Siargao seaside skatepark pushed amid ‘Skate Road’ ban

SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur – Amid intense public backlash over the skating ban on Siargao’s famed Malinao “Skate Road,” the municipal government of General Luna has unveiled plans to construct a dedicated seaside skate park to provide a permanent home for the island’s displaced skating community.

The proposed tourism infrastructure project, unveiled Monday and envisioned to rise along an existing 350-meter-plus seawall in Barangay 1, Poblacion, is being positioned by the local government unit as a long-term solution that balances public safety laws with the island’s vibrant board-riding culture.

According to municipal documents, the waterfront facility will feature a dedicated surfskate pathway integrated with bowl ramps, offering skaters, surfskate athletes, and tourists an unobstructed view of the Pacific Ocean while practicing off the public highway.

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The initiative comes on the heels of the controversial November 5 closure of the Malinao strip to skating, where village officials—acting under pressure from an administrative complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman and road-clearing directives from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)—banned small vendors, surfskate instructors, and recreational riders from the tree-lined national thoroughfare.

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While town authorities defended the Malinao road shutdown to skaters as a necessary move to avoid a legal standoff over national road obstruction laws, the decision drew widespread condemnation from community advocates, grassroots workers, and former local officials who warned that extinguishing the organic hub dealt a severe blow to island tourism and informal livelihoods.

Seeking to cushion the fallout, the municipal government, led by Mayor Johnson Sajulga pointed out it had presented the seawall skate park blueprint to national line agencies for funding assistance during a multi-agency coordination meeting for the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour earlier in August.

Funding and technical support have been formally lobbied before the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA), the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), and the DPWH.

Local officials noted that while design blueprints and safety specifications remain subject to final revisions, the seaside facility stands as one of the municipality’s flagship infrastructure priorities aimed at bolstering sports tourism and dry-land athletic training.

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Surfskating has long served as an essential cross-training discipline for homegrown surfers in General Luna, the country’s surfing capital. 

Proponents hope that once realized, the beachfront park will establish a safe, legal, and picturesque sanctuary for young athletes and recreational skaters without running afoul of national road policies.