giant inflatable bottles  with company logo’s, to sandcastles bearing their logo’s .Boracay  looked more like a circus than paradise .

Marlboro had a huge marketing blitz of Boracay. Since they are banned from advertising cigarettes on local television and print add’s  , they have a huge surplus in their advertising coiffeurs and spent it big in Boracay. They  decided to place a couple of hundred massive deluxe beach umbrella’s up and down White Beach  .Each umbrella is valued at $500.00 dollars ,  times 200 pc equals an astounding $100,000.00 investment .In some parts of White Beach i could not see the beautiful white sand that made this paradise island famous , i could only see Marlboro logo’s and umbrella’s. Sad .

Boracay  was an endless sea of the wrong colors . The colors of  different companies marketing there colorful  logo’s  . Logo’s that belong in the city and not on  Boracay’s White Beach . I feel the real loser here is   Boracay itself  , for being exploited by big business trying to  sell everything under the sun making White Beach look like a circus  , and the other loser is  all the tourists that were trying to escape the city life,  which could not relax and enjoy Boracay as a paradise island.I’m glad Holy Week only comes once a year  .

Yours truly,

 John Munro