by admin | May 2, 2008 | Headlines
ECO-CULTURAL tourism was then an unthinkable word, until the Boholanos showed what it is.
Entirely packaging a tourism that is a spin-off from the traditional definitions, Bohol’s eco-tourism has made it a model for the country, admits Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, during awarding ceremonies of the Department of Tourism (DOT) Turismo Mismo grantees in Magtangtang Danao, Bohol, May 1.
“Even at a time when eco-tourism was not crafted yet, the Boholanos were able to define it,” he said after going through the Eco, Educational, Extreme Adventure Tourism (EAT) in Danao.
The eco-tourism concept is one where there is responsible travel to nature areas, doing activities like birdwatching, caving, farm visits and rice field walks, kayaking or simply sightseeing.
In Danao, local officials led by Mayor Thomas Louis Gonzaga also put in a twist in their adventure tourism by introducing river trekking, tyrolean traverse, rappelling, bouldering, rock and root climbing and even bungee jumping.
The concept is to integrate all these in a huge nature park which has been the base camp of a revered Boholano hero; Francisco Dagohoy, while instilling in the tourists’ mind the idea of preserving nature, the natural landscape, the watershed, the forest ecosystem and the town’s history and cultural heritage, said a billboard at the park’s jump-off point.
In fact, even Bohol Representative Edgar Chatto also confessed that when the House of Representatives deliberated on the bid for Bohol to be declared an eco-cultural tourism destination in the country, legislators called it a misnomer.
Legislators said [being] cultural also encompasses the ecology and the environment.
Chatto said he argued that it took the Boholanos about seven months to craft the vision for Bohol, and eco-cultural tourism is what they meant.
He said the House legislators finally agreed to adopt the term, after the local representative detailed the meaning of the word according to the Boholanos.
Chatto, who was a vice governor then was a key instrument in the crafting of Bohol’s tourism vision as a province.
On eco-tourism, Durano asserts that Danao Bohol’s tourism direction is basically what the DOT’s Turismo Mismo is all about.
The department spun a campaign of not just giving people jobs, which seems to be superficial, but on giving people livelihood, which would make the projects sustainable.
Turismo Mismo is one where it is the people of the place who benefit from the resources, one he calls as Pilipino Mismo.
In Danao, the DOT brought Grass Roots Entrepreneurship and Employment in Tourism (GREET).
Meanwhile, Danao Mayor Gonzaga agreed that tourism to be sustainable should not just be about jobs but about livelihood as well. (rachiu/PIA)
by admin | Apr 26, 2008 | Features
SHIFTING to high yielding varieties of rice from the traditional varieties can spell so much difference for farm yield, assures a top agricultural technology promotion officer in Bohol.
“Once a farmer uses the high yielding varieties in his seeds, there would be an incremental increase in his production per unit area” Engr. Eugene Cahiles, of the the Bohol Agricultural Promotion Center bared at the weekly Kapihan sa PIA Thursday.
This as he underscored that the seed shift alone raises rice production dramatically so Bohol could quickly respond to the goal of rice sufficiency.
“Even without altering production factor other than a shift to either high yielding hybrid or at least certified rice seeds, a farmer can get more than half his usual yield, he claimed.
The difference, Bohol Provincial Agriculturist Liza Quirog pointed out is a matter of 72 bags of rice per hectare compared to his usual 48 bags yield per hectare for hybrid rice.
The two top agriculture officials in Bohol appeared at the weekly forum aired live over DYTR to elucidate on the government initiatives in responding to the rice shortage, which the country feels at present.
Both also agree that the problem is not that alarming in Bohol, which is able to produce almost 80 thousand metric tons and continuing to reap some 99 thousand metric tons by June of next year.
Data from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics bared that Bohol’s rice sufficiency is still about 83%, meaning the province’s farmers have been able to produce about 83% of its total rice consumption.
The data also pushed Governor Erico Aumentado to issue a rice shipment regulation so as not to deplete local rice stocks and therefore allow the province to keep a buffer for local consumption.
The regulation, Quirog explained is based on the data from the previous bulk of the province’s regular trading, not more than that.
To quickly recoup the production setback, Cahiles added that “by expanding the production area using certified seeds and hybrid seeds, Bohol could be more rice sufficient.
From 1900 bags of hybrid rice planted by farmer adoptors last year, Cahiles said the APC is on to a 5,000 bags distribution target for irrigated as well as rain-fed lands this year.
Bohol has about 47, 376 hectares of ricelands, only about 21,000 hectares are irrigated while most at 26,000 are rainfed. Now we are also focusing on how to make rainfed areas productive as well, he said.
Quirog quickly followed on as she pointed that land development in areas covered by Bayongan Dam is ongoing.
She reported that 2,000 hectares would be operational this year, while the rest [of the areas would be operational] in the near future.
This as the national and the provincial government has poured in roughly P37M and P13.786M to sustain the goal of making Bohol 100% rice sufficient by 2010, Engr Cahiles added.
According to Quirog, the provincial Government through the Sangguniang Panlalawigan presiding officer and Agriculture Committee chair Vice Governor Julius Caesar Herrera approved the P13.7M. twice as much as the 6.4M allocation for the Bohol Seed Assistance Program.
Adding to the lady agriculturist’s statements, Cahiles said the national government is pakcing up a bag of interventions in the rice crisis, as he cited the President’s pronouncements at the recent national food summit.
He said the government allocated P43.7B for Fertilizers, Irrigation facilities, Education and training, Loans, Driers and other post harvest facilities and seeds subsidies.
The package encompasses the most extensive government intervention to sustain the growth of the rice industry in the country, Cahiles added. (rachiu/PIA)
by admin | Apr 24, 2008 | Features
STAMPING Bohol identity and character into its built heritage and infrastructure puts up an added value to Bohol tourism, hints heritage icon and architect Augusto Villalon, during the recent conference at the Metro Center Hotel.
