By Celeste Anna R. Formoso
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, (PNA) — The management of the Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) will be adding P100.00 next year to the regular P175.00 entrance fee that guests pay.
Jan Elmer Badilla, spokesperson of the PPUR management, said Friday that the additional amount was the result of the Protected Area Management Board’s (PAMB) Sept 30 approval of the proposal for audio-guided tours inside the subterranean river.
The new rate will take effect, he said, in Jan 2014. “Beginning next year, the entrance fee will be P275.00 to the underground river,” Badilla said.
The P85.00 from the total amount is for the mandatory audio-guided tour devices that have pre-recorded history and other important information about the underground river. They are in different languages for different nationalities, who want to explore the cave.
The P25.00, on the other hand, is for the use of wi-fi that the management will make available for visitors of the PPUR also in 2014. It is for the maintenance too, and upkeep of closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) in the subterranean park.
The project is part of a signed partnership agreement between the city government of Puerto Princesa that manages the PPUR, and proponent Audio Tours, Inc. (ATI).
Badilla said the partnership agreement is being finalized by the City Legal Office (CLO) before the implementation next year.
“Starting January 2014, we will start the mandatory use of devices to conduct tours inside the underground river. The devices have pre-recorded history and other information about the underground river. By then the entrance fee charge will already be P275.00,” he said, adding they are informing the public early “to avoid surprising them.”
It can be recalled that in an earlier PAMB meeting in the same month, the members actually nixed the proposal, claiming P275.00 would be too much for guests of the park to shoulder.
Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) chief Emer Garraez, part of the 20-member PAMB, raised his concern during a regular meeting, noting that features of the audio-guided tour are high-tech but the board cannot afford to raise the cave entrance fee by at least 50 percent should the project pushes through.