We can never thank you enough for continually contributing to our tourism development but sorry to burst the bubble: Ilocos Norte is not yours, or anyone’s, to ruin.

Strategically located just 10 to 12-hour drive from Manila, or can also be reached through a 45-minute plane ride, Ilocos Norte easily became a tourist magnet even long before the development and relentless promotions of the province’s array of breathtaking scenery. Our province undeniably homes tourist destinations that most, if not all, want to tick off their bucket lists.

Business establishments uncontrollably sprouted in every town, most of the locals now also earn for a living by selling handmade souvenirs, and local governments improved the roads to the tourist sites for you to have a better traveling experience in every town.

Ilocos Norte effortlessly became an eye-candy for investors, given the hotels and resorts that were hardly even there 10 years ago. Travel agencies also unquestionably promote promos for a weekend trip to Ilocos – making our beloved province known to many even more.

Again, thank you for your contribution to Ilocos Norte’s economic sustainability. You may think that we don’t have the right to rant about what you do to our province but please don’t make Ilocos Norte your dumpsite.

What have you done? How did you do it? Why did you do it? I am not blaming all the tourists, visitors, even locals, though.

What I have been trying to say is, on a personal note, I see colors at the side of the roads near the shore and it should have been a beautiful sight only if the colors that add to the vibrancy of the ocean are not coming from plastics.

Two days ago, I was cringing at the back of the car, absentmindedly talking to myself, asking no one in particular of what happened to the shrubs of the sea. Why are plastics stuck at its branches? Why are plastics freely flying towards the shore? Why are there plastics all over the vicinity?

As if on cue, a tourist shuttle service stopped at the other side of the road and two of its passengers just dumped three plastic bags full of maybe their trash. I nearly wanted to tell the driver to stop so I could personally talk to the ladies but unfortunately, we were in the highway and we were driving too fast.

I did not do anything. I did not have the power to stop them from the destruction they are contributing and it was disappointing. Fine, you can tell me that it’s the locals’ responsibility to clean their area but the places I have been talking about are not residential areas. They are areas in between the shore and the road that are still underdeveloped.

The provincial government in general and the barangay council in particular, never fail to remind you through posters and signs to properly dispose your garbage. There are numbers of stopovers along the way to the northern part of Ilocos and may I, if not we, ask you to please have a little bit of decency to throw your trash at the designated bins.

Please don’t add flames to the fire… or better yet, please don’t tolerate the crooked behavior of other people. Not because others did it, means you can. Dumping garbage along the road is never a good idea; it’s a trend that needs to stop not just only in Ilocos Norte but to other parts of the country, world rather, too.

Please don’t make Ilocos Norte your dumpsite. We are working hard enough to progress for you and we cannot afford for the time of just cleaning the mess people other than those from Ilocos Norte caused.

We don’t need garbage and plastics here. We need your cooperation of maintaining the beauty of our province. We are doing our part for you to have your stories about Ilocos worth sharing. Please do yours. You can start by properly disposing your trash. We’ll forever be grateful for that.

Let us contribute to making Ilocos Norte still clean, green, and beautiful. It is not a dump site, our province is a home.