The municipality of Sablan marked another milestone in its history with the 10th Sablan Fruit Festival. The month-long festivity starting August 5 to September 4, 2024 is filled with a lineup of various activities showcasing the municipality's agriculture, tourism, and industry assets. Dubbed as "Benguet's Fruit Basket," this fifth-class municipality aims to boost and expand the market of its agricultural products through the sustainable integration of agri-tourism and eco-tourism, and integrated industries.
Sablan earned its moniker as it rose through the years from producing mainly bananas and pineapples to a diversified fruit basket offering an assortment of tropical fruits including marang, durian, lanzones, rambutan, and mangosteen. One of the festival's highlights is the much-awaited annual fruit float parade which pushed through on September 2, 2024 amidst the occasional rain showers from tropical storm Enteng. The parade is a colorful display of fruit assortments from the eight barangays of the town. Instead of flowers as that of it neighboring Baguio City's Panangbenga Festival, the barangays of Sablan displayed their rich array of fruits with an artistic touch coming up with fruit-laden and picturesque floats.
Department of Agriculture - Regional Field Office - Cordillera Administrative Region (DA-RFO-CAR) Regional Executive Director Atty. Jennilyn M. Dawayan expressed the DA's sustained support to the town's agriculture sector in her message as one of the festival's keynote speakers. Director Dawayan emphasized that the support from various agencies, aside from the DA, to the agriculture industry of Sablan is a manifestation of the "shared commitment" among industry stakeholders. She further enumerated some of the recent and major interventions that the DA, including that of the ATI, has facilitated and continues to implement for the farmers of Sablan. Director Dawayan also championed the appreciation of the farmers' commitment and dedication to bringing food to people's tables.
The Regional Executive Director also advocated for the sustained participation of the farmers, farmer cooperatives and associations (FCAs), and the local government unit in the various registry system of the DA such as the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture or RSBSA and the accreditation of FCAs, among others. Finally, she underscored the intertwined role of the neighboring Benguet municipalities, such as Sablan, to that of Baguio City. She remarked that Baguio City is not Baguio City without the municipality of Sablan, the municipality of Tuba. Aside from Director Dawayan, Department of Labor and Employment - CAR Regional Director Nathaniel V. Lacambra also graced the festival as a keynote speaker. In his message, he urged Sablan to balance industrial and agricultural development. He noted that as development comes in, the people of Sablan should be able to preserve and maintain the greenness of their town.
Aside from the fruit float parade, Sablan also opened its inter-barangay agri-trade fair showcasing with the agriculture products of the eight barangays of the municipality. The agri-trade fair was formally launched through a ribbon cutting ceremony with Sablan Mayor Alfredo B. Dacumos, Director Dawayan of DA-RFO-CAR, Director Lacambra of DOLE-CAR, Police Colonel Elmer E. Ragay representing Police Regional Director David K. Peredo of the PNP Police Regional Office - Cordillera Administrative Region, and Mayor Kevin J. T. Susuico of the municipality of Hagat in Guam. The municipality of Hagat in the US state of Guam is a sister municipality of Sablan.
Mayors and their representatives from the neighboring municipalities of Benguet and La Union also joined the program proper. Mayor Clarita P. Sal-ongan of Tuba, Mayor Bernard S. Waclin of Itogon, the delegation from the City of Baguio, and representatives from other municipalities graced the event. Recognizing the indispensable role of its partner institutions, the Sablan municipal local government unit also extended its invitation to the Agricultural Training Institute - CAR to the various festival activities including the fruit float parade, opening of the agri-trade fair, and program proper on September 2, 2024 and the farmers congress on September 3, 2024. This year's festival theme is "Fruit Basket: Journey through a Decade of Shared Vision, Cooperation, and Sweet Success." //Adrian Chris P. Velasco
