DIVING INDUSTRY IN THE PHILIPPINES THROUGH TIME

The Philippines is located in the Western Pacific, approximately 6,640 miles from Seattle, Washington.
15-17 hour flight from Sea-Tac Airport. 15-16 hour time difference depending on Daylight Savings Time.

The ocean currents play an immense role in the region’s marine diversity.

 The North Pacific Gyre runs clockwise along the U.S. west coast down towards the northern equator, up again along southeast Asia's Kuroshio current, going further north pacific subpolar gyre then back again towards the California coast.

 As the current flows, marine larvae from the surrounding coastlines are carried thousands of miles, crossing vast seas, diverted in channels or passages in between islands, some finding home in shallow reefs or coastal mangroves while others nourish swimming predators.

The Philippines’ location and 7000 islands disperse currents from the North Pacific Gyre to the South China Sea while it flows north towards Taiwan and Japan.

The "Coral Triangle" (CT) region is located along the equator at the confluence of the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Using coral and reef fish diversity as the two major criteria, the boundaries of this region are defined by scientist as covering all or part of the exclusive economic zones of six countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. Thus these countries formed a multilateral partnership called the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries, and Food Security (CTI-CFF), also shortly known as the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI),

Covering only 1.6% of the planet's oceanic area, there is broad scientific consensus that the Coral triangle represents the global epicentre of marine life abundance and diversity—with 76% of all known coral species, 37% of all known coral reef fish species, 53% of the world's coral reefs, the greatest extent of mangrove forests in the world, and spawning and juvenile growth areas for the world's largest tuna fishery.

It is also a spawning and nursery ground for six species of threatened marine turtles, endangered fish and cetaceans such as tuna and blue whales. To note, the Philippine waters alone have 5 species of baleen whales and 22 species of tooth whales.

The Philippine's has over 7000 islands grouped into three regions: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The islands geography serves as a buffer for the region’s frequent typhoons.

As the typhoon crosses the Sierra Mountains, the force of the storm weakens, moves across or heads north of the island then dissipates. Sometimes it heads north and regains its strength on the way to hits Japan and other neighboring countries.

There are 2 seasons in the country, the dry season and the wet season. March to May are the hottest months of the dry season, followed by the monsoon months of July to September.

Average of 10 regular typhoons packed with 115-140mph winds (the same as hurricanes or cyclones).

The “winter” monsoon season lasts from November -February when cold air from the Indian Ocean cools the archipelago.

Depending on the time of the year and location water temperatures vary from 75-85 degrees F, water visibility is 30-50' or better, current 0-4 knots.

Illegal Fishing Activities:  

Uncontrolled and illegal fishing poses a constant danger to the Philippines’ marine biodiversity.

The Peoples Republic of China also illegally claimed several shoals and islands in the South China Sea, a claim currently disputed with the surrounding Southeast Asian countries. The PRC has transformed them into military bases and commercial fishing ports harrasing fishing vessels from the rightful countries. They continue to destroy the reef systewm and poach whatever they can catch.

Formal Diver Training:  

Diving in the Philippines was limited to local adventurers until the mid-1960s

 
The first Filipino certified instructor was Dr. Gilbert Ramas, NAUI Instructor #509. He received his certification in Ontario, Canada in January 1963. Dr. Ramas was based in Cebu City (Visayas) teaching a few local friends.

The Subic-Clark area hosted exclusive diving courses for US military personnel through the 1970s. Their dive club was called the Aqua Falcons Skin Diving Club. It was only in 1974 when formal certification classes first started in Manila. Ellis H. Gilleland --- a retired colonel of the US-Army Special Forces (Green Berets) was the first NAUI instructor #3419 to issue C-Cards in Manila.

   

The year after Jenny Garmendia, NAUI instructor # 3393 followed suit.In 1975 USAF Capt. Roger Settle PADI (CD) #1034,from the Aqua Falcons Club together with a group of enlisted men conducted the 1st PADI Instructor Training Course (ITC) inside the U.S. Naval Base in Subic Bay, Olongapo 53 miles north-west of Manila. The ITC was opened to the public thus producing both Filipino and American PADI Open Water Scuba Instuctors.

The following year the 2nd ITC was conducted by the same group where I attained my PADI OWSI 6541 certification. PADI Course Directors USAF Capt. Bob Williams and Tim Aukshun continued on with the annual instrucor courses.

