- GILBERT BAYORAN
A 62-hectare property of the provincial government of Negros Occidental in Sitio Tambara, Brgy. San Fernando in Talisay City, Negros Occidental, which used to be a haven of rebels in the late 1980s, is now being developed into an eco-tourism park.
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, who led the groundbreaking ceremony for the Biodiversity Conservation and Nature Tourism Center along with 3rd District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez this morning, March 31, said he envisions the place to become another tourist destination, similar to the Mambukal Resort in Murcia.
“It is also a nature tourism center where we can allow guests to sleep over,” Lacson said.
He said that the provincial government will allocate P90 million annually, starting this year, to develop the area and for the concreting of the road.
Aside from reforestation efforts at the site, among the amenities that will be constructed in the property include a multi-purpose building made of bamboo, a bamboo treatment facility, a three-storey watchtower, and a 10-room tourist facility.
The site will also house a laboratory for scientists, who will be studying the flora and fauna of the area.
Benitez told Lacson that he intends to file in the House of Representatives a bill that will declare the tourism center as an eco-tourism park, so that funds from the TIEZA (Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority) could be tapped and used for the improvement of the road.
The solon said the Department of Tourism has tourism road programs that can be tapped for the tourism center.
Provincial Administrator, Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, who gave the project overview of the Nature Tourism Center, said the project is an offshoot of the provincial government efforts to secure water supply under the Provincial Integrated Safe Water Program.
The center, according to Diaz, is also envisioned to provide venues for researchers and other groups and individuals in their environmental advocacies.
He added that the center will also feature structures using bamboo architecture./GB
