The Philippines, Eastern Samar - New Promise in the Wild East

This was not our first trip to this area, Eastern Samar province on the island of Samar, the third largest island in The Philippines. We had been here before in the late 1990’s, the area of the country known as the “Wild East” for the lack of development and propensity for violence. 

We had been here previously looking for new waves on a private live-aboard chartered boat, as the area was then considered to be too dangerous for casual tourists on land.

The problem in those days was the NPA, or New People’s Army, the armed division of the Communist Party of The Philippines, founded in late 1968 at the height of student militancy worldwide, which boasted some 15 000 ideologically indoctrinated armed combatants on Samar in the 1990’s.