DENR Usec to keynote Bamboo Market Week opening Nov. 24
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary Edgardo C. Manda will visit Iloilo City as keynote speaker of the Iloilo Bamboo Market Week which opens on Nov. 24, Monday, at the SM City Iloilo event center.
Iloilo Governor Niel Tupas Sr. and Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas will deliver welcome messages in the opening program.
The event, which will include exhibits of bamboo products, symposia on bamboo propagation, utilization and markets, will also feature a market encounter between buyers and sellers of bamboo and a bamboowear fashion show by international lifestyle consultant PJ Arañador.
Lectures in the symposia on Nov. 26, Wednesday, will be Carmelita Bersalona of International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) who will talk on the status of the bamboo industry at the national and international level, DENR Region VI's Butch Marquez who will talk on bamboo propagation, and a representative from the Department of Science and Technology who will give a bamboocraft demonstration.
On Nov. 27, IBPDI president Glenda Dagdag will talk on bamboo utilization and markets, and a resource speaker from the University of the Philippines in the Visayas School of Technology will talk on bamboo for food.
The ribbon cutting ceremony will be led by Iloilo first lady Myrna C. Tupas who will be assisted by Usec. Edgardo C. Manda of DENR, Governor Niel Tupas Sr., Iloilo City lone district congressman Raul Gonzalez Jr., Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, Department of Trade and Industry regional director Dominic P. Abad, and DTI provincial director Wilhelm M. Malones.
The Bamboo Market Week is organized by the Department of Trade and Industry, provincial and city governments of Iloilo, Department of Science and Technology, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, UP in the Visayas School of Technology, Western Visayas Agriculture and Resources Research and Development Consortium (Wesvarrdec), DENR and the municipal government of Maasin with IBPDI as lead private implementor.
Other IBPDI officers are Mariano Malones Sr., vice president; Herminio Maravilla, secretary; and Peter Tay, treasurer. Members are Noe Gumayao, Santiago Chavez, Cecilia Malte, George Blancaflor, Dolly Hautea, Genaro Sonza, Engr. Juan Rentoy and Ben Señeres. RGH