LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – President Rodrigo Duterte approved the request of the local government to declare Friday, March 16, 2018 as a special non-working day in the municipality to pave the way for the successful conduct of
the various activities lined up for the celebration of the 37th edition of the town’s Strawberry festival.
Proclamation N. 434, signed by Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea by authority of the President, stated that it is but fitting and proper that the residents of La Trinidad be given full opportunity to celebrate and participate in the occasion of the town’s Strawberry festival with the conduct of the appropriate ceremonies.
Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Ana Marie Paz Rafael- Banaag will be the town’s guest of honor and speaker the Strawberry festival which will be done after the conduct of the Strawberry festival parade around the locality.
The local government scheduled a month-long activities to celebrate the 37th edition of the Strawberry festival which started Last March 9 and will culminate on March 27 to allow the active participation of residents and tourists alike in the festivities to help sustain the growth of the local tourism industry.
Mayor Romeo Salda expressed his gratitude to the Office of the President in the timely release of the Proclamation that declared March 16 as a special non-working day in the municipality so that residents and visitors alike will be given a good chance to enjoy the various activities that were lined up for the month-long celebration.
“We hope that our constituents and visitors will have the chance to bond together while enjoying the activities that we were able to prepare for this year’s Strawberry festival. We need to continue introducing the needed innovations in the conduct of our annual festival so that people will be enticed to make La Trinidad one of their preferred destinations when spending their well-deserved break outside their places,” Mayor Salda stressed.
The theme crafted by the Strawberry festival organizers for this year’s festivities is ‘La Trinidad Strawberries Forever.”
La Trinidad remains to be the major producer of the famous
strawberry fruit amidst the significant reduction of the strawberry plantation area within the property of the State-run Benguet State University (BSU).
The strawberry picking offered by the strawberry farmers is one of the most frequented activities by foreign and domestic visitors spending their vacation in nearby Baguio city, thus, the town continues to get a lion’s share of the increasing number of tourist arrivals in the country’s undisputed Summer Capital.
Despite the mushrooming of strawberry plantation areas in various parts of the province and nearby Baguio City and Mountain Province, Salda said the preferred strawberry variety is still the one being produced by the strawberry farmers from the different parts of the municipality that is why visitors still continue to flock to the town to experience picking the strawberry fruit from the plantation areas.
By HENT