Saturday, August 18, 2007 Capitol pledges different, better Suroy-Suroy Sugbo
TOURISTS will be brought back in time with cultural shows from the Spanish and American eras of Philippine history during this year’s leg of Suroy-Suroy Sugbo Northern Escapade.
Some 200 tourists will be able to visit 15 municipalities that will be participating this year, including the three municipalities of Bantayan island and towns whose mayors were not allied with Garcia in the last elections: Consolacion, Medellin and Madridejos.
The northern trip will run from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1.
“We will come up with an even more colorful, more memorable, totally different yet just as wonderfully Cebuano northern trail,” Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia said yesterday during her meeting with the mayors of the participating towns.
The Suroy-Suroy Sugbo will start in Consolacion and end in Daanbantayan, the northernmost tip of mainland Cebu.
The tourists will be able to see the Haladaya Festival of Daanbantayan, where 20 contingents will be participating.
The second day will bring tourists to Medellin, which will showcase its sugarcane plantation and a golf club that’s frequented by hundreds of Korean tourists.
Fanfare will welcome them on the pier of Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island in the afternoon, where they will be taken to natural attractions such as the Ogtong Cave.
The day will end with a tour of the Bantayan church, shopping for local products like dried fish and a cultural show.
The last day of the Suroy-suroy north will be capped with a fireworks display in Liloan, where the plaza will be transformed into a place that recalls the American era at the turn of the 20th century.
At dusk, tourists will be brought to the bridge in Liloan to see the “lilo” or strong current from where the town got its name. A parade of fishing boats carrying lamps and local products will also be held for “visual impact.”
Liloan Mayor Panphil Frasco, a first-term mayor, said he joined the Suroy-suroy in southern Cebu and saw that it presented a “challenge” for them.
“This is a real challenge also because Liloan will be the last and it is usually what the tourists will remember.
Hopefully, the tourists will be able to say, ‘Ah, they have saved the best for last,’” Frasco said during the meeting yesterday. (JPM)
