Maconacon, Isabela—This remote town in the eastern coast of northern Luzon wants to be identified for its lobsters, a delicacy that would make tourists spend money willingly on the dining table.
Asked what would make people visit her town, Mayor Lycelle Kate M. Domingo said Maconacon’s seafood delicacies and the charm of Sierra Madre are their best assets.
“We are blessed with beach fronts with colorful pebbles, and of course, our lobsters,” Domingo said.
The local government held its annual “Binaguing” Festival last May to promote its economic potential, after the local name for lobsters.
“We also have 20 different kinds of seashells, and a wide array of fish species,” the mayor added.
The absence of access roads connected to the main Cagayan Valley road has stunted the town’s growth, Domingo said.
That’s why Vice Mayor Jolly Taberner hopes the ongoing Ilagan-Divilacan road would be completed soon, to bring more people into the third-class municipality with just over 4,200 residents – the least populous town in the province.
“I prefer land transportation, I have enough bad experiences riding airplanes,” Taberner said.
Maconacon is currently reachable by six-seater planes operated by Cyclone Air in Cauayan City and North Sky in Tuguegarao City.
By sea, cargo-passenger boats ply the Maconacon-San Vicente route, the latter port being in Santa Ana, Cagayan.
Maconacon started being populated in the 1980s when ACME, a logging company, brought its workers from Ilocos Norte and northern Cagayan here. The original inhabitants are from the Agta indigenous cultural communities, who are now outnumbered by Ilocanos and other migrants. The workers stayed when the company closed after a logging moratorium was imposed.
“Right now, 60 percent of the population are Ilocanos, Tingguians, and other migrants, the remaining 40 percent are native Agta communities,” Domingo said.