TOUR operators are optimistic that there will be a better handling of the Osmeña Peak as an ecotourism destination.
Alice Queblatin, Cebu Alliance of Tour Operations Specialists president, said this amid the creation of a joint committee to manage the Osmeña Peak.
“That is really the best way to do it. It has to be co-managed by a group of agencies that really create an impact, that can monitor, regulate and come up with policies all for the benefit of the tourists who will go there and to the destination,” Queblatin told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview on Wednesday.
She said that she was supporting the move of Gov. Hilario Davide III executing an order which creates a management committee on the famous tourist destination.
Davide signed an Executive Order No. 7 series of 2018 that creates a joint management committee for the preservation and promotion of Osmeña Peak as ecotourism destination.
It stated on the EO that the popular peak is located in Barangay Patong in Badian, or about 106.8 kilometers southwest from Cebu City, while recognizing Barangay Mantalongon in Dalaguete as the only convenient access to the Osmeña Peak.
Under the EO, Vice Governor Agnes Magpale will sit as the chairperson of the committee, while Badian Mayor Carmencita Lumain and Dalaguete Mayor Ronald Alan Cesante as the Co – chairpersons.
CDN tried to get the reactions from local officials of Badian and Dalaguete, but they refused to comment on the joint committee order since they had not yet read a copy of it.
Other members included in the Osmeña Peak Joint Management Committee (OPJMC) are Provincial Board (PB) member Thadeo Jovito Ouano, who is the chair on the committee on environment and natural resources, barangay chairpersons of the Barangays in Patong and Mantalongon, provincial tourism officer (PTO), the provincial legal officer, the provincial planning and development officer (PPDO), Provincial Environment and Natural Resources officer (PENRO)
Also, regional directors from national agencies, such as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR – 7) and Department of Tourism (DOT) are included in managing the peak.
Aside from that, representatives from the Associated Labor Union-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), LJROS Realty and Development Corporation and a representative of Abraham Nepomuceno will be sitting as members of the OPJMC.
The about 179-hectare lot, which includes the Osmeña Peak, is under a tenurial instrument of ALU – TUCP through a Tree Farm Lease Agreement (TFLA) for 25 years issued by the DENR.
Of the estimated total lot area, about one kilometer radius from the peak will be carved out, ALU-TUCP Spokesperson Art Barrit said in a previous interview.
Queblatin said that they had specific tour programs for Osmeña Peak and admitted that had not been a mass tourist destination and had only catered to particular guests, who had been into ecotourism adventure.
She said that eventually the peak would attract for more tourists.
“This has no immediate bearing on the increase of visits. In time, when positive news and comments about the place will come out, people will talk, write about it and promote the tour,” she said.