• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Victorias City Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez received from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. April 15 a check for P8 million as one of the 15 national winners of the Tourism Champions Challenge (TCC) of the Department of Tourism.
The award is for the city’s Gawahon Ecopark entry, which the DOT said, “is an ecotourism paradise envisioned to be a haven for nature enthusiasts. Through environmental conservation and community development, Gawahon is set to be a model for sustainable tourism, a sanctuary for endangered species, and a source of prosperity for the community”.
Benitez has been pushing to make Gawahon Ecopark as the city’s banner destination.
From among the 98 entries nationwide, Victorias ranked 4th in the Visayas, and is the lone winner from Negros Occidental.
There are five winners each region, with the first place receiving P20 million, second place, P15 million; third, P10 million; fourth, P8 million; and fifth, P7 million, the DOT said, adding that it granted a cumulative amount of P180 million for the TCC flagship project that was launched on April 5 last year.
For Visayas, the top three winning local government units are Bohol for its Enchanted Ilijan Plug of Tubigon; Cebu’s Badian Toong Spring Nature Park; and the Silago’s ridge-to-reef eco experience project of Southern Leyte. The Panay Coastal Resource Experience Project of Capiz trailed Victorias.
The first-place winner for Luzon is Nueva Vizcaya’s Ambaguio Skyport, tagged as the first local paragliding ‘airport terminal’ in the Philippines; and Basilan’s Lampinigan Jetty Port and Leisure Development Project for Mindanao.
Marcos led the awarding of financial endowments to the winning tourism infrastructure proposals along with DOT Secretary Christina Frasco, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, and Mark Lapid of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority, at the Philippine International Convention Center.
In his keynote speech, the President also said the winning LGUs will additionally receive P5 million each, on top of their respective prizes.
Marcos said the proposals submitted to the TCC are “not mere proposals” but an “impressive catalogue of creativity and innovation. It is heartwarming to note that these are not mere proposals anymore, they are existing projects of proven value and have already shown unqualified success. This is the way tourism should be developed in our view, like economic growth, not relying on trickle-down, but built from the ground up”.
Frasco said in a statement that the Tourism Champions Challenge “was launched and designed to unleash the potential of cities and municipalities across the Philippines, by inviting them to propose innovative tourism infrastructure projects that aim to foster sustainability, inclusivity, and resilience in tourism development, enhancing our local destinations and communities and most importantly, providing added economic opportunity for our communities nationwide”. | CGC
