Senator Gordon bats for Zamboanga tourism
Senator Richard Gordon gives his full support to Zamboanga tourism in a speech delivered during the staging of the Zamboanga Night dubbed “Celebracion Magnifica” touted to be the most attended, in the 2009 run of the annual Wow Philippines tourism campaign.
The Senator, who graced the opening of the two-night Zamboanga presentation on May 15-16 at the Clamshell on Calle Anda, Intramuros, Manila, expressed his fondness for Zamboanga and extolled the City’s known attractiveness and its reserve of yet untapped tourism potentials. He broached the idea of developing Sta. Cruz Island into a major tourism facility in Mindanao under the management of the city government and vowed to take the necessary legislative steps to bring it into fruition.
The Senator made this commitment in front of an audience composed of officials of Zamboanga City led by Mayor Celso Lobregat, members of the Zamboanga Culture and Arts Council, representatives of various sectors, dignitaries from the diplomatic community led by Spanish Ambassador Luis Arias Romero, personnel of the Department of Tourism led by Undersecretary Oscar Palayabyab, guests from the Military and House of Representatives and a mix crowd of visitors from overseas, Metro Manila and other parts of the country.
Highlight of the evening’s affair was the cultural presentation put up by the City Tourism Office under Ms. Sarita Hernandez with the participation of the Jambangan Dance Troupe, Zamboanga Hermosa Chorale and Zamboanga City fashion designers and models. The show featured a dazzling production of Zamboanga songs, dances and fashion that elicited applause from the crowd and plaudits from the speakers.
“When we talk about Zamboanga, we always talk of the best, but tonight it was even better,” remarked Ambassador Romero. The Spanish envoy also praised the City’s effort to preserve Chavacano and pledged to support Philippine government initiative for the reintroduction of Spanish in secondary education. Senator Gordon for his part described the presentation as “spectacular, well done and very classically Zamboanga”. While DOT Undersecretary Palayabyab called it “a variety that gives a very good image of Zamboanga”.
Mayor Lobregat thanked Senator Gordon, the initiator of the Wow Philippines best of the region concept and the DOT for pursuing its program of marketing the different regions of the country. He said the affair, indeed gave the city the chance to showcase its potentials and the best it has to offer and enjoined everyone to visit, explore and promote Zamboanga City. (RMA)