One Visayas expo in Cebu by 2009
By Doris C. Bongcac
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 11:46:00 08/22/2008
Top officials in the Visayas regions yesterday agreed to hold a weeklong expo on February 2009 to showcase their different products, arts, cultures and festivals.
Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia said the project “One Visayas, One People, One Destiny” aims to strengthen cultural bond among the different islands in the region.
“Instead of quarreling with the people in Manila, we in the Visayas regions started to look for the commonality in us, something that we can work on,” said Antique Gov. Salvacion Perez.
“We hope the national government will emulate our example.”
The One Visayas project was conceptualized during a recent meeting in Iloilo City of heads of the Regional Development Councils (RDC) of Eastern, Central and Western Visayas .
The concept is is similar to the “One Cebu” program of the Cebu provincial government, which partnered with the Mandaue City business sector in putting up an exhibit of local products at the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) from August 8 to 15.
Governor Garcia said the One Visayas project will be an even bigger expo held side by side with a Visayas Arts Festival in Cebu.
Cebu will be the venue for the first “One Visayas” expo and the Visayan Arts Festival since Cebu is center of the Visayas regions.
“We are looking at a much bigger expo, but this time encompassing the entire Visayas islands,” Garcia.
Organizers also hope to promote the Visayas as a tourism hub by bringing different festivals here.
They also plan to mount a a climate change summit to showcase best practices of local governments in addressing the danger and effects of climate change.
“We are looking at a seven-day festival to showcase the best that we have,” said Perez.
Visayan officials were at the Cebu Capitol yesterday morning to plan the February 2009 activity.
A committee was formed to work on the preparations.
Present during the meeting were Perez, who heads the Region 6 RDC, Leyte Vice Gov. Mimyet Bagulaya and a representative of Calbayog Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento, who is the RDC Region 8 chairman.
The group discussed the project with Garcia and Cebu Provincial Board Member Agnes Magpale, who heads the committee on tourism of the Cebu Provincial Board.
After lunch, the group visited the provincial jail and the new Museo Sugbu located at the old provincial jail in Tejero, Cebu City.
Governor Perez of Antique said that with the cooperation shown by Visayan officials , the project was a a good opportunity to learn best practices of each locality.
She said she wanted Anique province to adopt Cebu’s Suroy Suroy sa Sugbu tourism caravan, the Pasigarbo festival and the Sinanduloy program, which promotes the cultivation of camote to counter the rising prices of rice.
|