In the late 70's another Filipino, Amado de Vera, graduated in a NAUI instructor course held in the San Diego State University, California finishing in the top-5 of his class. In the early 80's a civilian USN contractor named, John Singleton, together with two other NAUI instructors Amado and John McMannus conducted the 1st NAUI crossover course in San Miguel US Naval Station in Zambales. This where I acquired my NAUI Instructor certification. McMannus was an American Marine Biologist and a guest professor at the University of the Philippines. The following year Jeffery Hammet, a NAUI Course Director and a former Aquatics Director from Stanford University conducted the 1st NAUI Assistant IC and Instructor Training Course in the Philippine's.

PADI and NAUI 's standard courses remained popular for more than a decade until Nitrox diving came along. Both organizations then added Tech diving variants due to the increase in public interest. Specilaized Tech dive organizations were later established.

Martial Law:  

Like most sports scuba diving isn't immune to accidents. During the Martial Law period, an unwarranted diving accident occured involving a son whose family is close to the dictator President Ferdinand Marcos. Diving was threatened to be controlled by the government. However, diving professionals joined forces to pull their own connections in order to prevent such from occuring. As a compromise, the divers modified the draft of the Presidential Letter of Instruction forming the Philippine Commission on Sports Scuba Diving (PCSSD). This was to be a special arm of the Department of Tourism wherein the Commissioners were professionals from the diving industry, officers from the Navy, Coast Guard, and the Department of Tourism. The Chairperson was always to be the Secretary of Tourism.

The mandate is geared towards promoting the Philippines as a diving destination, formulate and implement marine conservation programs identifying tourist dive sites, and formulate safe diving standards and procedures to develop sports scuba diving in the country. Our group made sure that the Commission would recognize the established international training agencies and its training standards and procedures instead of creating its own S & P.

Today the PCSSD continues to implement its mandate. They conduct air quality inspections, install marker buoys in frequented dive spots, conduct diving related seminars, give discounted rate for chamber treatment to registered dive professionals and dive operators, own and operate diving chambers in Metro Manila and Batangas City.

Under the Department of Tourism is their infrastructure arm called Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) which manages DOT's hotels, and implements tourism infrastructure development like roadways to tourist destinations.

They also own and operate recompression chambers in Cebu City, Panglao (Bohol), Puerto Princesa (Palawan), and Davao City. In their pipeline are chambers for Coron, El Nido (Palawan), and Zamboanga City.

Chamber operators training were conducted separeately by Sasha Vollmer - a HAUX technical staff from Germany, Dick Clark - the President of the National Board of Diving and Hyperbaric Medical Technology (USA), and John Lippman - the founder of DAN Asia Pacific.

Dive accident insurance companys that are accepted by PCSSD and TIEZA are: Divers Alert Network Insurance (DAN), Global Benefits Group Insurance, and Dive Assure.

Rates per treatment: PCSSD accredited divers - $355 (Php 18,000/session) Non-accredited - $700 (Php36,000/session)

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Diving Presidents

Two of our past Presidents became certified divers during their term, Presidents Fidel V. Ramos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.  Both were strong advocates of Marine conservation and preservation. They were proponenets of Marine conservation. 

FVR signed Presidential Proclamation 1028 declaring Sulu and Celebes (Palawan) Seas as an Integrated conservation and development zone.The primary purpose of this proclamation is to conserve the rich biodiversity of the Sulu and Celebes Seas while implementing sustainable development activities particularly in the fisheries and tourism sectors, thus ensuring the economic well-being of coastal communities surrounding the Sulu and Celebes Seas.

GMA signed the multilateral partnership of six countries to work together in the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CRFFS).

Dive Shops

Starting from tiny shops such as Young"s Sorting Goods, Sub-Oceanic Systems, and Random Oceaneering the scuba industry finally got it's jump start. Two specialized and fully stocked scuba shops were established in Metro Manila. In 1976 Aquaventures, Inc. was the sole distributor of major diving brands such as US Divers, Nihon Aqua-lung, Le Spiro Technique, Mares Sub, Technisub,  Tabata, Cabalerro Champion, and Sherwood Selpac, . In 1977 Bunn's Philippines distributed ScubaPro, Dacor, AMF-Mares, Farralon, and other major brands.

NAUI & PADI Scuba classes were fully booked, some dive resorts were full on weekends, and live-aboard dive vessels were packed during their annual and transition trips. Other than the U.S. Armed forces divers from local bases, divers form Japan and Europe were the main stream of tourists exploring the Philippine's dive sites.

