Foreign senior mgm't students back rural tourism in Albay

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — At least 27 senior management program (SMP) students and two professors of the Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore (NUS) had backed up the bid of Albay, particularly of its biggest rice producing town of Libon, to develop and promote “rural tourism” such as rice planting and coconut peeling.

Libon Mayor Agnes Dycoco said the foreign students who are holding high-level and important positions in their governments came from Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Australia, Botswana, and Great Britain.

Dycoco said the group who validated facts and figures for their case study, titled “The Municipal Governance of Libon: Sustaining Municipal Programs,” were unanimous in suggesting that rural tourism is a potential attraction for the town to draw visitors from different countries.

The senior management class was composed of 15 Singaporeans who are holding high-level and important government positions and appointments such as

Libon town Mayor Agnes Dycoco (center, standing) leads the 27 foreign students in rice planting activity.

directors and superintendents; four from Botswana with ranks of directors; three from China with appointments as deputy-director general, chief accountant and counselor; two from Hong Kong with positions of senior superintendent and senior forensic accountant; one from Nigeria with designation as ambassador; one from England as senior superintendent and deputy district commander, and one from Australia with position as assistant secretary of finance.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to Japan, Emmanuel Oseimiegha Otiotio, who even joined a rice planting activity in Libon during their study tour, said that the rich resources of Libon in terms of agriculture and the hospitality of its people could be very well converted into a sort of rural tourism.

“In fact, when I joined this rice planting activity for the first time in my life, I realized that producing rice is not that easy at all as many think. My back ached. Henceforth I promise to myself not to waste a morsel of rice. I’ll respect rice,” Otiotio told The STAR.

National University of Singapore (NUS) professor Jonathan Marshall and Hazri Hassan, Singapore’s Deputy Director for International Relations, enjoy ploughing the rice field.

NUS professor Jonathan Marshall and Hazri Hassan, Singapore’s Deputy Director for International Relations, who both tried to plough the rice field, said they had a lasting experience of how rice is planted.

“This is indeed a humbling experience for us. We enjoy it very much,” Marshall said.

Apparently inspired by the suggestion, Dycoco said she would draft specific programs that would promote rural tourism in her town.

Libon is the top rice producer of Albay, with recorded production of 30.4 million kilos of palay or 608,000 bags a year.