Tourism information on
Bayawan City
HISTORY
In the
past,
Bayawan has always been
known as the rice Granary of Negros South. Her vast plains have seen
glorious days of prolific rice harvest. Today, Bayawan City is known as
the Agricultural Capital of the Province of Negros Oriental. As an
agricultural city, a better production yield is always anticipated, and
the presence of the" Tawo-Tawo" or scarecrow had always been a great help
to the farmers for several decades. This farmers creation has resulted to
achieve bountiful yield during harvest for the "Tawo-Tawo" had been known
to be an effective great scare to drive the pesky little birds the native
call" Maya" that feed on the ripening golden rice grains. Thus, the birth
of the "Tawo-Tawo festival"
The Tawo-Tawo had been conceptualize as
an off-shoot of the fiesta islands trend initiated by the Bayawan Healt
Club and commenced by the Bayawan Habagat Jacees on 1986, to add more
attraction to the fiesta celebration. Since then, several civic
organizations took turns sponsoring this affair until the year 1990 when
the LGU of Bayawan decreed it to be a regular part of the annual.
For several years now –the TawoTawo
Festival had drawn mixed crowds. Guests from other cities, municipalities
and provinces came in droves to witness the street dancing spectacle and
field presentation. Each year saw the performance of participating
contingents being improvised with artistic innovations. Still, the tableau
of rice culture from planting to harvesting replete with the primary
characters: farmers, Mayas, Scarecrows and carabaos are presented by the
contingents in an artistically choreographed movements synchronizing now
to the beat of the drums and other musical instruments. In the past,
participation is open to schools, barangays, private entities and even
neighboring municipalities. Presently, the Tawo-Tawo Festival is confined
as a competition among the 28 barangays in the city.
The field presentation has its center
piece, the legend “How Bayawan got her Name”. In the dance drama
presentation, it is told that the coming of the Spaniards in the
Philippines as harbinger of the Christian Faith was not exactly met with
welcome approval from the natives living in the islands. And Bayawan was
among those who resisted the advent of the new faith.
When the Spanish Missionaries sat foot on
the shores of Bayawan to spread Christianity, the Bukidnons, the so called
natives of Bayawan were very recalcitrant to give up their own faith in
favor to Christianity. Though peace loving in mature, these natives had a
ritual practice involving the act of killing. “This kind if ritualistic
killing known as “Magahat” practiced by the Bukidnons was to avenge the
death of a member of their family”.
Those who were converted to Christianity continue to settle near-by where
a chapel was built. Those who were dubious of the intentions of the white
strangers and thinking that they were here to grab their lands went up to
the mountains and waited for the perfect time to launch their assault.
Economy
The City of Bayawan is more of the rural setting than urbanized with only
2.25% of its total land area as urban area. The city is basically
agricultural and its economy sits on agricultural platform. Revenues from
land farming, livestock production, aqua-culture activities and marine
fishing are a major income contribution of the City. In 2000, the assessment
of City Agriculture Office (CAO) indicated that agricultural production was
valued at Php 2.3 Billion; 91.4% of which came from crop production, 7.9%
from livestock production, and 0.7% from fisheries.
On a general scale, the City is not yet self-sufficient since its local
revenue is only 12% of the total revenue and 88% comes from its Internal
Revenue Allotment (IRA) (Year 2000 Data).
The City however has several investment opportunities especially in the
field of agro-industry and processing as well as in the processing of marine
products. The vast agricultural resources and the LGU’s thrust on
agricultural development opens avenues on investing on feed mills, palm oil
mills, rice mills, corn mills, storage and other farming and post harvest
facilities and equipment. Besides agri-industries, the trading and auction
markets are already well established in the hinterland barangays especially
in Dawis and Kalumboyan. Moreover, the fishery industry and aqua-culture
also offers wide business opportunities especially in the establishment of
the proposed fish port.
Another window for investors is in the transport system. With the opening
of the Bayawan-Kabankalan Road Network, more transport facilities will be
required. The City is already recognized as transport hub in South Negros,
and will be enhanced further with improvement of the road network. Along
with this, various other business opportunities may just come out and be
needed in the near future.
Current employment in the City is considered very poor since there are
still very limited employment opportunities. Mostly, the people in the city
are engaged in self-employment activities such as farming, fishing, trading
or buy & sell activities. Resident professionals in the City are in
abundance however they are most often forced to migrate seeking employment
opportunities. The City of Bayawan however is expected to reduce if not
reverse this trend. In the two-year period of City, investor’s influx has
been noticeably positive. As investors come in, the employment status should
improve.
