Tarlac hosts month-long CL tourism showcase

TARLAC CITY — Central Luzon’s seven provinces will be greeting this year’s rainy season with a month-long showcase of their respective cultural and historical heritage in this city which is known as the region’s "melting pot."

Lydia Co, chairman of the Central Luzon Regional Tourism Council (CLRTC) and a native of this city, said the event, dubbed as the "Best of Central Luzon Showcase," is an attempt to "localize" the "Best of the Regions" staged late last year in Intra-muros, Manila under the Department of Tourism (DOT)’s "Wow Philippines" campaign.

The affair will run from June 1 to 30 at the Plaza Luisita, the commercial and entertainment center of the 6,000-hectare Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita along the MacArthur Highway in Barangay San Miguel here.

According to Co, the "Best of the Regions" held in Intramuros brought to the center stage what each of the country’s regions offers, including, but not limited to their cultural and historical attractions.

By bringing the campaign to the regional and provincial levels, she said the regional DOT office and the CLRTC intend not only to promote Central Luzon as a "major travel destination," but more so, "to spread the social and economic benefits of tourism to a much larger percentage of the population."

The event, Co said, also intends to "create public awareness of the wealth of wonders, products, arts and crafts" in the region’s seven provinces — Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales.

Wilfredo Toldanes, city tourism officer, said the choice of Tarlac City as venue to showcase Central Luzon is "ideal" because it a "natural stopover" of motorists and commuters between Metro Manila and Northern Luzon.

Besides, he said most private motorists take a break in their journey between the national capital and the summer capital of Baguio City at the Plaza Luisita because of the amenities it offers, including the Plaza Luisita Mall and several dining outlets.

For his part, Gov. Jose Yap said Tarlac will be able to introduce in the event some of its newly developed tourist attractions, particularly the 200-hectare Tarlac Ecotourism Park in the upland village of Barangay Lubigan in San Jose town.

The theme park has a vast camping site and an activity area for mountaineers, even as it hosts the Monasterio de Tarlac of the Servants of Risen Christ, a Catholic monastic order.

Yap said the event will also help highlight Tarlac’s contributions to the shaping of the country’s history, noting that it was in Tarlac where the revolutionary government of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo fully functioned in 1899 with a Cabinet that took office at the now renovated College of Computer Science and Studies building of the Tarlac State University, and a Congress at the San Sebastian Cathedral here.

A more popular historical site in the province is the Capas National Shrine, site of the infamous Japanese concentration camp during World War II, in Barangay O’Donnell in Capas town.

Aside from the local tourism offices of the region’s seven provinces, also participating in the affair are the Cojuangco-owned Luisita Realty Corp., the Central Park Hotel and the Microtel Inn and Suites inside Hacienda Luisita; the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Education (DepEd) and the different hotel and restaurant groups in Central Luzon.

The event will feature, among other activities, street dancing exhibitions showcasing each of the Central Luzon provinces’ cultural dances.

These traditional dances include the malatarlak dance of Tarlac, the pawikan dance of Bataan, the tanduyong dance of San Jose City in Nueva Ecija, the dinamulag dance of Zambales, the Obando fertility dance of Bulacan, the Suman Festival dance of Aurora and the sinukuan dance of Pampanga.