NOTE: THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’ SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.
If plans do not miscarry, Carmen, considered to be a first-class agricultural town, is eyeing to put up a golf course in a 12-hectare of rolling hills located in Poblacion, incumbent Mayor Conchita Che Toribio delos Reyes said in a media interview yesterday.
Mayor delos Reyes said that, for now, it is her plan “to level up Carmen.”
She said that the 18-hole golf course that is not so complicated, aside from maintaining the green, could attract the rich, who may come here at the same time to view the Chocolate Hills, which is now being managed by the town.
Another major project she is eyeing to accomplish is the completion of the Carmen Municipal College (CMC) to cater to the graduates of 11 secondary schools located in this town.
She said that she’s very much concerned over the plight of high school students who are in faraway places just to get a college diploma. If the college here is finished, she wanted to open it up next school year or in August this year.
On agriculture, in which the town folks are largely relying on their livelihood, the mayor said that she wanted that there should be ample market where farmers can sell their produce. She said like Ubi, there’s no market that could buy the root crops. That’s why she could not campaign yet for Ubi growers to plant more of the tuber.
But Carmen town has actively participated in the launching of the Ubi festival in Tagbilaran City where she was present during its opening at the old city airport last week.
The mayor said that there appears to be a snag in getting rid of unwanted and unnecessary trees that grow and covered the view of each hill of the Chocolate Hills area.
She said that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) allowed only one tree (or one at a time) to be cleared.
She said that arrangement for tree clearing that covers the hills is underway, however, so that all the hills covered by trees be cleared without further undergoing the strict DENR-PAMB guidelines on pruning or cutting trees. (rvo)