INTRAMUROS, Manila – As an off-shoot of the ongoing WOW Philippines festival featuring the Eastern Visayas regional the walled city of Intramuros, the Department of Tourism (DOT) top brasses recently cast an iron to focus on the viability of Blanca Aurora falls in the town of San Jorge as a major tourist destination in the province of Samar.

DOT Undersecretary Oscar Palabyab and DOT-EV Dir. Norma Morante informed San Jorge Mayor Joseph Grey during the opening of the Eastern Visayas Food Festival on December 6 held at Manila Pavillion Hotel here that the DOT have already enlisted the Blanca Aurora falls as one of their priorities promotions and packaging.

“Community empowerment however is a must for the plans of the DOT to materialize, and the role of the local government units to make the community living within a particular site – ready for a full swing tourism development must be realized first,” Dir. Morante stressed.

The DOT is looking forward for a community based participation in their tourism programs, expressing hopes that the initiative will lessen the financial burden from the confines of concerned LGUs, which is usually beset by lack of funds intended for tourism development.

As this developed, San Jorge mayor Joseph Grey told that he will be laying out a comprehensive tourism agenda for his municipality, and emphasized to the media present here that his administration is focusing o-n development of eco-tourism.

“Our town is endowed with rich and beguiling eco-tourism sites, and this resources once tapped will surely be a big help to augment the san jorgehanons economic conditions,” Mayor Grey explained, but pointed out that the DOT should by all means assist them giving consideration to their lack of funding being classified as a 5 th class municipality.

Mayor Grey likewise emphasized that this early, the LGU is already apt into empowering the town of protecting and preserving these natural resources, expressing hopes that someday, and eco-tourism will give the San Jorge town a complete turn-around on its economic profile.