Davao or Town finds a Living in ‘Almasiga’

Governor Generoso, Davao Oriental  – If the City of Mati finds strength in unity among its people and celebrate it through Sambuokan Festaival, and the municipality of San Isidro boasts of it’s bonsai plants in the newsly inscribed UNESCO world heritage site, Mt. Hamiguitan,  the municipality of Governor Generoso starts and continuous to carve a symbol for its endeavors in maintaining ecological balance and economic upliftment in almasiga.

As the municipality celebrates its 66th Founding anniversary and 7thAlamsiga Festival, Mayor Vicente Orencia is happy and grateful with the metamorphosis of the municipality.

“I’ve always believe in my people, in their capability to surive at any given time and challenges. I see them through the years. And I  also very happy that aside from fishing which is the primary source of living of my people, now we have discovered the promise of almasiga. That is why I really encouraged them to resort also to almasiga production,” he said.

Instead of cutting trees, the people of Gov. Generoso now resorts to planting almasiga, and other crops such as cacao, rubber, and more.

Almasiga is a kind of wood and luckily, such is found in the hinterlands of Governor Generoso. Not only the wood itself is a good source of revenue with its demand from the domestic and international market, but its juice also has founds its own purpose and place in the market.

“I already made negotiations with the buyers and prospects alike. There are already who signified interest, even bringing almasiga to the international market. This is something we are looking forward to. I am very optimistic that this will mean a most welcome change to our lives. There are already successful residents here who were able to upgrade their living through almasiga. And others will soon experience the same fate,” he explained.

To protect the areas planted with almasiga, the local government unit is strengthening thier forest rangers.

In recognition to almasiga, the local government unit of  Governor Generoso has been celebrating the Almasiga Festival for the past seven years.

Vice-Mayor Katrina Orencia is also expressed profund gratitude for the overwhelming support from what the called the “proud sons of Governor Generoso”.

“I thank them all because they were enormous part of the success of the 66thFounding Anniversary of Gov. Generoso and the 7th Almasiga Festival. I salute the teachers or the mentors of the participants to the Indak-Indal sa Kadalanan, the highlight of the celebration, for the patience and for encouraging the students to really give their all in  their performance. Such traits are very essential in bringing developments to the municipality. So, let us be one for Gov. Generoso,” she added.

Aside from almasiga, the local government unit strengthens its fishing industry, as Gov. Generoso is known as the fishing capital in the province.

Mayor Vicente Orencia is very exited with the development, as he reported that he already signed the memorandum of agreement with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic  Resources for the establishment of a fish port in Brgy. Montseratt, the leading fishing village in the municipality, as recommended by the Philippine Fisheries Development Authoreity (PFDA).

The project is worth 25 million Pesos and covers two hectares of land area. It will include office structure, docking and landing area with parking space, and cool storage and other post harvest facillites, somewhat replicating that of General Santos City.

“Other developments will follow. This will certainly put us to a higher level of economic upliftment. With the hard work and determination of my people, we will soon reap the labor of what we have been working hard for,” he stressed.

With the theme of the celebration for this year, “Bulawanong Kultura Buhi-on, Kinaiyahan Atimanon, Turismo Magmalamboon”, and with the father-daughteer tandem of Mayor Vicente Orencia and Vice-Mayor Katrina Orencia, the municipality of Governor Generoso  will indeed, continue to work on treasuring its culture, preserve ecology, develop and maximize tourism potentials, thus, advancing to greater heights and prove to be not just one of the municipalities of Davao Oriental, but Governor Generoso as as a place that will be spoken and treated very kindly by history.