By E.H. EDEJER | September 14, 2025
BOTOLAN, Zambales — With barely 13 weeks before the big event, workers are now in a hurry building road, erecting structures, and installing facilities at the campsite for the 33rd Asia-Pacific Jamboree to be held in this town on December 14 to 21.
In a 62-hectare site at Barangay San Juan here, a short distance from the Bucao River, a sprawling campsite for 65 tent clusters flanked by a marketplace, parking area, and highlighted by an activity center in the middle, is being developed by the Zambales provincial government.
“We’re working 24/7 now, halos wala nang tulog ang mga trabahador namin (our workers hardly sleep),” said Engr. Domingo Mariano, who chairs the subcommittee for campsite development.
“We have already finished building five bridges over a creek that runs across the campsite, and the next we will do is construct shower and toilet facilities, as well as deep wells all over the campground,” he said in a media tour of the site last Friday.
The Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) is hosting the 33rd Asia-Pacific Jamboree, the fourth to be held in the country since 1973 and the first to be hosted in Zambales. Previous scouting events were all held at the National Scout Reservation on Mt. Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna.
According to a BSP bulletin, national scout organizations from 10 other countries have already signified intent to participate. These are Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Fiji, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Maldives, South Korea, TGA Scouts of China, and the United States.
Mariano said about 26,800 scouts will compose the Philippine contingent, while 935 will comprise the international delegation.
The huge number of participants, plus the tight deadline, is quite daunting, admitted Mariano. “But we are confident of finishing the job on time,” he added.
Mariano said Zambales was given just 108 calendar days to prepare the camp site after Governor Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. was named chairman of the National Jamboree Organizing Committee, with Zambales 2nd District Representative Bing Maniquiz and Botolan Mayor Jun Omar Ebdane as co-chairs.
At this time, Mariano said the provincial construction crew has to finish ground preparation and facilities construction at a rate covering about 1 hectare per day until the December project turnover.
Mariano said the BSP is paying P5 million for the rental of the property being developed into the jamboree site, but the provincial government is shouldering all the development costs.
However, with practically the whole fleet of heavy equipment from the Provincial Engineering Office at their disposal, and with scrap materials stockpiled from old projects, the province would only spend extra for fuel running the machineries being used, he added.
As designed, a 56,859-sqm activity center will sit in the middle of the neatly-laid 62-hectare camp ground. This will contain the stage, and four structures for various activities. Three of the five recently-built bridges are also located in this area, as a winding creek runs through it.
Around the activity center will rise six sub-camps, three of them good for 10 tent clusters, two for 12, and one for 11 clusters. Each tent cluster, meanwhile, will have an activity center of its own in the middle, as well as four shower stalls and four toilet facilities.
Mariano said the provincial government is expecting returns from hosting the jamboree in terms of promotion. “It will be advertised as an ideal site for activities like this because we have good roads, excellent facilities, and a secure environment,” he said.
Headline Zambales Online 