CITY NEWS

Sipalay City garnered the grand prize in the 1 st Hiyas Ng Turismo Search conducted by the Women in Travel Manila in cooperation with the Department of Tourism. Tourism Operations Officer Cristine C. Mansinares received the award at Hyatt Regency, Pasay City last March 28, 2006. The city received P 100,000 cash prize, a round-trip ticket to Singapore for two (2), & and a trophy. Marketing collateral materials were also granted to the city. Senator Richard Gordon, one of the prominent guests during the awarding ceremony, gave 5 Million to the nine (9) destinations to be shared out for their tourism development projects.

There were 28 sites that competed in the semi-finals and 9 were chosen to vie in the final judging. Other winning entries were Sibang Cove, Cagayan Valley-3 rd Place , Cavinti Twin Falls, Laguna-2 nd Place , and Bugang River , Antique-1 st Place . Rosales in Pangasinan, Sacobia Valley in Pampanga, Municipality of Magdalena in Laguna, Lake Apo in Bukidnon and Mount Hamiguitan in Davao Oriental were the other national finalists.

The City of Sipalay commemorated its 5 th Charter Anniversary last March 27-31, 2006 with the theme: “Development Change for a Better Tomorrow”. It featured various sports events that gathered the crowd three days before the official opening rites started. There were weekend concerts 3-4 weeks prior to the actual fiesta celebration, band exhibitions, agro-aqua trade fair, rides , beauty pageant, cultural show, street dancing competition and many more.

In its five (5) years of existence as a city, Sipalay has numerous developments in the aspects of social services, economics, environment, governance, agriculture, tourism, infrastructures, school buildings, farm-to-market roads, public market, irrigation, irrigation and dikes to name some. Mayor Oscar C. Montilla is encouraging Sipalaynon to intensify the bond of unity as the city had started to triple the development pace undertaken by the local government unit.

The 1st Pasaway Adventure Challenge was in conducted at Sipalay City last March 24-27, 2006 featuring various tourism sites of the city as control points.

T There were a total of 15 teams that participated. The top 3 awards were all bagged by teams from Dumaguete City . The 3rd place went to the Outdoors-Habagat-Cuernos, followed by the Dynasty Agri-Aqua Fairies team, and romping with great honor and pride to finish first in the race was the Hayahay Orient Wind-Cuernos2 team.

The team received cash prizes and trophies from the city. The event was made possible thru the support of Mayor Oscar C. Montilla, Jr. in cooperation with SP Nathaniel Jan Celiz and Mr. Troy Gedang. The team who facilitated the event headed by Mr. Pobbie Limas was also recognized for making the Pasaway Adventure Challenge possible. This is the city's response to the thrust of the Provincial Government for Adventure Negros.

The race will be featured in the entire episode of Gameplan at Studio 23 on May 7, 2006 at 1:30pm.