DANAO, Bohol –Danao Mayor Natividad R. Gonzaga of this hinterland town, about 98 kilometers from capital Tagbilaran City, is pushing for the recovery efforts for her town's Eco-Extreme-Educational Adventure Tour (EAT) at Danao Adventure Park (DAP) after it was adversely affected by the earthquake that struck Bohol on October 15, 2013. She recently initiated and launched a fund-raising program that generated a positive response not only from the locals but also from those who are residents here but already in the greener pasture abroad, she said in an exclusive interview with this writer. The activity is dubbed “Acoustic Concert Cum Variety Show” right at the DAP site, featuring Christine Oliver Finlay, a musician and daughter of Paul Finlay, a geologist from New Zealand, who encouraged her and officials to rise up again from the rubble of the tremor, and another program at the town proper.

Participants of the program include local talents showcasing their talents in dancing, drama and music and songs when this writer visited here. The mayor thanked them for their energy, talents, and cooperation to make DAP lively again. The mayor said that response from the locals to support the fund-raising is anchored on the fact that everybody here feels he/she is a stakeholder and has a sense of ownership of the project. DAP is probably the first of its kind managed by local government unit in the province. Mayor Gonzaga said that visitors started to come to DAP, a unique eco-tourism adventure nowhere else could be found in Bohol. It is considered by many tourism officials as a trendsetter since it launched the first ever “The Plunge,” and “zipline.” It became a craze that other towns copied it.

“The Plunge” or Canyon Swing is distinct that nobody dares to duplicate it. But a lot of people dare to be dropped from the cable attached to the foundation across the gorges of Wahig-Inabanga river, of more than a hundred meters down. The site is overlooking a hill with a concave cave which historians said was the hideout of then revolutionary Francisco Sendrijas, alias, Dagohoy, a contraction of “Dagon sa Hoyohoy” or talisman of the breeze. Gonzaga said that they started to rebuild the foundation of The Plunge and resume the “zipline,” “cable car,” spelunking, tubing or kayaking, root climbing and village tour. Another attraction is the 1.5-kilometer zipline that soon expected to attract visitors. Interestingly, DAP generates income in millions of pesos especially during summer months and prior to the tremor that hit the town, a 5th class municipality, Vice Mayor Tom Gonzaga earlier said. Mayor Gonzaga said this enables them to support various projects and social services of her constituent-beneficiaries. And she wanted this to go on and make DAP vibrant again so that its income could sustain the said program. Since its inception or during the incumbency of her son, then Mayor, now Vice Mayor Tom Gonzaga, DAP was able to finance scholarship, free hospital assistance, free ambulance service, and skills training, aside from providing work to her constituents. (PNA)LAP/RVO/utb