Environmental Quality
The City of Bayawan
has one of the most barren mountains in the province.
The Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR) have classified
that 72.7% and 27.3% (19, 805 hectares) of the total land area of Bayawan as
A&D (alienable and disposable) and as forestlands respectively. However,
recent assessment of land use utilization shows that only 17.8% of the total
land area is used as forestlands. From these, it can be deduced that a large
portion of the land area supposedly classified as forestlands are cultivated
and unsuitably used. This situation can be attributed to the improper
settling and farming practices of the people in the hinterlands. There are
uncontrolled and unmonitored conversions of classified forestlands through
slash and burn practices, then cultivation by the people in all parts of the
upland barangays. The more unfortunate part of the situation is that these
lands have or in the process of application for land titles (ownership).
The haphazard conversion and cultivation of the forestlands and
denudation of the forest cover have resulted to the perennial problem of
flooding in both upland and lowland barangays during rainy season. Its
adverse effects include the severe siltation of the three rivers in the city
and loss of soil fertility in the hinterlands due to soil erosion and
landslides. In addition, some springs has become intermittent (no water
flowing during dry season) because of the destruction of their watersheds.
In terms of sanitary sewerage and solid waste disposal, only the urban
barangays have established sewerage in the city, however, the system drains
directly into the rivers or directly into the sea without wastewater
treatment. Other households utilize backyard septic tanks for their
wastewater disposal. Solid wastes are collected by the LGU in the urban
barangays and dumped into an open dumpsite in Barangay Banga. In
anticipation for more solid wastes in the future as development spins in the
city, a new dumping site was acquired in Barangay Nangka.
Road
and Transport
Road is one of the major infrastructure
facilities intended primarily to service the needs of the residents of the
city. It is a basic need, which should be improved to alleviate the living
standards of the people, when it is well developed. Quality road provide a
venue for an easy delivery of good and other products to other places or to
the Central Business District (CBD) especially from those in remote
Barangays of the City.
Roads are classified according to the
government entity responsible for its construction and maintenance. The road
network is classified into: national, provincial, city streets, and barangay
roads. The corresponding classification is given to the specific government,
which construct and maintain the road. The types of roads are concrete,
asphalt, gravel or all weather roads and earth fill.
As of 2000 the total road length of the city is
645.23 kilometers; 6.26% of which are National Roads; 19.41% are Provincial
Roads; 1.79% are City Roads/Streets; and majority of which is 72.54% are
Barangay Roads. Moreover, of the total road length only 5.75% are concrete
roads and 2.81% asphalt roads. Of the unpaved roads, only 105 kilometers are
gravel roads and the remaining 75.16% or 485 kilometers are earth fill
roads. This translates that most of the roads especially the barangay roads
in the upland barangays are not passable during bad weather conditions. The
road situation of the city has been a very big burden for the residents in
the hinterlands since delivery of basic services and supply of goods are
inhibited almost always by it. More especially the farmers have to shoulder
very high cost of transporting their products leaving them very small
income.
With the strong focus of the local government
in improving the accessibility within the city especially the
interconnectivity of all barangays, expected boosts in economic activity and
standard of living of the people especially in the hinterlands should be
realized.
The improvement of road infrastructure of the
city especially the provincial road that connects the City Proper,
Kalumboyan and Manduao to the City
of
Kabankalan
in Negros Occidental is deemed to open up a new
dimension in the economic and social activity of the city. Likewise, the
improvement
of the city’s transport route to
Mabinay
and towards the Cities of
Tanjay
and Bais shall also bring about immense
benefits for the city.
Bridges & Spillways
There are thirteen (13) bridges with a total length of 494.95 meters that
provide passengers over the different rivers or creeks in the city. Ten (10)
of these bridges are made of reinforced concrete, having a total length of
287.15 meters. Among these, seven (7) with a total length of 277.85 meters
are classified as National bridges and two (2) with total length of 9.3
meters as Barangay. One (1) is made of reinforced concrete with steel frame
with a length of 175.7 meters and classified as National. Two (2) Barangay
bridges with a total length of 32.1 meters are made of wood with steel
bracing for pedestrian use.
One bridge (Milagrosa Bridge) located in Sitio Milagrosa Barangay Nangka
is totally damaged. It is to be converted into a spillway. Hugno Footbridge
is a proposed bridge located in Hugno, Barangay Nangka.
