Lake Sebu Lands on Cebu Pacific's October Cover Four Months After the Quake, With 376,232 Day Visitors in the First Half

The cover

South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. found the magazine on a Cebu Pacific flight and posted a photo of the cover in his hand on Facebook, calling it "definitely something to be proud of" as the province's story reaches more travelers, MindaNews reported. The feature presents the town, known for its lakes, lotus gardens and T'boli culture, as a destination to reach from General Santos rather than from Koronadal.

The first half numbers

The provincial Arts, Culture, Tourism and Museum Unit counted 1,098,706 tourist arrivals across South Cotabato from January to June: 981,683 day visitors and 117,023 overnight guests. Lake Sebu had the most day visitors of any town, 376,232, ahead of Tupi with 226,218 and Surallah with 92,585. For overnight stays Koronadal City led with 47,460, followed by Lake Sebu with 44,119 and Surallah with 16,766. Foreign visitors were a small share: 5,510 for the day and 90 overnight.

April was the peak month, with Easter and the school break. Arrivals then fell in May and June. Richie Matunding of the provincial tourism office attributed the drop to the magnitude 7.8 earthquake of June 8 and the landslides that followed it, which cut roads and led travelers to postpone or cancel trips. "The situation affected transportation and accessibility in some areas," he said. The province still logged 720 meetings, conferences and events in the six months, 202 of them in May.

The quake

Lake Sebu's municipal council declared a state of calamity on June 17, nine days after the earthquake. The resolution listed damage to homes, public buildings, roads, bridges, schools, health facilities and water systems, and put the initial estimates at more than 27 million pesos for schools, more than 39.5 million pesos for public infrastructure and close to 4 million pesos for farms and fish cages. The declaration let the town draw on its disaster funds for relief and repairs.

The provincial government ran relief distributions through June, including a round for 39 more families in Barangay Tkonel. Mindanao Live's coverage of the earthquake and its aftershocks is linked below.

The first FAO Village in the country

On July 16 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations unveiled a marker at the Gono Menos Bnek, the Lake Sebu Rice Museum, naming the town an FAO Village, the first in the Philippines and one of more than 300 worldwide. The designation is centered on Sitio El Lumet in Barangay Luhib, where T'boli and Ubo Manobo farmers have kept 102 traditional rice varieties in cultivation through community seed banks and participatory breeding. The same varieties have been deposited in the Philippine Rice Research Institute gene bank under a safety agreement.

FAO representative Lionel Dabbadie said at the unveiling that "long before the world spoke about biodiversity, climate resilience, or sustainable agrifood systems, the people of Lake Sebu had already understood something fundamental." Municipal tourism officer Jennifer Tupas said the recognition fits the town's aim of becoming a leading destination for cultural and sustainable tourism. The Climate Change Commission issued its own statement of congratulations on July 22. The rice museum itself was built with 2.5 million pesos in provincial support.

Limits at Seven Falls

The province is also trying to cap the crowds at its busiest site. On April 27 the provincial government said it had begun the process for a carrying capacity study of the Seven Falls, the waterfall and zipline complex that draws the most visitors in Lake Sebu. Economic and enterprise management head Tyronn Jan Villanueva said the study would set visitor limits and guide a new management system. "We want to ensure that tourism growth does not compromise the ecological integrity of Seven Falls," he said. Tourism unit head Argie Ryan Asaria said the study would shift the falls "from quantity based to quality driven." The institution that will carry out the study had not been named as of the April announcement.