Tech Diving

In 1994, Alex Santos became the 1st Filipino IANTD certified instructor in Florida. He is also the owner and manages the Philippine Technical Divers shop in Metro Manila. Currently, he is an advocate of Oxygen In-water Recompression, gives lectures and local training for international “techdive” forums.

Today we have several people into IANTD (Trimix, Tech Cave, Wreck, OC/CCR Expedition), NAUI (EANx, Decompression,) PADI (Tech 40, 60, 100CCR), RAID (side mount, wreck, nitrox, trimix).

We have a group called the “Filipino Cave Divers”. They have secured caves in Mapating Cave off Sombrero Island, Paglugaban Cave in El Nido, Pawod Cave in Mactan, Hinatuan Enchanted River in Sirugao del Sur, and Lake Bababu in Dinagat.


Dive Resorts

At one point there were only 3 dive resorts in the Philippines all of which all were in Anilao, Batangas (Luzon), one of which was Dive 7000.

Built from bamboo (walls, floors, framing) and palm leaves as roofing it had a single length structure with all rooms facing a common hallway, with windows and doors facing the sea. It served as the openwater checkout dive resort for the Aquaventure dive shop and weekend dive resort for the Aqua Falcons Skin Diving Club.

Today, most resorts have clustered structures built from a mixture of cement blocks and bamboo. An example is Planet Dive Resort which is nestled on a cliff with tropical outgrowth.


Liveaboard Dive Vessels:

Intiated sometime in the early 70's, the 1st 4 Dive boat operators were: Jose Maria “Tetu” Santos, Mike Jones, Therese Jison & Col. Roger Imperio and Danilo P. Sarmiento

Today there are approximately 13 vessels, which could accommodate 20-30 guests / with 10-15 cabins, run 7 days / 6 nights in prime dive spots ( Tubbataha or Apo Reefs/Coron); 12days/ 11 nights during transition trips (Batangas/ Verde Island/ Puerto Galera/Coron/ Tubbataha Reefs/ Puerto Princessa)

DIVE FACILTIES ACROSS THE ARCHIPELAGO

LUZON:

    San Fernando* (La Union) 5hrs drive time from Manila

    Subic Freeport** (Olongapo) 2.5hrs drive time from Manila   

    Anilao (Batangas) 2.5 hrs drive time from Manila

  

Donsol (Sorsogon) 12hrs drive time from Manila

 

Associated island sites are:

    Verde Island (Batangas) 1.5hrs from Batangas City Pier
    Puerto Galera (Mindoro) 2hrs from Batangas City Pier
  

     Apo Reef (Mindoro) 1980 declared as a Marine             Park by Pres. Marcos, 1996 declared a                     protected  natural park by Pres. Ramos,                 2006 UNESCO World Heritage Site,                     1.5hrs flight time from  Manila  to San                 Jose, 3hrs bus ride to Siblayan, 2hrs boat             ride from Siblayan, Occidental                              Mindoro
    Coron Island (Palawan)*** 52mins flight time             from Manila
    El Nido (Palawan) 1.20mins flight time from                 Manila
    Tubbataha Reefs (Palawan) UNESCO World                 Heritage Site, 10hrs boat ride from Puerto Princes

Dive Shops:

10 in Metro Manila

1 in Batangas

10 Puerto Galera

2 La Union

12 Coron

18 Palawan

Dive Resorts:
2 La Union

20 Batangas

15 Palawan

25 Puerto Galera

12 Coron


Visayas:
    Mactan Island (Cebu) 1.30hrs flight time from Manila
    Moalboal (Cebu)
    Pescadores Island (Cebu)
    Malapascua Island (Cebu)
    Oslob (Cebu) 3hrs drive from Cebu City
    Panglao Island (Bohol) 2hrs ferry ride from Cebu
    Cabilao Island (Bohol)
    Balicasag Island (Bohol)
    Siquijor Island (Dumagete) 1.5hrs boat ride from Dumagete City
    Apo Island (Negros Oriental) 45mins boat ride from Dauin, Dumagete

Dive Shops:
    40 Cebu

    10 Dumagete

Dive Resorts:
    40 Cebu

    22 Bohol


Mindanao:
    Camiguin Island (Northern Mindanao) 1- 2hrs boat ride depending on your point of departure
    Samal Island (Southern Mindanao) 45 mins boat ride from the Pearl Farm

Dive Shops:
    1 Cagayan de Oro

    7 Davao City

Dive Resorts:
    3 Camiguin Island

Historical Sunken Treasures:

Early migrants to the Philippines came from neighboring Malaysia, Indonesia and China. In 1521 the Spaniards arrived and colonized the country for 377 years. The Dutch and British also tried and failed to uproot the Spanish.

