MANILA — Lumad residents living near the foot of the mountains in a northeastern Mindanao province now have found a more profitable source of income.
The natives are now hired as tour guides of mountaineers, through a technical assistance (TA) project of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
In a statement on Saturday, DILG Officer-in-Charge Secretary Eduardo M. Año said the lumads, or the indigenous people of Cabadbaran City in Agusan del Norte, are among the beneficiaries of the DILG’s TA project in collaboration with the Caraga State University (CSU).
Año said under the project, lumad villagers, who used to receive a measly amount for each big log that they carry down Mt. Hilong-Hilong, are now earning much higher as tourist guides and porters.
“I am pleased to know that our project is really changing lives for the better, particularly for the IPs in Cabadbaran City,” Año said.
The DILG-funded project, which is the Mt. Hilong-Hilong Tourism Sensitivity Program, studied the tourism potential of the mountain with the hope of creating a sustainable tourism development plan for the area and benefiting the lumads and their families.
The project was proposed by the CSU, based on the results of the Citizens’ Satisfaction Index Survey (CSIS), which showed that among the services of the local government of Cabadbaran City, tourism ranks the lowest in terms of awareness of the people.
CSU was one of the 15 recipients of the PHP200,000 financial grant under the DILG TA program for Local Resource Institutes being managed by the DILG’s Bureau of Local Government Supervision.
The institutional grant aims to address local problems and issues identified in the CSIS. (Perfecto Raymundo, Jr./PNA)
