TRAILS UP NORTH

Awards for Ifugao town
GLO A. TUAZON

LAGAWE, Ifugao -- This vast capital town of Ifugao is making raves. Mayor Ceasario D. Cabbigat said they won two awards that merited the town P100,000 for the "anti-momma spitting" ordinance and the "last-Friday-of-the-month-cleanup-drives," each garnering P50,000 as incentives for the good works.

The mayor said these are just beginnings of something better, and indeed the bright reddish-brown splatters of momma along the roads are easing up, a notable change from how it used to be. This means that the people are learning and cooperating.
Lagawe also having adapted coffee, both arabica and robusta, as their OTOP (One Town, One product) is in the process of distributing the seedlings for free to bonafide Lagawe residents, else they sell it for a measly sum of P4 per seedling to other entities.

This is for the reason they wanted the people to adapt and support the program with ideas of livelihood in mind. The coffee products would then be sold or consumed by the household, in a way contributing and helping out also in the backyard regreening and aesthetic values.

They showcase their seedlings in a nursery housed at the St Mary Magdalene Church compound just across the Municipal Hall for easy access but have a much wider and bigger nursery across town too. The big nursery holds more than 55,000 seedlings ready for distribution and sale. In its bid to become involved in social developments, SN Aboitiz has helped a great deal in pushing the OTOP with the officials of Lagawe.

Recently, Lagawe officials and other concerned organizations also conducted a tree planting activity atop Mt. Binahagan. Seedlings numbering more than a thousand and comprising of coffee varieties and mahogany were planted by high school students of Don Bosco, ISCAF and employees of the Local Government Unit and KIPHODAN and Kataguwan.

The continuing denudation of Mt. Binahagan that flows to serve water to about five barangays prompted them to take action, this also as part of their drive to help solve the bigger problem of the watershed issues.

Cabbigat was also recently acknowledged by Gov. Teodoro Baguilat for having a gambling-free festival during the Kulpi ad Lagawe with the support of the townspeople and active interference of the Catholic Church and other church groups and organizations.