Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan expressed this optimism after Angeles bagged recently the Pearl Awards under “best practices in community-based tourism heritage category.”
The award was given by the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines and Department of Tourism (ATOP-DOT) to promote better tourism practices of local government units.
The award given to this city capped the three-day tourism convention hosted by Davao City and the Department of Tourism in Region 11 last Oct. 3.
The award was based on Angeles’ documentary- entry titled “Revitalizing Heritage in Angeles City” which “detailed the government’s partnership with the local community and their efforts in the protection, preservation and development of the Angeles City Heritage Zone in Barangay Sto. Rosario.”
Pamintuan has been credited with the “creation” of the Plaza Angel near his city’s parish church which used to be Angeles’ town plaza. The site has become a regular venue for culture and arts events in the city.
“We embellished it with a stone paved street, adorned it with traditional lights and trellises, planted Kuliat vines, and removed the ghastly looking, dangling and hanging spaghetti wires in front of the church, making the place a favorite selfie spot for Angeleños,” mPamintuan said.
The Angeles City Council passed recently an ordinance declaring the Angeles City Heritage Zone, outlining its administration and its functions.
Angeles earned the reputation as Sin City amid red light districts that mushroomed locally arising from the so-called rest and recreation needs of US servicemen at the former US Clark Air Force Base which was founded as a US cavalry station here in 1901 and abandoned after the MMount Pinatubo eruptions and the abrogation of the US-RP Defense treaty.
Other finalists in the same Pearl Awards category were Silay City in Negros Occidental and Maragusan’s Rafflesia Conservation Project in Compostela Valley.
