BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
As the Mambukal Mountain Resort in Murcia, Negros Occidental opens to fully vaccinated tourists, Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson yesterday signed an executive order rebranding and declaring the resort as a “wildlife sanctuary.”
In his issued executive order, Lacson said the hunting, wounding, taking or killing within the resort territory of any endemic or wildlife animals, or destruction of any vegetation, or any act causing disturbance to the habitat of the wildlife, is prohibited.
Mambukal Resort is home, among others, to endemic and wildlife species that requires specific human manipulations for their perpetuations, which, according to Lacson, falls under the category of wildlife sanctuary.
Lacson, who led the reopening of the resort to the public, yesterday said that there will be no entrance fee for the month of December.
The mountain resort had been used a COVID-19 quarantine facility for more than a year by the provincial government of Negros Occidental.
By having this soft opening, with Mambucal as our symbol of tourism, we are also opening up our tourism again in Negros Occidental, Lacson said.
But we will continue to ask our visitors, local or foreign, to still practice minimum health protocols
Lacson advised tourists to have a pre-booking at the Mambukal resort office, as part of their measures to control individuals who may enter the resort.
“We are allowed to have 70 percent capacity. We will follow that,” he said.
While they will not charge entrance fee temporarily, guests will have to pay for the use of resort amenities, he added.
Lacson said they are planning to put up new high-end villas and to reconstruct the dining area in the river, aside from the newly-completed dining area sponsored by TIEZA (Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority).
The soft-opening activity was also attended by Provincial Tourism Officer Cherryl Decena, Murcia Mayor Gerry Rojas, Brig. Gen. Inocencio Pasaporte, 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, and his deputy, Col. Mike Samson, and Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz.*
