GENERAL SANTOS CITY — The famed crater-lake Holon in Tboli town in South Cotabato, one of the province’s top ecotourism destinations, was shut down to tourists for over two months starting Monday, Jan. 6, for its annual rehabilitation.
In a memorandum, Tboli Mayor Dibu Tuan ordered the temporary closure of the entire lake and its immediate environs “to local and international visitors” until March 14 to allow its ecosystem to recuperate.
This is the sixth closure of the lake implemented by the municipal government since it was first shut down for nine months in 2014.
“The local tourism industry was soaring high in 2019. For this, we wanted to (give a) routine breathing time (for) the lake,” Tuan said in his memorandum dated Jan. 2.
He tasked the town’s designated municipal tourism officer, Rodel Hilado, to spearhead various activities in line with the lake’s closure, adding they will conduct training and refresher courses for all frontline personnel assigned at the town’s tourism facilities at the lake.
Tuan said they will rehabilitate the existing facilities and conduct anew a biodiversity assessment of the site.
Last year, the local government also declared the lake off-limits to trekking and other tourism-related activities for two months. It was closed for 55 days in 2016, 63 days in 2017 and 70 days in 2018.
Lake Holon (formerly Maughan) is nestled at Mt. Melebingoy (Mt. Parker), which is listed as an active volcano.
The lake was declared as the cleanest inland body of water in the entire country in 2003 and 2004 and recognized as among the world’s “Top 100 Sustainable Destinations” in 2016 and 2017.
The annual closure of the lake was provided for in Municipal Ordinance No. 33, series of 2016, that had set the conservation and protection activities for the area’s tourism sites.
Section 20 provides for the “closing or cordoning off of certain areas of the cave, forest, lakes, and others to visitors at certain times of the year or for several years to allow the ecosystem to breathe or revert to its natural state”. -PNA
