Update project plans to get P20M prize, Davao tourism office told

Source: MindaNews

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 18 May) - The City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) needs to reframe its project plans within 30 days to suit the P15-million prize for winning in the inaugural Tourism Champions Challenge last April 15 as well as an additional P5 million grant from the Office of the President, an official said.

Warren Quiñones, CTOO planning section head, told MindaNews on Thursday that this is what the Department of Tourism (DOT) and Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) told them during an orientation last May 7.

The plans that were presented were all worth P20 million, right? We were informed that for those local government units that did not receive P20 million, they have to update their plans within 30 days to fit their budget," Quiñones said.

Each first placer for island groups Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, would receive P20 million as grand prize.

He said the CTOO has to draft operations and maintenance plans and will coordinate with various city and national offices.

"We have yet to receive a memorandum of agreement with them [DOT] but we are optimistic that this project will go through in two years time, as scheduled," he added.

Quiñones also clarified that the DOT and TIEZA will not be downloading any funds directly to the local government unit but will release it through procurement, from construction to the building facilities.

The project titled "Panunod: A Way of Life, Inherited Preservation of the Unwavering Legacy of Cultural and Sustainable Tourism of Davao City," intended to sell and promote various arts and products mainly from the city's 11 ethnolinguistic tribes, won on April 15 in the Tourism Champions Challenge.

The DOT allocated P180 million for the competition, a project developed in partnership with the TIEZA, the department's infrastructure division, with more than 100 local government unit-finalists. (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)