Revolutionary actions began in the mid-1800s, but did not gain traction until the war in 1898. However, Spain ceded the entire country to the United States, who then suppressed the revolutionaries.

In 1941 Imperial Japan invaded and occupied the country. The United States liberated the country in 1944, and granted independence to the Philippines on 4 July 1946.

In 1996 the Lena Shoal shipwreck was accidentally discovered by local fishermen in Busuanga, Palawan. The find included 15th century earthenwares, elephnat tusks, tin ingots, amongst others from China and southeast asian countries.

In 2000 a shipwreck was found in Santa Cruz, Zambales uncovering the same century blue and white porcelain from China and Vietnam, and stoneewares from Burma and Thailand. Other shipwreecks were aslo found in Breaker Reef, Pawikan Shoal, Pandanan, San Isidro and Kanduli Shoal. Finds were from the 13th - 16th centuries. These historical treasures are kept in the Philippine National Museum on display for the public.

Naval shipwrecks from World War 2 have been preserved by nature and most are divable. The former US Naval Base in Subic Bay, Zambales is a graveyard for several of these iron ships. Coron Island, Palawan as well is a showcase of Japanese ships filled with gaping holes inflicted by US warplanes. 

In Closing
The Philippines is endowed with beautiful land and seascapes, and friendly people, including well-trained diving professionals.

As divers we spend most our memorable moments underwater. However, what completes the pre and post dives are the tranquil environmet topside. The tropical trees, white sandy beaches, cliffside scapes with adjacent fishing villages full of life emanating from the hospitable Filipino people.

The Philippines is and will continue to be a world class diving destination. The Filipino diving community's strong desire to keep the sport growing will allow for more people to enjoy the sport safely and respect the marine environment.

So make time to schedule a dive trip to the Philippines. Rest assured that the Philippines will not disappoint you.



This historical account was presented to the Marker Buoy Dive Club, (Seattle, Washington) zoom meeting in May 2020. Contributors were Amado De Vera, Ferdie Marcelo, and Louie and Chen Mencias. Other photo and ilustrations were from Google images.

Addendum

Recompression Chambers:

PCSSD Owned Chambers-

    LUZON
    Quezon City, Metro Manila Monoplace and Multiplace Chambers

    Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP)
    St. Patrick's Hospital, Batangas City


TIEZA (Tourism Infrastructure Enterprise Zone Authority) Owned Chambers-

    LUZON
    Puerto Princesa City, Palawan HAUX 1200 (3+1) multiplace chamber
    Ospital ng Palawan (ONP)
    Hospital of Palawan

    VISAYAS
    Mandaue City, Cebu HAUX 1200 (3+1) multiplace chamber
    TIEZA Office Building
    Panglao, Bohol HAUX 1500 multiplace chamber can accommodate 2 sitting patients + 1 lying
        or 2 lying in case of emergency. For its ante chamber = 1 sitting

    MINDANAO
    Davao City Monoplace chamber
    Southern Philippines Medical Center

Additonal chambers In the pipeline for 2020
    Coron
    El Nido, Palawan

    Zamboanga City

Honored dive insurance:
    DAN insurance
    Dive Assure
    Global Benefits Group Insurance

Charges:
    PCSSD Accredited Divers PhP18,000/session
    Non-PCSSD Accredited Divers PhP 36,000.00/session.

Privately owned Recompression Chamber:
    Boardwalk Dive Center 60” Aqua-Air Industries
    Subic Bay, Olongapo City Double-Lock Deco chamber

Hyperbaric Chamber Training:
    June 2019 – Training received from ANDI (American Nitrox Divers, Inc.) International, NY, USA
    Feb 2019, - Mr Esacar Agbay, Jr, a Certified Hyperbaric Technologist (NBDHMT) conducted                     training on the operation and maintenance of the HCS in Palawan.
    2018 - a Hyperbaric Medicine Training was conducted by Mr Richard "Dick" Clark, President of the         National Board of Diving and Hyperbaric Medical Technology (NBDHMT) (USA), and Mr. John         Lippmann, Founder of the Divers Alert Network Asia Pacific (Australia).
    May 2014 - Mr Sascha Vollmer, HAUX Technical Staff conducted a training on the operation of                 the chamber in Cebu.