FOLLOWING its crowd-drawer Disney land-themed Christmas village last year, the Municipal Government of La Castellana is banking on sustainable tourism to offer another must-see holiday attraction this year.
Mayor Rhumyla Nicor-Manguilimutan said lighted flowers and other decorations made of recycled plastic bottles will blossom at the town’s Christmas display for this year.
Nicor-Manguilimutan said they grouped into six all elementary and high schools in the locality to beautify and light up the town hall and public plaza.
The Christmas Lights On Ceremony is on December 14, which will also kick off the annual Bailes de Luces Festival.
“Through this effort, we hope to lessen the garbage in our municipality,” she said, adding that “we also hope to help address the global problem on plastic pollution.”
The new effort of the local government complements with its existing program providing residents one kilogram of rice in exchange for two kilograms of plastic garbage.
The villages have already collected these plastics, which will be utilized by the schools in coming up with their designs.
Nicor-Manguilimutan said part of the local government’s solid waste management program is the establishment of its sanitary landfill.
The mayor said she was already given authority by the municipal council to obtain an P80 million worth of loan from the Municipal Development Finance Office.
“Having our own sanitary landfill is really part of my executive agenda,” Nicor-Manguilimutan said, adding that environment protection and conservation is vital in sustaining tourism development.
Other features of the Christmas attraction is the use of light-emitting diode (LED) lights.
“It will look like a thousand roses,” she said, adding that “our town will again blossom as a sustainable tourism destination.”
Aside from attracting tourists to visit La Castellana, the initiative also aims to showcase the creativity, craftmanship, talent and skills of the students and teachers who collaborated to beautify the town.
The winning group will receive P100,000 in cash prize while second and third places will receive P75,000 and P50,000, respectively.
Other groups will receive consolation prices of P20,000 each.
The Christmas display will run until January 5 next year.