Since the start of the pandemic, we made many rice donations and we have been paying the medicines for all Tagbanua tribe members of the two tribe villages of Coron Island that asked for (the problem is that they are over 2500!!). Further we also support the Foundation of the Tagbanua Tribe of Coron Island with free interest loan (at today it is over 250.000 USD), with free interest anticipated payments on the lease contract of the lagoons (at today over 150,000 USD) and with cash advance on the salaries of our employees (at today over 50,000 USD). In the first part of the pandemic we did not keep a detailed track of the donations of rice and medicines since so many tribe boats were coming daily to our place asking for help. In 2021 we decided to make instead constant rice delivery to the tribe villages to be sure everybody was getting it. Just to mention the last rice donations, between October and December 2021 we donated 10.000 kg of rice (200 sacks) to the two tribe villages of Coron Island. 9.000 more kg in January and February 2022. On April 2022 we donated other 120 sacks of rice (6.000 kg). On May 2022 we have donated 70 more sacks of rice (3.500 kg). On June 2022 we have made another donation of 80 more sacks of rice (4.000kg). On August 2022 we made another 72 sacks of rice (3,600 kg) . Other 70 sack of rice (3,500 kg) have been delivered in September 2022. Other 70 sacks of rice (3500 kg) were delivered on November 2022. Other 70 sacks were delivered on December 2022 and other 80 sacks (4,000 kg) on 18th and 19th February 2023. We have been trying to make a rice donation every month but it really depends on our cash flow and on how many medicines and Hospital bills we are asked to pay each month. Some days we have 20 or 30 people asking for it and some medicines can be 15,000 pesos (300 usd) for one person! We have just 16 rooms but we employ over 200 young people (you can find the list of them on our website home page at www.paolynhouseboats.com), most of them from the Tagbanua Tribe that owns Coron Island (ancestral domain, land and water). We teach them to work from zero (almost all of them did not study and never worked before!) and we pay a lot higher salary than the average. All this not because we were asked to do it, but because we really wanted to involve the tribe members since the beginning. The houseboats did not start as a business and wanted to try to make the difference for the community, We are giving discount to our guests (around 10% or more comparing to Airbnb and Booking.com) to boost our cash flow and be able to keep helping the Tagbanua tribe members of Coron Island!! The given prices by the website are already discounted.

That is why we ask full payment at the booking!