"We will have a more colorful celebration this year," Mayor Ambrosio Cruz said in an interview yesterday.
Cruz said that when he started the Halamanan festival eight years ago, many residents though it was just a political ploy. But the festival has boosted the struggling ornamental plants industry here.
"Stakeholders in the ornamental plant industry recognized our move to help improve their industry by promoting it and by positioning our town as the garden city of the country," Cruz said.
According to Louie SyTamco, the acting municipal agriculture officer, 500 families here are engaged in the ornamental plant and landscaping business.
The industry, he said was estimated to have grown to more than P100 million over the years.
"Our goal is to become the garden city of the Philippines," he said, noting that locally grown ornamental plants are now used by landscapers in the country from Ilocos to Mindanao. — Dino Balabo