BATAAN, Philippines — Heritage hotel and destination Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar held an environmentally-friendly Christmas tree competition. The town of Abucay was named grand winner during the official tree lighting ceremony held last December 7 at the Plaza Tobias of Las Casas in Bagac, Bataan.
Titled “Christmas Tree-Cycle Competition,” this inter-municipality Christmas tree-making competition carried Las Casas’ mission to have a "Greener Bataan" this Yuletide season.
“This initiative aims to celebrate Christmas through showing off their creative and competitive spirits and in the long run unite the municipalities towards one goal,” said Paul Kerr, president of Marivent Resort Hotel Inc.
“There’s much about community as it is about the environment and trying to create a better and cleaner Bataan for everyone,” he added.
Abucay’s winning entry titled “White Christmas” features a sphere symbolizing completeness, unity, equality and acceptance.
According to Engineer Vince Norman Izon, team leader and Sangguniang Kabataan of Abucay Chairperson, said that the tree’s concept is as if the balls are lifting each other until they reach the top.
It took his 20-member team two months of careful planning, plastic collection, and mounting to complete their project.
The municipality’s existing “Palit Bote Para sa School Supplies” campaign also played a role in the competition.
Participating municipalities include Limay, Hermosa, Mariveles, Dinalupihan and the City of Balanga.
Team Abucay received P200,000 while runners-up Balanga and Limay won P100,000 and P50,000 respectively. Non-winners took home P10,000 each.
Guests can view the six participating trees at Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar until January 2020.
For more information, visit www.lascasasfilipinas.com.