TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Mayor Darwin C. Estrañero underscored that agriculture and tourism or a combination of both economic drivers will contribute in the ongoing efforts of the city government to propel the city’s growth and development without compromising the state of the city’s environment.
Estrañero, who is serving his second term as the local chief executive, stated that agriculture and tourism go together which is why it is still best to maximize the potentials of both economic drivers to further spur the local economy to gradually and safely recover from the heavy impact that was inflicted by the ongoing Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic.
He disclosed that many agriculture industry stakeholders in the city have introduced innovations in their farms that include tourist attractions to entice prospective visitors to visit the various agri-tourism destinations in the different parts of the city.
Various tour operators visited the city to assess and evaluate the inclusion of the different tourist destinations in their respective tour packages for interested foreign and domestic tourists wanting to visit other distinct tourist spots in Northern Luzon.
Aside from scenic tourist destinations, Tabuk is also rich in culture and arts as the city is the melting pot of the 47 sub-tribes of Kalinga and other tribes from the different parts of the Cordillera and Northern Luzon.
According to him, it is the policy of the city government to strike a balance between development and the ongoing efforts to preserve and protect the city’s environment so that the present and future generation can reap the fruits of a good environment and for them to be able to pass the same to succeeding generations.
Estrañero stipulated the need for the local government to pace its programs, projects and activities as either short, medium or long-term for the city to have a basis in determining the type of development to introduce to prevent the state of the environment from being compromised because the natural resources are very important in sustaining the quality of life of the people.
Tabuk was established as a municipality by virtue of Republic Act (RA) 533 which was issued on June 16, 1950 and was converted into a city by virtue of RA 9404 which was ratified by the city’s electorate on June 24, 2007.
Last June 24, 2022, Tabuk celebrated its 15th founding anniversary as a city while it also celebrated its 72nd founding anniversary as a municipality last June 23, 2022.
Further, the city is being groomed as a future regional growth center by the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera because of the availability of vast tracks of lands for expansion purposes.
Tabuk is the third largest city in the country with a total land area of more than 700.25 square kilometers where agriculture is the primary source of livelihood of the people living in the 43 barangays in the city.