The conference, which gathered Bohol’s leading architects, engineers, builders, contractors and artists is billed “Architecture of Place, Putting Bohol in its Tourism Infrastructure and Facilities.”
As such, “it tends to lend to the Bohol tour a new vigor as Bohol now could be seen at a new facet: in the light of how local history and milieu contributes to the robust and complex system which the people showcase in their built heritage,” adds Arch. Rosario Encarnacion-Tan during a presentation.
“Beset with the recent sprouting of Swiss chalets, Spanish villas, American homes, Boholano vernacular architecture seem to cower in humble submission that a tourist or visitors fail to fully discern the local spirit,” conference organizers said.
Now, acting promptly on the observation that the present Bohol architecture is hardly reflective of its culture, the conference moved Ayala Foundation, Filipinas Heritage Library, Bohol provincial government and Holy Name University to expose participants to the traditional and the vernacular architecture as a common fiber to which new designs can develop.
Encarnacion, along with Villalon took turns at the conference in detailing the need to instill the gist of Philippine if not Boholano Architecture in the built structures to showcase the Boholono soul.
According to Encarnacion, the Philippine concept of space surrounding a space is an interesting theme prevalent in almost all old heritage structures.
Encarnacion, who has had a long list of veritable Filipino architecture designs fitted into modern structures now off her drawing boards said “spacing means putting up balconies that gaze out to gardens, emphasizing visual layers and sectional walls that open to create more spaces.”
Moreover, its is always a Boholano penchant to build their houses on stilts, one that allows more space and adds value to a unique ventilation, she said.
Putting up structures need not be expensive, she stressed, just as the use of in-expensive but indigenous materials, can easily blend with modern structures to create interesting textures. She noted that locals do not run out of ideas with amakan, bamboo, rattan, coconut and woven materials and native motifs.
The combination of local materials reasonably settling with the modern building materials can always go together, a good blend of local artisans using local technology and good designers with a feel of how to live good as a Boholano, one having a workable knowledge of Philippine Architecture and culture could bring out an owner’s final vision of the finished structure, Encarnacion said.
Over all this, tourists homing in on the structure can connect with the owner’s soul, one memorable appreciation in their journey, she pointed out. (rachiu/PIA)
by admin | Apr 24, 2008 | Headlines
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) breezes through Bohol on Tuesday, April 29 to fill a leg of journey that would finally connect key ports in the country’s central seaboard.
This happens as she leads the inauguration rites of the Central Seaboard of the Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH).
The SRNH, the Administration’s brain child involves funding the putting up of Roll-on, Roll-off (RoRo) ports system aimed at perking up inter-island farm trade.
The SRNH also hopes to improve flow and distribution of basic goods and services, reduce travel time and transportation costs as well as promote domestic tourism.
Set in the Central Philippines, thus Central Seaboard, the government funded key improvement projects on intricate network of roads and ports in various regions in Luzon and the Visayas to Mindanao to finally unite the country’s three main islands groups.
While the country has a backbone Maharlika highway that connects Luzon to Mindanao, travel of unprocessed farm goods by land has put up huge losses, one that makes it not as economically viable option for farmers, shippers have complained.
With the SRNH opening up its Central seaboard, the delivery of basic goods and farm produce like vegetables and livestock is easier, more economical and efficient as travel time and costs to and from destinations are considerably reduced, government sources said.
With the Central Seaboard opened, travelers and farm produce from the north going to the south can now take the Bulan Sorsogon to Masbate City ferry, then motor to Cawayan, Masbate where a ferry is again available for Bogo, Cebu.
From Bogo, it would be a land trip to Cebu City where the port has a ferry to Tubigon, Bohol.
In Tubigon, Bohol, one can take the land trip to Jagna Bohol where one exits Bohol to Mambajao Camiguin, and then to Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental.
In Bohol, the Presidential convoy would be met by well wishers by the roadsides, banners, streamers with the famed presidential brands “Labanan ang Kahirapan” and “Ramdam ang Kaunlaran.”
As early as Saturday, April 26, posters have been noted along Bohol’s coastal roads where the caravan is slated to pass.
The president’s party would be passing through Tubigon, Calape, Loon, Maribojoc, Cortes, Tagbilaran, Baclayon, Alburquerque, Loay, Lila, Dimiao, Valencia, Garcia-Hernandez to Jagna, while going through about a little more than a hundred kilometers of highway also known as the Bohol Circumferential Road Improvement Projects.
The President in her previous speeches had pointed out that aside from the convenience of shorter travel times offered to travelers with the routes of the SRNH, spoilage of farm produce has been lessened which in turn has translated to larger income for farmers.
She also said that the increase of visitors to the various tourist spots around the country is also a by-product of the SRNH.
She noted that local and foreign tourist have been enticed to take the “scenic” route on their way to the country’s numerous tourists destinations.
According to the President, the SRNH is a good example of where increased revenue collections from the Expanded Value Added Tax (EVAT) Law has gone to good use.
Meanwhile, just as the President takes the inaugural run, sectors especially in the transport industry have openly lobbied for support to the SRNH.
“There is great investment opportunity and potential in the Road RoRo Terminal System component of the SRNH,” a President of a key government financial facility said.
“I would like to encourage our stakeholders; the shipbuilders, local government units, and private sector investors; to avail of financing opportunities, he pressed.
Moreover, the Development Bank of the Philippines is putting up its Sustainable Logistics Development Program (SLDP) which is intended to modernize the processing, storage, delivery, and the distribution of grain harvest and perishable goods of traders and farmers from Mindanao and Luzon. (rachiu/PIA)
