LA TRINIDAD, Benguet– Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap disclosed that some P50 million has been allocated from the Bayanihan 2 law for the improvement of the facilities in the strawberry farm to boost the sustainable growth of the town’s tourism industry.
Yap, who chairs the House committee on appropriations, said that the P50 million will come from the funds that had been provided by the Bayanihan 2 to the State-owned Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) to pave the way for the recovery of the country’s tourism industry and that Benguet is one of the provinces that was able to access part of the aforesaid support.
He claimed that the funds will be used to put up the required comfort rooms and the view deck within the strawberry farm owned by the Benguet State University (BSU) so that tourists who will be visiting the said farm will be able to experience convenience in their visit to the area.
The lawmaker explained that the improvement of the tourism facilities in the strawberry farm is part of the efforts of the government through the tourism department and the provincial government to allow the heavily impacted industry to recover and regain its vibrance that will provide appropriate employment opportunities for residents.
The strawberry farm is one of the tourist destinations in the municipality that is being frequented by visitors who want to have a firsthand experience of the famous strawberry picking among other related activities.
Aside from the provision of the funds for the improvement of the comfort rooms and the put up of the view deck in the strawberry farm, Congressman Yap stated that he will work extra hard to aggressively promote locally produced products such as strawberries and its processed products among others to be directly connected with Benguet so that the province will have a distinct identity of being the source of the said products.
According to him, one of the legacies that he wants to be remembered as the province’s legislative caretaker so that the status of Benguet will be elevated to greater heights and to be identified as the major source of agricultural crops being sold in the different parts of the country.
He pointed out that development should flourish in the different parts of the province so that its status will be upgraded from the present second class to a first class province for it to be entitled to bigger allocations from the concerned government agencies to help in improving the living condition of the people, especially those living in the remote villages.
He assured that he will continue to ventilate the issues and concerns of the province in the halls of Congress for the immediate and appropriate action of concerned government agencies so that the people will be able to feel the presence of the government in their midst as people in the countryside had been deprived of the basic services from both the national and local governments.
By HENT
File photo by Joseph B. Manzano