By Roderick T. dela Cruz

DONSOL, Sorsogon—This coastal town was shocked to hear about the death of Julia Campbell, the friendly US Peace Corps volunteer who used to walk or ride a bicycle around town to teach children the importance of saving the environment.

“I cried when I heard about what happened,” said Mayor Salve Ocaya of her friend Julia.

Campbell, 40, was found dead on April 18, 10 days after she was declared missing while hiking Battad village in Banaue, Ifugao, to see the world-famous Banaue Rice Terraces. Police found her decomposing body in a shallow grave with her feet protruding from the ground—and near it a bloodstained piece of wood that they believed her killer had used to bludgeon her head.

Campbell, an English teacher from Fairfax, Virginia, had been teaching English at the Divine Word College in Legazpi City, Albay, since October 2006, and knew the local language. Donsol was celebrating its Butanding (whale shark) Festival—it calls itself the whale shark capital of the world—the same day that police found her body.

Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, in Donsol to promote the Philippines as a safe and beautiful destination for eco-tourism, said he was saddened that Campbell had died while on a trip to a famous tourist spot.

Campbell, a former correspondent of the New York Times and other media groups, took time to learn Tagalog and Bicolano. Last year, she taught English for free at the Donsol National Comprehensive School and organized an ecology center in Dancalan village, the jump-off point for viewing whale shark interaction that local and foreign visitors love to watch.

She lived for a year with the Cadag family in Dancalan and helped fix their house with her own money, a neighbor said.

“Almost everyone knew and liked her because she was friendly and always smiling,” Ocaya said. “She greeted the people with a smile and a hello. She felt safe here.”

One of her students described Campbell as a kind-hearted woman who loved to teach. Noticing the dearth of books at the Donsol National Comprehensive School, she asked her friends in the United States to restock the school’s library, and that earned her the respect and admiration of the people of Donsol, Ocaya said.

Campbell learned to speak Tagalog and Bicolano after only two years in the Philippines. She also learned to dance native dances and was fond of traveling to different tourist destinations including Donsol, where she loved to watch the whale sharks.

Whale sharks have brought thousands of foreign and international visitors to Donsol, which was upgraded to a fifth-class municipality to a third-class one in 2006 as a result of its booming tourism industry. There were concerns the influx of tourists could drive the fish away from Donsol, so Campbell started the eco-center to protect them.

Ocaya said Campbell loved Donsol so much that she convinced her parents and about 20 members of the US Peace Corps to visit the town and watch whale shark interaction in the summer of 2006.

“She liked it very much,” said Joel Briones, the Butanding interaction officer who guided Campbell on her first dive to see the gentle giants.

After staying in Donsol for about a year, Campbell moved to Legazpi City to teach at the Divine Word College. She was in her small apartment in Legazpi City when typhoons battered the Bicol region late last year, leaving hundreds dead. Campbell contributed articles to the New York Times to describe the devastation.

Campbell was supposed to return to Donsol to finish her ecology center in Dancalan, a project that the village will now have to complete following her death.

“This town will miss her,” Ocaya said.