The Vampire Diaries star fell in love with the Philippines

"The Vampire Diaries” star Ian Somerhalder spends a lot of his time compelling people to do his bidding as the snarky, sarcastic, arrogant, attractive vampire Damon Salvatore in the hit TV series.

This time, though, he’s the one who is utterly captivated. Somerhalder has fallen in love with the Philippines, and an original vampire didn’t even have to compel him.

His take on our paradise country:

• “You’re incredibly lucky. I wasn't aware that there were 7,000 beautiful islands in this country. When you look at it on a map, you can't quite grasp exactly what you're gonna see… Get on a plane, get on a boat, and explore your islands.”

• “El Nido is probably one of the most beautiful places on the face of the planet.”

• “And the people—everyone here has been so incredibly wonderful, intelligent, and soulful. It's been such a phenomenal experience and I'm really happy to be here. Thank you for the warm welcome and all the wonderful thoughts and the screams."

• “When we went to El Nido, we flew on this little charter plane, and what this company has done is they have a little card inside the plane that says one flight produces x amount of CO2, so they plant six trees for every passenger to offset that. How cool is that? If Delta or any other giant airline did that, then there will be forests as far as the eye can see.”

• “I've been blown away and humbled by your generosity and kindness. It's incredible. When I go home, I'll tell them you have to check this place out and what they’re doing to better themselves, and raise awareness for this place.”

Thank you for the wonderful words Damon, I mean Ian. Much appreciated!
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PH makes waves in world surfing map

By Norman Sison, VERA Files

With over 7,100 islands to choose from, the Philippines is known for its postcard-lovely beaches. Of late, it has been making waves on the world map of surfing.

One Internet site, Wanna Surf (www.wannasurf.com), describes the Philippines as "one of the last surfing frontiers". It lists 35 spots in the country. Fourteen of those are in Siargao Island alone, in the south.

San Juan town in La Union province is the northern Philippines' surfing capital. It is blessed with two surfing seasons — July to October and November to March — when waves spawned by the north swell crest from five to 12 feet.

Valera, managing partner of Travel Factor was quoted saying "The Philippines has world-class surf spots. Couple that with our trademark Filipino hospitality and we've got ourselves something to offer to the world."

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Subic Plans Sentosa-Like Freeport

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT - The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) is conducting feasibility studies on the conversion of the Subic Bay International Airport into an integrated family resort similar to Sentosa, a popular island resort in Singapore.

"This is the centerpiece of our tourism program," revealed SBMA Chairman and Administrator Roberto Garcia at the Third Planning and Development Conference on Rural Tourism held here recently.

Garcia said the conversion could bring in millions of foreign tourists to Subic, just like the 20 million tourists that have visited Sentosa.

He said he is optimistic that building a Sentosa-like theme park here will generate the same number of tourists for Subic.

"Remember that the target of the Aquino administration is to draw 10 million tourists by 2016. However, if we can build a world-class iconic tourist destination just imagine how many million tourists it would bring in," he said.

Garcia also revealed that the SBMA will enhance its eco-tourism program and capitalize on existing nature-themed parks here like the Ocean Adventure Marine Park, Treetop Adventure, and Zoobic Safari.

"These three theme parks are responsible for bringing over 1.2 million tourists last year," he said.

He added that Subic has other tourist attractions that let tourists enjoy horseback riding, trekking, and camping.

Apart from local tourists, Garcia said that Subic's eco-based tourism is attracting more foreign visitors, as evidenced by the recent visit of a UK-based cruise ship, whose passengers were awed by Subic's biodiversity and the culture of its indigenous Ayta tribe.

He also said that Subic is now well-prepared to host various international sporting events since the Freeport has the facilities and the manpower needed in staging events like the Century Tuna 5i50 Triathlon on June 24 and the recent Subic International Triathlon held on May 5-6. "In fact, many triathletes actually live here in Subic because they love to train here in the natural environment that we have," he added.

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Gen San Tuna

If we're talking about tuna we automatically think of only one city - General Santos City. "Gen San" as it is popularly known in the Philippines is the southernmost port of the country that accounts for the second largest daily fish catch in the archipelago after Navotas City. Gen San is also the largest producer of sashimi-grade tuna in the Philippines, thus, it's no wonder that the " Tuna Capital of the Philippines" has been tagged to it as early as the 70's.

With a total capacity of 750 metric tons of fish catch daily from its rich waters and employs a whooping 7,800 workers, not to mention the seven processing plants or the tuna canning factories, the city's tuna industry is the Philippines top compared to other fishports in the entire archipelago combined. In fact the Philippines is the 7th top tuna producing countries of the world both fresh, frozen, and canned tuna. How's that sound?