There are 52 spillways present in different Barangays. Only eighteen (18)
spillways were in excellent condition. Fourteen (14) needs improvement,
repair, and to be developed. Two (2) to be replaced with a bridge, seven (7)
need to be replaced, three (3) were proposed, six (6) to be re-constructed,
and two (2) were damaged and needs re-construction.
Generally, the inland barangays only have Level I (developed source)
water system or Level II (communal waterworks) have just been recently
established in Barangay Tabuan through BIARSP which is 1.6 million project.
Only Barangay Nangka and Kalumboyan have level III water system that only
the bario proper is being served, when there are no waterworks in the area
especially as in the case in sitios the usual water sources are dug wells or
springs.
In this aspect, the city has formulated policies and work programs to
address the water problems of the city. To address the needs in the barangay,
water sources are assessed and projects are outlined such that potable water
can be conveyed into every household. New water sources (such as the Danapa
Spring in Nangka) are looked into for feasible development into a water
supply infrastructure project so that the water needs of the city’s
households, industries and commercial sectors will be met. Flood Control and
Drainage.
The City Proper of Bayawan experiences flooding during rainy season. The
existing sewerage/ drainage system is still inadequate and unable to
effectively drain rainwater especially during strong typhoons. A reinforced
concrete wharf located in Barangay Ubos and Suba along the Bayawan River,
having a length of three hundred twenty six (326) meters served as a flood
control structure. This structure is to hold the water especially during
high tides and strong typhoons from coming/ flowing into the City Proper.
This flood control mechanism however also needs improvement especially that
the carrying capacity of the Bayawan River has been immensely reduced from
its siltation.
Along the Coastal Margin (Pagatban, Malabugas, Banga and Villareal) and
even in the upland barangays with low-lying built-up areas (such Minaba,
Kalumboyan and Tabuan), flooding is also a perennial issue since there are
no established drainage infrastructure projects in these barangays.
The flooding and drainage problem of the city requires for both
short-term and long-term solutions. Identified short-term solutions include
the proper maintenance and repair of existing infrastructure and the
expansion of construction projects. Well-thought of, effective and efficient
drainage design and work programs are yet to be created. The long-term
solution will include the effective rehabilitation of the watershed areas,
reforestation, ripropping of riverbanks and maintenance of river easements
such that soil erosion and subsequent siltation of the rivers will be
reduced if not eliminated. This entails long-term integrated (multi-sectoral)
and environment-focused planning, sound policy-making, strong political will
and support, effective law enforcement, and vigilant monitoring.
Various command irrigation projects are now being implemented by the
National Irragation Authority (NIA). Among these are the Tabuan Communal
Irrigation Project (CIP), Mantapi CIP and the upper/ lower Malabugas CIP of
which the LGU have provided a Php 1 million equity per projects. Moreover,
the LGU have allocated Php 22.02 million as counterpart for the proposed
Bayawan CIP which has a total project cost of Php 130.47 million. The
Bayawan CIP is among the priority projects of the 10 year Bayawan Urban
Infrastructure Development Plan.
Power
The source of power of the City is the Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant
and is delivered through the Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative II (NORECO
II). In spite of the relatively close proximity of the City to and abundance
of the power source, only 16.64% of the total number of households in the
whole city is energized. Most of the households served are located in the
urban areas. At present, NORECO II have served 4, 106 household out of a
potential 18, 623 subscribers in the city. The energized household are those
of the urban barangays and some rural barangays namely Malabugas, Pagatban,
Nangka, San Roque, San Miguel, Minaba Tayawan, Tabuan, Dawis, Kalumboyan,
Ali-is, Narra.
The low level of energization in the City can be directly attributed to
the existing road conditions. It follows that the unfavorable road
conditions make the installation of power infrastructures difficult.
Besides, the current standard of living of the people in the hinterlands
(which is way below the poverty level) does not provide an encouraging
market for the electric service providers. The low energization level of the
City does not require much solution on finding of power sources or the
installation of electrical infrastructures but more on improving the road
conditions and finding socio-economic solutions to uplift the people’s
standard of living so that they can afford electrical services.
Housing
There are two Housing Projects owned by private developers--with an
expected total units of 663 houses. The LGU will be implementing low cost
housing projects. Resettlement areas will be provided for the Informal
Settlers within the urban area.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayawan_City
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