By Mortz C. Ortigoza
LINGAYEN – The mayor of this capital town was awed by the zeal of the chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority to
promptly transport by air and land fruits from Mindanao for this town's version of fruits festival.
“I saw
the successful MinDA Fruits Festival in Baguio City. And I texted Secretary Piñol,
sabi ko sa kanya when is your next festival because you may want to consider
Lingayen. All right he said. Next week!” declared with a chuckle by Mayor
Leopoldo Bataoil to reporters in the first of the second fruits galore held
here in the province of Pangasinan.
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FRUITS GALORE – Lingayen, Pangasinan Mayor
Leopoldo Bataoil (3rd from left) proudly shows at his office the
various fruits from Mindanao brought by the Mindanao Development Authority in
his town’s first fruits festival held last September 7. From left are MinDA Development
Management Officer – 3 Raymund Peter Esperat, Vice Mayor Judy Vargas, and
Isidro “Toto” Albano (rightmost).
Bataoil, a former congressman and retired
police general, was amazed by the consumers from here, other towns and cities
of Pangasinan, and other provinces who frantically bought early in the day
fruits like pomelo, lanzones, and mangosteen.
Isidro “Toto” Albano, the trusted aide of Piñol,
said that in just two hours after the retail and whole sales opened at the
plaza, the pomelos were bought by the buyers.
He said that all the fruits were sold for P100
a kilo for retail and P95 a kilo for wholesale. Albano told reporters that
durian is pegged at P50 a kilo in Davao City that made the price here of
Mindanao’s odd oval fruit “that smell
like hell but taste like heaven”, reasonable.
“Actually
nagulat kami sa Baguio City ang best seller namin doon at blockbuster even
here in Pangasinan is durian!"
Albano declared that durians were sold
like hot cakes here and in the two festivals in Baguio City in August 25 and
September 1, 2019.
He cited that one of the factors that people impulsively purchase the tropical king of fruits because of curiosity.
With the 2.5 tons or 2,500 kilos durian
transported here, only three boxes, where each contained six fruits, were left
at one o’clock in afternoon during the September 7 festival here.
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FRUITS - Mindanao Development Authority Chairman and Secretary Manny Piñol (second from left) gives a free taste to a resident of Baguio City of the succulent marang fruit in the First Minda Fruit Festival in Baguio City held last August 25 and September 1, 2019 at the Pines City. With Piñol at the Burnham Park is the city’s mayor Benjamin Magalong (extreme left). |
Secretary Piñol said that there should be 15
tons of durian to be sold here last Saturday and last Sunday in the nearby
Dagupan City but the hauling truck figured at an accident in Southeren Leyte.
“A bigger shipment of 15
tons of Durian was delayed because the first cargo truck which carried the load
figured in an accident in Agas-agas, Southern Leyte.
An
estimated two metric tons of Durian was lost to local people who feasted on the
fruits scattered along the side of the highway. Another
cargo truck had to be brought in from Manila to continue the journey because the
first truck was a total wreck,” he stressed.
In the first fruits festival here, MinDA
brought 10 tons of mangosteen, 1.3 tons of lanzones, 4.5 tons of pomelo 2.5
tons of durian and various processed fruit products from Davao City based fruit
company Eng Seng and fruit farmers’ groups.
GMA-7 TV: FRUITS FEST IN LINGAYEN, PANGASINAN
GMA-7 TV: FRUITS FEST IN LINGAYEN, PANGASINAN
The fruit fest in Dagupan City disappointed may
buyers as seen on their post at Facebook because it was cancelled Friday afternoon.
According to Albano the brass of the local government unit reason lacked time to prepare for the event.
To minimize losses, Albano told this writer they hauled in trucks the lanzones, mangosteen, pomelo, and durian and
sell at a bargain in the whole sale market of Urdaneta City, the entrepot of
northern and central Luzon.
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