JOEL FLORO Uichico describes himself as a regular guy ? a drinking buddy to islanders when they tell him their stories. At the helm of an ecotourism program in Bohol, he prefers to call himself a community worker and a diver, rather than an environmentalist.

Uichico is doing his part in helping the fishing community of Pamilacan, an island which is part of Baclayon, known for dive sites, sparkling beaches, dolphin and whale-watching and marine sanctuaries. Living in the province since 2007, he is the general manager and board director of Braabo, which stands for Bea (Zobel Jr.) Recreational and Aquatic Activities for Bohol. As a conduit between the mainland and Pamilacan, it deals with all aspects of tourism, from saving the environment to creating diving packages and tourism activities and providing livelihood programs.

?I made the choice of working with the people,? says Uichico, 52.

Simple family

He attributes his populist approach to his grandparents? influence. Pablo and Crisanta Floro were founders of Crispa, the garments manufacturer. From modest beginnings, they expanded their businesses to textiles, shipping and cement. Although they lived in a big house in New Manila, the couple couldn?t be bothered with the trappings of urban sophistication. At the table, his grandfather would make people laugh when he would wipe his mouth with the tablecloth instead of a napkin. A thrifty person, his grandmother would finish or pack up leftovers. Uichico?s father, Antonio, worked in the Floro business and became a staffer of Pablo Floro when he was an assemblyman at the Batasang Pambansa. His mother, Elena, was GM of several Crispa stores.

Uichico played for De La Salle in the National College Athletic Association team and in the family?s team Crispa. Realizing that basketball was not his calling, he joined the family business, first with Crispa. Then he quit school and established his own line of office dress shirts under the label Bon Vivre. The timing was right since the market was growing. Back in the early ?80s, Makati was slowly gaining ground as a business district.

Eventually he moved to Cebu and got into the Floro shipping company and also supplied hollow blocks for the construction of Mactan Shangri-La. When he moved to Davao, he leased heavy industrial equipment to the Floirendo plantation. Then he became a PE instructor in Bacolod, and finally a dive master with dive shops in Negros, Iloilo and Dumaguete.

He closed his businesses to return to Manila when his Carmela was diagnosed with cancer. She died on the fateful day of 9/11 in 2001.

Soon after, socialite Sigalit Djemal and his cousin Valerie Flora set up a dinner with Beatriz Susana Zobel Jr., who had been widowed in 1995. Her late husband, Juan Urquijo, scion of one of the biggest banks in Spain, died in a plane crash. With diving as their only similarity, their first date was in an underwater excursion at Anilao with Bea?s father, Don Jaime Zobel de Ayala.

Woman?s instinct

Uichico had a modest dive shop in Anilao when he decided to get his degree at the age of 47. As he was completing his marketing course in 2003, he ventured into Solana, a resort in Anilao, Batangas, which also served as his thesis. The owners, Manolo and Marilou Abaya, offered him the lease.

He invited Zobel, whom he had been dating for a year, to be an industrial partner. Since most of the resorts in that area were of the middle or low end in standards, Uichico didn?t mind the modest facilities of the place.

Zobel felt that Solana?s interiors should be refurbished to international standards. Uichico credits her instincts for creating a niche in the high-end market. With rates of $100 a night, foreign guests started pouring in. Solana later landed in the Best Resort List in the Philippines.

His son, Adrien, 26, has been managing the place and has been inviting foreign photographers, mostly Europeans, who specialize in underwater photography. With Solana?s lease expiring this year, Uichico is pouring all his energy to Pamilacan, with Adrien doing community work and hopefully bringing the niche market. One of Uichico?s visions is to train dive guides and also organize a dragon boat festival in Pamilacan.

Saving heritage

Zobel?s involvement in Bohol began when Ino Manalo brought her to Bohol in 2006. The heritage houses in the historic town of Baclayon were endangered by a road-widening project.

Learning that people had interesting stories about their ancestral homes, she found it ironic that Bohol was marketing itself as an eco-cultural tourism destination, yet it was killing the very essence that drove it.

She then convinced the governor to stop the project, which was diverted away from ancestral homes. (Eventually Zobel and the Ayala Foundation published ?Sukaran: The Domestic Architecture of the towns of Loay and Loboc in Bohol,? which documents the home and garden styles as part of heritage preservation.)

With the success, Uichico challenged her: ?What now??

Zobel agreed: ?We owe this to the public. We saved the houses that the local government left intact. Now it?s time to give back to them.?

Recalling his earlier trips to Pamilacan, he suggested that it could be a venue for ecotourism. Zobel was delighted in the fact that the locals could earn while maintaining their ancestral homes and that visitors could have access to Pamilacan.

Uichico?s plan was originally to set up a dive shop and create adventure packages such as cave exploration, trekking and water sports in Pamilacan and cultural activities in Baclayon. It took more than just setting up a sign board and a shed for diving tanks and compressors and nice boats. ?We?re not here to make money,? he says.

Zobel not only provided the capital for Braabo but also had a tourism office built to provide guidelines for tourists in protecting the island and the waters. With the help of the local government units, Uichico says a lot was accomplished in one year.

Quality of life

Braabo brought in scientists to study the area and conducted a poverty-based research that would set the directions for their ecotourism and sustainable development projects in the island.

Two marine-protected areas along Baclayon Coast were established where the only activity is diving. During Inquirer Lifestyle?s visit to Bohol, Uichico had brought geologist Fernando Siringan who concluded that Pamilacan was beautiful, what with the pristine waters, fine sand and old coral reefs, uplifted through time despite a fragile ecosystem.

On the island where there are only 200 families, the child mortality is zero. About 75 percent of the population can eat three meals a day. With earnings of P5,000 a month, a family manages to survive. Uichico organized programs to help improve the quality of their lives.

Working with Ayala Foundation Inc. and the local government unit, a cooperative was established to finance the renovation of the decrepit fishing boats into first-class vessels for divers and tourists and other livelihood projects related to tourism.

Braabo organized food production seminars so that people could cultivate in their own backyard instead of buying from the market. Three families were given seedlings to grow lettuces, tomatoes, eggplant and green beans.

Other committees were set up to give more jobs to people such as massage services and food preparation for the tourists.

Since Zobel has sent scholars to study for a year at her sister?s dance studio, Steps, they came back sharing their skills. The locals joined a street-dancing competition during Sandugo, a festival commemorating the historic blood compact between the Spaniards and the Filipinos in Bohol. The Pamilacan contingent won the prize.

Despite all the accomplishments in Pamilacan, Uichico feels he could still do more. He said he is working hard to convince patrons to support Pamilacan?s ecotourism.

Special thanks to Amorita Resort (call 6873641, 9140585, 9141728, 9141527) and Cebu Pacific for this series of articles on Bohol.