LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) is concocting a program called “festival caravan” aimed at helping small town festivals promote the varied culture, customs, and traditions of people in various parts of the Philippines.
PCOO Assistant Secretary for Operations and Legislative Affairs Ana Marie Rafael-Banaag disclosed this on Friday at the 37th Strawberry Festival of La Trinidad town in this upland province of Benguet, where she was guest of honor and speaker.
“We want to help festivals to grow,” Banaag said.
She noted La Trinidad town’s strawberry festival is not just about the berries, but primarily about the town’s farmers, who have given so much of their time and hard work to grow their crops, allow these to bear fruits soil under the scorching heat of the sun, endure the early morning cold wind, and with their blistered hands, carefully make sure that sweet and luscious berries will be available for everybody.
“There could have been no strawberry festival without the farmers,” Banaag said.
La Trinidad town is known for producing most of the country’s strawberries, as its climate is fit for the crop.
Banaag said the PCOO is working with the Department of Tourism, National Commission on Culture and Arts (NCCA), National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), among others, in planning the envisioned festival caravan.
“On Monday, we are actually deciding how to go about doing a festival caravan to promote the culture of different places—like the Strawberry Festival and the festivals of other places in the country,” she revealed.
She noted La Trinidad’s Strawberry Festival allows tourists to appreciate the hard work and sacrifices of the farmers in sustaining the industry, as tourists’ strawberry picking serves as an agri-tourism activity—and a sought-after tourism event at that.
“Without strawberries in La Trinidad, people will not be curious to visit the place. We owe it to the farmers in La Trinidad,” Banaag stressed.
She said the town’s strawberry festival has its own uniqueness, which the PCOO and other government agencies would like to promote further.
She also noted how the town is blessed with fertile grounds that have kept strawberry production going over the years, sustaining the community.
“The strawberry plant is part of who we are,” Banaag said, herself, a Cordilleran.
She added government media entities are available and could be accessed to help inform the public about the activities under the planned festival caravan. **Primo Agatep/ PNA
