Saturday, March 15, 2008 Lanao municipality holds Alimango fest By Richel Umel Lanao Correspondent
LALA, Lanao del Norte -- March 23 would be a sumptuous festive day for the coastal town of Lala, Lanao del Norte as it celebrates the 7th Alimango (mud crab) Festival that will be the highlight of 59th Charter day.
Lala town Mayor Santiago Bontilao, who is the brains behind the "Alimango" Festival, told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro in an interview Friday that an estimated 1.2 tons of mud crab will be cooked and formed into a so-called crab mountain.
It will be unveiled in the plaza before the huge crowd and be shared and given free to visitors and onlookers who will witness the Alimango Festival street dancing and showdown competition open category.
An alimango rodeo and race will also give color to the festival.
Bontilao said the local government unit (LGU) of Lala through the municipal agriculture's office is engaged in crab fattening at the community level as an alternative livelihood for fishing villages fronting the rich brackish water of Panguil Bay. These will be harvested a day prior to the festival, Mayor Bontilao added.
The municipality of Lala is the breeding ground of mud crab, lobsters, shrimps, shellfish, bangus, Lapu-lapu and other marine species, including the green turtle and hoaxbill turtle.
Bontilao said the crabs hatched their eggs at the mouth of Panguil Bay near Maigo town in Lanao del Norte and Clarin of Misamis Occidental. The fingerlings will then drift to the interior part of Panguil and grow in Lala and Kapatagan coastal areas.
Bontilao said the LGU is intensifying integrated coastal resource management to empower the community will protect, manage, and sustain the fishery resource. The area is a source of quality crabs and shrimps.
Aside from rich marine resources, Lala, a vegetable bowl of the province, is the lone producer of fresh calamansi planted on a 700-hectare community-based plantation. It supplies the market demand of Cebu, Manila, and other parts of Mindanao. It also exports quality processed calamansi juice dubbed as "O-Lala" under the One Town One Product."
The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) Northern Mindanao has just extended P900,000 as livelihood grant to the plantation.
The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded the various constructions of road networks, drainage, and irrigation system for interior barangays and coast areas while Support for Agrarian Reform for Central Mindanao (Star-CM) extended livelihood support assistance.
While there is so-called crab mentality in a community, Bontilao firmly believes that in the principle of collective efforts and synergy of actions, the delivery of development initiatives in Lala will be achieved.
Bontilao said domestic and foreign tourists visit Lala, which is aiming to become a first class municipality this year. It has a total 27 barangays with a population of 32,000 inhabitants and an IRA of P74 million including local revenue generated.
Due to its affordable business tax rate, local investors flock to Barangay Maranding, a commercial center of Lala where small-scale businesses converge.
