P9.8-M livelihood projects for tourism proposed

LOCAL government units have proposed a P9.8-million livelihood project for tourism development in Eastern Visayas next year, under the National Government’s bottom-up budgeting approach.

Department of Tourism Regional Director Karina Rosa Tiopes said that priority projects depart from the traditional construction of tourism infrastructure funded by the central government.

“This fills the gap in our budget. The focus is product development and capability building activities, which will generate jobs in rural communities,” Tiopes told Leyte Samar Daily Express.

According to Tiopes, livelihood opportunities generated from tourist arrivals will help the community appreciate the value of tourism. The focus is tourism-related services.

Of the P9.8 million proposed, P8.12 million will be coming from the central government and P1.68 million will be the counterpart of participating local government units,” she added.

Sites that will be prioritized for product development are the San Bernardino Natural Cold Spring in Caibiran, Biliran; World War II historical sites in Pastrana, Leyte; Lake Danao, Kandion cave and mangrove areas in Ormoc City; World War II historical lighthouse in Catbalogan City, and Barangay Laygayon in Pinabacdao, Samar.

Focused areas for capability building are the marine sports tourism in Macrohon, Southern Leyte; sun and beach tourism in San Jose, Northern Samar; nature adventure tourism in Rock Island of Biri, Northern Samar; heritage and cultural tourism in Allen, Northern Samar; Divinubo Ando Islands and Monbon Islet in Borongan City, Eastern Samar; Milan Falls in Taft, Eastern Samar; Amandaraga Falls in Lawaan, Eastern Samar; festival in Lope de Vega, Northern Samar; and Sohoton Cave in Basey, Samar.

Amandaraga Falls, Lawaan, Eastern Samar [Photo by: Roneil Canillas]

Bottom-up budgeting approach was piloted by nine government agencies for 2013 national budget. It employs a breakthrough “bottom-up” approach contrary. Contrary to the conventional way of allocating resources from top to bottom, grassroots communities are engaged in budget preparation.

The cabinet cluster on human development and poverty reduction has identified 300 to 400 of the poorest municipalities and will engage these in crafting community-level poverty reduction and empowerment plans.

“This approach aims to empower the poor communities with unique tourism asset to identify and prioritize their local poverty reduction plans for inclusion in the budgets of our office for 2014,” Tiopes added.

If a local government unit (LGU) is technically capable of implementing projects, budget will be transferred to concerned LGUs but it will be under the scrutiny of the Department of Tourism.

Under the new tourism sectoral plan, Eastern Visayas is eyeing more than half a million tourist arrivals by 2016, targeting domestic visitors from three regions and foreign tourists from Europe and other five countries.

Of the 523,842 target number of tourists, 485,385 are domestic and 38,460 are foreign. The sectoral plan eyes tourists from within the region, Central Visayas, and the National Capital Region. Target foreign tourists are from USA, Australia, Japan, Europe, Korea, and China. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)