By Johnny C. Nuñez / Philippines News Agency
LEGAZPI CITY—Albay Gov. Joey Salceda has urged Albayanos to patronize more local products and establishments during the Karangahan Green Christmas Festival to help further boost the local economy and truly share with everyone the festive spirit.
Salceda’s call for support to the native industry comes as one among the essential ingredients of the monthlong Karangahan festival, now on its 5th year.
The festival primarily aims to showcase Albay’s environment protection program and its pioneering “zero casualty” initiative. It strictly bans firecrackers and indiscriminate use of plastics products.
Karangahan Albay Green Christmas, Salceda said, also represents “the artisans who craft our products, beautify our homes and surroundings, and the chefs and homegrown restaurateurs who offer native cuisine and specialties and make Culinaria Albay the centerpiece of our festival.”
“Iyan ang Christmas gift ninyo sa akin, buy local, eat local. Bakal sa paramaritatas. Kaon kita sa karihan o sa mga local restoran [As your Christmas gift for me, buy local, eat local, buy from our own stalls and vendors. Eat in our local restaurants],” Salceda recently posted in his social-media account.
True to its consistent support to help promote local products, even the festival’s centerpiece Green Christmas Tree is made of the native material Karagumoy, which is used in most of local handicraft products.
The Christmas tree stands 36-feet tall. It has been fashioned from some 3,750 bundles of Karagumoy, composed of 250 strips per bundle, or about 937,500 leaves of the plant gathered from the coastal communities of Bacacay and Santo Domingo towns, and the island of San Miguel.
Salceda said the festival showcases the best in what are grown in Albay. “In 2012 our Christmas tree was made of Pili nut seedlings; in 2013 we used coconut husks which came from our most abundant tree—14 million coconuts that support our lives; in 2014 we used camote since we are the Philippines’s second-largest producer of this staple food,” he added.
Karangahan started in 2010 with recycled materials—Air Force oil drums. In 2011 more oil drums were used and the tree was moved from the Albay Astrodome to the Peñaranda Park to enable more people to see and enjoy it, modest as it may be.
“Green is the color of life, the color of our environment. It is in consonance with the imperatives of our times, in accord with the second encyclical of Pope Francis’s Laudato Si: Care for our common home, our Earth, our environment,” the governor explained.