TACLOBAN CITY -- If you’re in Tacloban and would like to have a quick tour of the historical and religious places of interest in the city and its environs, just hop on the “Icot-Icot” vehicle.
The “Icot-Icot” tour will provide you a three-hour guided tour of Tacloban and some nearby towns at very affordable prices.
Launched in September 2007, the Icot-Icot tour was first operated on weekends, says Nelieta Baguna, head of the Leyte Tourism and Investment Promotion Canter.
A brainchild of Leyte Gov. Carlos Jericho L. Petilla, the “Icot-Icot” tour was conceived to provide visitors, and even the locals, an opportunity to visit tourist destinations in the city and nearby towns through a group tour.
The term “Icot-icot” came from the Tagalog word “ikot-ikot,” which means going around, and from the governor’s nickname, “Icot.”
Baguna says the local government decided to make the tour available on weekdays due to the growing demand.
The tour fee is P100 for the morning trip and P150 for the afternoon trip because this would include a visit to a bucolic farm resort in Babatngon, Leyte. The fee already includes the ride, tour guide and the entrance fees at the Sto. Nińo Shrine and at the farm resort.
The “Icot-Icot” vehicle, actually a multicab that can accommodate around 10 persons, leaves the RTR Plaza in Tacloban City at 9 o’clock for the morning trip and 2 o’clock for the afternoon tour.
From the plaza, the vehicle goes to Justice Romualdez Street and passes through the CAP building, formerly the Price Mansion, where Gen. Douglas MacArthur resided and put up his headquarters shortly after the landing of the Allied Liberation Forces at Red Beach, Palo, Leyte on Oct. 20, 1944.
At the corner of Sen. Enage Street, the car turns right to the Redońa Residence, a two-story wooden house along T. Caludio Street, where President Sergio Osmeńa resided at the early part of the Liberation campaign during World War II.
Going street ahead, the vehicle also passes by the Provincial Capitol, which is also a historical building because it was here where General MacArthur and President Osmeńa announced that Tacloban was the temporary seat of the Commonwealth government.
The country would finally be liberated three days after the famous Leyte landing.
Turning right to Magsaysay Boulevard, the car passes several government buildings, such as the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center, Bulwagan ng Katarungan and University of the Philippines in the Visayas, Tacloban campus.
Also along the boulevard are places of interest such as the Family Park; statue of the Image of the Crucified Christ; statue of Maria Kannon, an Asian madonna that symbolizes peace; Philippine-Japan Peace Park and the Balyu-an Tower.
Further ahead on Real Street is the Sto. Nińo Church, the main Catholic Church in the city, the People’s Center and Library and the Sto. Nińo Shrine and Heritage Museum.
Former first lady Imelda Marcos, who hails from Leyte, built the last two buildings.
The first stopover of the tour is the Sto. Nińo Shrine and Heritage Museum, where tourists can get a glimpse of the shrine and the different priceless art objects that are said to be gifts to the first lady during her trips abroad.
The building also has 13 guest rooms of different motifs, a wide ballroom, 20-seater and 30-seater dining tables and rooms reserved for the First Family.
From the shrine and museum, the tour vehicle speeds away to nearby Palo town for the next stopover at the MacArthur Landing Memorial National Park where the giant statues of General MacArthur and Carlos P. Romulo are ready for souvenir photos.
On the way to the park, the vehicle passes by the city’s new Astrodome and the Boy Scout Monument, which was put up in 1941 and said to be the first monument of its kind.
Then the tour proceeds to the San Juanico Bridge, located more than 20 kilometers away, for the last brief stopover.
Then the vehicle goes back to the city proper where the tour ends.
Tour guide Franz Guiuan says many of their customers are out-of-towners and some foreigners but that locals also join the tour.
“This is the kind of tour where they can go to many places at the least expense,” he says, adding that the tourists have enjoyed the “Icot-Icot” trips during their one year of operation.
This has encouraged the government to soon expand the tour services.
