{"id":3708,"date":"2015-05-07T17:34:20","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T17:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=3708"},"modified":"2015-05-07T17:34:20","modified_gmt":"2015-05-07T17:34:20","slug":"bolinao-attracts-many-australian-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/?p=3708","title":{"rendered":"Bolinao attracts many Australian tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Located near the coast of Western Pangasinan, the town of Bolinao has pristine white-sand beaches, and has plenty more to offer to visitors.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Tourists can explore Bolinao\u2019s caves and coral beds, learn about its history and culture, or enjoy a cruise with lunch on Balingasay River.<\/p>\n<p>Facing the West Philippine Sea, Bolinao can be reached after a <strong>4<sup>1\/2<\/sup><\/strong><sup> <\/sup>hour<sup> <\/sup>drive from Metro Manila. Buses take tourists to the town on runs that take five and a half hours.<\/p>\n<p>Although the Pangasinan and Ilocano dialects are widely spoken in Bolinao, the town has its own language, Bolinao or Binu-Bolinao.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Bolinao culture is still very [much] alive, especially on Santiago Island,\u201d said Myrna Aguila, the town\u2019s tourism officer. The island, located off the northern tip of Pangasinan, has six of Bolinao\u2019s 30 villages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople still practice <em>bayanihan. <\/em>If somebody gets married, everybody helps in the preparation. During fiestas, homes are open and visitors can just go in to eat,\u201d Aguila said.<\/p>\n<p>Margaret Celeste, chair of the Movement of Bolinao Concerned Citizens Inc., said residents were fierce defenders of the environment, always ready to stand up to any threat.<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"2\" height=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>In the 1990s, the residents opposed the construction of a P13-billion cement plant in the town, prompting the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to reject the proponent\u2019s application for an environmental compliance certificate.<\/p>\n<p>A day tour always starts with the rich history of Bolinao.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Located near the coast of Western Pangasinan, the town of Bolinao has pristine white-sand beaches, and has plenty more to offer to visitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}