Saturday, December 06, 2008 A tour of sights and sounds at the North Philippine Expo By Marge Paraz Santos
WAGI. This is how I describe the recent three-day North Philippine Tourism and Travel Expo 2008 held at the Event Centre of SM Clark. The expo has successfully gathered traders and manufacturers that showcased their products unique to every province. Businessmen were grouped in one venue and engaged in successful display of products throughout the weekend event.
Several cultural presentations, product demonstrations, dance exhibitions, colorful parades, street dance exhibitions, cultural serenades, were included in the calendar of events and activities from Regions 1, 2 and 3 and the Cordillera Administrative Region or CAR exhibitors and participants of the well-celebrated exposition.
During that weekend, SM City Clark had its mall more bustled with activity. It really got me so excited with this event that I attended two out of the three days. On the second day, I really went around, enjoyed, and appreciated the creativity of the Filipinos.
The special products from as far as Ilocos were on display as in the famous bagnet, and the like. I also saw some potentially good products from the Tarlac exhibitors, such as crab paste, garlic in oil, calamansi and dalandan concentrates, sugar cane juice, basi, acharas, mango preserves etc. (my chemist heart pounded with excitement!). I also saw many nice handwoven products, native slippers and colorful crocheted items, surely perfect gift this Christmas from Nueva Ecija and Bulacan.
I can say that I really enjoyed this kind of stuff, not just the shopping side of it. I also learned and witnessed the beauty and ingenuity of the Filipino people. With this, I got the feeling that we should all be proud of our culture and artistry. "Pwedeng ipagmalaki sa buong mundo, ika nga."
The NorthPhil Expo 2008 has proven to be a one-stop shop for tourists and travel buffs, as well as those on the lookout for the unexplored riches of the country's northern regions. Given this venue, the participants are further exposed and opened to the path of a bigger market in the country and the world (you'll never know).
NorthPhil Expo was sponsored by Philippine Tourism Authority, Provinces of Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales, Clark Development Corporation and Clark International Airport Corporation and Pagcor.
