Baybay marks Charter Day
ORMOC CITY – Baybay City in Leyte celebrated its 10th Charter Day last Friday, with the mayor citing the highlights of Baybay’s development.
Baybay was converted into a city by virtue of RA 9389 along with 14 other towns in the Philippines. The measure became controversial because the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional only to overturn the decision in August 2010.
Mayor Carmen Loreto-Cari authored the bill converting Baybay, a fifth-class municipality, into a city when she was congresswoman. Last Friday she outlined the accomplishments of the city under her leadership.
Among these are the establishment of the Medical Diagnostic and Dialysis Center, the only facility of its kind in Eastern Visayas operated by an LGU. The Department of Health (DOH) has committed to donate 10 more dialysis machines to the center so it also service indigent patients from nearby towns.
In support of President Duterte’s anti-drugs campaign, Baybay set up a Daytime Therapeutic and Rehabilitation Center, the first of its kind in the country. The rehabilitation center’s first batch of patients will graduate this week.
Baybay has been attracting investors as an emerging agri-industrial corridor.
The biggest investors in Baybay are Specialty Pulp Manufacturing Inc. which buys abaca fiber from local farmers as raw materials, the Visayas Oil Mill, a contract grower of cardaba banana and manufacturer of banana chips, and SC Global Coco Products Inc. which buys 200,000 de-husked nuts everyday from coconut buyers to manufacture and export virgin coconut oil, banana chips and coconut chips.
Baybay is also known as a major tourist destination, registering 647,045 visitors, the highest in the region for 2015. That year, the Diocesan Shrine of St. Anthony de Padua ranked first in the top 10 most visited attractions among the historical, religious and cultural sites.
The most popular among Baybay’s natural attractions is Lintaon Peak and cave, while Bakwitan Falls in San Agustin coming in second. Visayas State University Garden Resort ranked sixth in the category of sports and recreational facilities.
The city’s newest attraction is the 16K Blossoms at Lintaon Peak, a field covered with 16,000 artificial flowers with LED lights.