78th Agew na Dagupan focuses on family, community
GREEN ENVIRONMENT FOR FUTURE GENERATONS – Dagupan City Mayor Belen Fernandez leads hundreds of volunteers in planting trees at the Bonuan dumpsite as gift of the city to future generations on the occasion of the city’s 78th Founding Anniversary. (Punch photo by Butch Uka)
DAGUPAN City was alive with the spirit of family, community, and the environment when it celebrated its 78th founding anniversary on June 20.
Mayor Belen Fernandez underscored this year’s theme “Agew na Dagupan, Punla ng Pamilya, Puno ng Pag-Asa” as a celebration in keeping the promise of “a Dagupan which is pro-environment, pro-people and believes in justice.”
“What is important to us, this celebration of Agew ng Dagupan, is to make the people of the city feel the services that we are giving to them,” the mayor told the local media.
The Agew na Dagupan commenced with a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument of Speaker Eugenio Perez who authored the cityhood of Dagupan in 1947, followed by widespread community engagement through various programs.
Among the community activities held were disaster preparedness, health and nutrition, legal assistance, social services, housing and utilities, public safety, youth development, livelihood and employment, and tourism, among others.
More than 1,700 seedlings of coconut, acacia and various flowering trees were planted at the cleared area of the Bonuan Dumpsite, now comprising 85% of the 4.5 hectare facility, by some 1,500 volunteers, mostly youth.
Supported by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the massive planting activity is envisioned to transform the site into an eco-tourism park and leisure area.
“We plant not to cover the scars of the past but to sow life into of the future,” Fernandfez said.
The mayor also solemnized the mass wedding of 36 couples, witnessed by Vice Mayor BK Kua and brothers Ashok and Rocky Vasandani. (Eva Visperas/Leonardo Micua)
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