Story and photos by Henry Empeño
BOTOLAN, Zambales—Homegrown travel outfit Bisikleta Pilipinas is revolutionizing the tourism scene in Zambales, successfully bringing in visitors to local adventure sites while providing community service to residents of far-flung villages.
A start-up founded just a year ago, Bisikleta has conducted projects in remote areas here, as well as in similar locales in Bulacan and the Mountain Province beginning January this year.
But Bisikleta does not simply arrange tours for travelers; it actually makes them pay to serve as volunteers for community service. And more volunteers are coming each time.
Travel blogger Ruffie Cruz, who founded Bisikleta Pilipinas, said their charity work actually began on December 25 last year, when they mounted the “Bisikleta-Santa” project that saw volunteers riding bikes and giving out Christmas gifts to the homeless, street vendors, traffic officers and other people on the street.
“We never planned to continue the charity work after that, but then Project Chickenjoy happened,” Cruz recalled. This was early-January when an Ayta kid they met on a trek to Mount Pinatubo asked: “Kuya, pagbalik mo, gusto namin ng Chickenjoy.”
Cruz said yes, meaning it as a roadside banter. But on January 20, just 15 days after he gave his promise, Project Chickenjoy happened and about 80 volunteers brought 200 boxes of chicken meal from Jollibee to an Ayta camp some 40 kilometers into the foothills of Mount Pinatubo and the concept of “self-less travel” was born.
Growing network
SINCE then Bisikleta Pilipinas began organizing more “voluntourism” projects—sourcing out items needed by a community from generous donors, then mobilizing small armies of volunteers to undertake charity work and take paid side trips to tourist attractions.
On March 3 and 4 Bisikleta staged Project Braveheart at Sitio Mabato in San Narciso, Zambales, fielding 83 participants, among them 48 volunteers who paid for a side trip to the nearby Paper Tree Resort.
In this project, Bisikleta formally engaged what would become a growing network of support groups—Rexa Center for an art workshop for children; Cerana Farms for kamote cookie-making demo, as well as free kamote pandesal and home-brewed coffee; RP Energy for storybooks (and later a workshop on community organizing); and the Let’s Go Pampanga team for a dental mission.
Other volunteers conducted a seminar on women empowerment, and donated food and toys for the beneficiary community. One volunteer took group pictures of families to have them printed, framed and given as gift on her return trip to the village.
Bringing cheer
SUCCESS brought forth more success. Braveheart was followed by two other projects that same month, which delivered solar panels, school supplies, clothes and groceries and, of course, more Chickenjoy meals to another Ayta community in the Pinatubo area.
In these trips, Jollibee brought its mascot to the Ayta camps, bringing greater joy to children who previously saw the jolly-bee character only on TV.
Meanwhile, these charity projects were accompanied by tourism side trips to the Mount Pinatubo crater lake and Mangwey Falls, as well as camping at Camp Kainomayan, an adventure campsite in Botolan town.
In April Bisikleta reached another remote community in Botolan: the Loob-Bunga Resettlement Area, where volunteers delivered 50 armchairs for a local school. Again, this project provided promotion for local tourism sites: Tukal-tukal Falls, the four-tiered waterfalls in Botolan; and Cerana Farms, which produces the Zambalino line of wines and Zambrew coffee.
April also saw Bisikleta in the province of Bulacan for Project Dumagat, which brought voluntourists to San Miguel town on April 28 and 29 for some donations, storytelling, feeding and parlor games with kids. Sidetrips included hikes to Mount Manalmon, Mount Gola, Madlum Cave and Bayukbok Cave.
Then on May 11 and 12, Bisikleta voluntourists conquered Mount Fato and Mount Kupapey in the Mountain Province, and brought toys for kids, some sports equipment and funds for an LCD projector for the Maligcong Elementary School.
Cruz said they also plan to return to Maligcong late this year and help the community harvest rice.
Bringing hope
BISIKLETA creator Ruffie Cruz said these travels for a cause highlight the best part of the Philippines—its beautiful places, and its equally beautiful people. But it is something more.
“As a writer, I try my best to describe the destinations we go to. However, there are moments, places and people too beautiful to be put down into words,” Cruz said. “Some volunteers told me they forget they were helping change the lives of others, because it’s already changing theirs. This is what I think voluntourism is all about.”
Faye Arceo, a tourism graduate of the University of the Philippines who had partnered with Cruz for the Bisikleta program, said the voluntourism projects are creating genuine change among the participants—perhaps more than they change the people they serve.
“Our audience come from the working class; some, from the upper middle. They can afford our travels, and they have the heart to help out because they understand the difficulties of the people in remote areas,” Arceo said.
“I think we create genuine change among the participants because they learn how to be more sensitive to the plight of others, but I can only hope that we somehow create impact among the people in the communities we visit,” she added.
Jake Mactal, of Cerana Farms, said that aside from the donated solar panels, school equipment and other items that would bring long-term benefits to communities, the Bisikleta projects can also help empower poor communities by means of providing training.
“Not everyone in the rural areas has access to high-paying jobs, but they’re blessed with natural resources. And getting them started with livelihood skills and entrepreneurship could help them learn to stand on their own and not rely on quick fixes or easy money,” Mactal added.
Story worth sharing
JASON Gavina, a corporate social responsibility officer of RP Energy in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, who has been involved in some Bisikleta projects, both as sponsor and training organizer, also sees the potent power of voluntourism in societal change.
“Voluntourism is great because it combines both our millennial need to see the world, while pacifying our existential angst to help others” Gavina noted. “It’s traveling that humbles you, enlightens you, moves you. It’s a selfie worth posting because it’s the story of our community. It is a shared story of how we want to see the world.”
On June 9 and 10 Bisikleta volunteers are scheduled to paint school chairs and tables at the island-barangay of San Salvador in Masinloc, Zambales. Dubbed as “Project Deep,” the trip will also bring the volunteers to the marine sanctuaries in the locality: the San Salvador taklobo (giant clams) farm and the Yaha mangrove forest.
Bisikleta organizers hope it will be another selfie worth posting and another story worth sharing.
Image credits: Henry Empeño