MAITUM, Sarangani – The provincial government here gifted this fish festival town with more than P100 million worth of infrastructure and community social services to enhance its enduring festival activities.
“It’s even conservative for now, but for your efforts, the provincial government is allocating it to your town,” said Gov. Steve Chiongbian, who witnessed the culminating activities of the 10th Bangsi Festival, the local name of the flying fish that abound the Sarangani Bay.
He did not specify the projects yet to which the funds were intended but he said additional funds as much as P50,000 were already set aside from the provincial budget for each of the 19 barangays of this southernmost coastal town of the province.
“You can now submit your proposals to get it,” he told a packed covered gymnasium that witnessed the showdown of street dancing groups whose performances featured the maritime bounty of the bay.
This town has seen a steady growth in visitors’ arrivals, especially during the annual holding of the Bangsi Festival, which started with only 1,000 visitors 10 years ago and now has as many as 10,000 visitors. They include camera clubs from nearby General Santos City, Koronadal City and Davao City who cover the event.
Tourism and businesses directly benefit from the steady stream of visitors.
“You can see them in the many tricycle and motorcycle public transportations, small dining stores and fish vendors,” said Beth N. Ramos, information officer-designate of this town of more than 50,000.
When the festival began 10 years ago, it earned P4 million but its income could have multiplied several times by now, she added.
Maitum first landed in the international cultural map when anthromorphic potteries dating between 225 BC and 5 AD were discovered in its caves in Barangay Pinol. The jars contained human bones and are now kept at the National Museum and at the municipal hall.
The town turned its fisheries industry, consisting of the flying fish as the main fish catch, into a festival, expanding livelihood opportunities to many more residents. In last week’s festivities, the town also inaugurated a new P17-million fishport in Sitio Cawa, Barangay Mabay.
The fishport is likely to increase market activities in the barangay. Fishing families have been selling dried bangsi other than the fresh fish, earning more than double. A kilo of fresh bangsi would fetch P60 a kilo, but a dried bangsi would earn P160 a kilo.
A farm road connecting the fishport to the town was also inaugurated after the World Bank-funded Philippine Rural Development Project granted financial grant to its concreting.