BAUKO, Mountain Province – The municipal government remains bullish on the projected contribution of the local tourism industry to the economy and the livelihoods of the people.
Mayor Randy Awisan said there had been a significant increase in the number of tourists to the different tourist destinations in the municipality following the selection of barangay Bila as the first runner-up in the Search for Best Tourism Village in the Cordillera.
He claimed that the municipal government, in partnership with the town’s 22 barangays, are now looking for similarly situated villages as the town’s future entries in the Search for Best Tourism Village in the Cordillera to help spur the growth of the local tourism industry which is now recovering from the impact inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier, barangay Bila was chosen by the Cordillera office of the Department of Tourism (DOT-CAR) as the first runner-up in the recently concluded Search for Best Tourism Village in the region because of the inclusivity of the community in terms of the sites and the livelihoods of the people, such as pottery among others.
The barangay brought home the PhP500,000 earmarked cash prize which will be used to implement programs, projects and activities that will further improve the village to help entice more visitors to frequent the area.
Aside from the cool weather where the temperature drops to single digit at the height of the northeast monsoon, Bauko also hosts majestic and towering mountains that are suitable for trekking by nature lovers and scenic rice terraces for those wanting to have a glimpse of the human-developed terraces that can be found in the different parts not only of the municipality, but also in other towns in the region.
Mayor Awisan said that his administration is supportive of the endeavor of various tourism stakeholders to elevate the local industry to become a sustainable economic driver in the future considering that Bauko has potential tourist destinations that need to be developed further in partnership with the private sector.
According to him, the municipality is strategically located between Baguio City and Benguet that serves as the gateway to the well-known tourist towns of Sagada in Mountain Province and Banaue in Ifugao and providing attractions can entice foreign and domestic tourists to include in their must-see destinations the tourist spots in the municipality before proceeding to other tourist spots in the central Cordillera.
He congratulated the officials and residents of barangay Bila for their efforts in working out the delineation of their barangay for purposes of coming up with a comprehensive zoning that contributed in their success as the first runner-up in the Search for Best Tourism Village in the Cordillera which can motivate other barangays to replicate their feat to help in placing the municipality in the tourism map.
Bauko is the largest municipality in Mountain Province having a population of more than 34,000 and a land area of more than 22,000 hectares located within the Mount Data National Park.
Further, the town also hosts the historic Mount Data Hotel which is strategically located at the heart of the Mount Data plateau that served as the venue for the signing of the Mount Data ‘sipat’ or peace agreement between the Philippine government under the leadership of the late President Corazon C. Aquino and the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) headed by former rebel priest Conrado Balweg on September 13, 1986. By Dexter A. See
