spot_img
28.6 C
Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Sablayan mayor: Dev’t will shift to high gear

- Advertisement -

SABLAYAN, Occidental Mindoro – The incoming leadership of the Sablayan local government will focus on the development of the town’s major potentials, notably tourism and agriculture, which have been left untapped in the past years.

Newly-elected Mayor BongBong Marquez said, in his inaugural speech, that because of its vastness in size, “Sablayan’s full potential in natural resources, mainly in agriculture and tourism, were never fully explored and developed to become competitive with other provinces and our people to benefit from it.”

Sablayan is a first class municipality with a total land area of 2,188.80 square kilometers equivalent to 218,909 hectares “making it the largest municipality in the Philippines,” the outgoing vice-mayor said Sablayan also hosts the world’s second largest coral reef, the 34-square kilometer Apo Reef Natural Park, the largest in the Philippines and second to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Sablayan is also home to the vast 75,445-hectare Mts. Iglit-Baco National Park, an ASEAN Heritage Park and listed as one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites, being the sanctuary of endangered tamaraws which are dwindling in its population and wild flora and fauna. Marquez said he would ask the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to take over the operation and control of the town’s idle seaport, in preparation for the forthcoming economic boom brought about by the development of the local tourism industry and agricultural production,

Sablayan is top producer of rice and corn in the region. Officials of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) said Sablayan has replaced General Santos City in Mindanao as the “Philippines tuna capital,” because it produces high-quality yellow fin tuna being exported to such places as the European Union, aside from being a top supplier of tuna to Metro Manila restaurants and resorts.

- Advertisement -

He wrote Mary Ann I. Pastrana, executive vice-president of the Archipelago Philippine Ferries Corp., operator of Fastcat ro-ro ferries, for the “establishment of routes from Sablayan to Coron and Taytay, in Palawan, and to Manila or other points of destination suitable to the needs of its target clients to said areas.”

Marquez also proposed to the APFC management to launch its maiden voyage of its vessels in the municipality to Coron on July 24 to 31 so that the two LGUs, Sablayan and Coron, can meet to formulate their Capacity Development/Executive-Legislative Agenda “so that our officials will have a first-hand experience with your shipping company.”

Expected to attend are business owners and establishment, such as hotels and resorts, operators from both municipalities, he said.

The incoming mayor also emphasized the need to include his municipality in the proposal to launch the “tourism hub” among the three towns of Sablayan, Taytay and Coron.

Most local and foreign tourists after spending days in the beaches of Puerto Galera leaves the resort town to drop by the central municipality of Sablayan to dive and snorkel in the rich fishing seabed of the Apo Reef Natural Park aside from hiking to see the dwindling tamaraws in Mts. Iglit-Baco Tamaraw Reservation.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles