Ifugao Town Celebrates Milestones in Festival

This town known as the “Gateway of Ifugao” celebrated its 60th founding anniversary called “Rambakan Ti Lamut” with various events and activities to give maximum entertainment and satisfaction to guests, visitors and the people.

From the usual week-long festivities, it was celebrated from April 1-10, the longest so far. Mayor Mariano Buyagawon Jr. related that because he is unopposed in his candidacy for the mayoralty position for his third and last term, he contributed his budget for the campaign expenditures to the municipal coffer for the extended fiesta this year.

The celebration featured the milestones of how far Lamut has moved forward in its 60 years of existence particularly during the time Buyagawon assumed as municipal chief executive in 2013.

This is appropriate since Rambakan means a time to celebrate and commemorate a successful year of prosperity wherein the people participate in the various activities such as the cultural and float parades, ethnic games, dances, sports, G-string marathon, beauty and talent and street dancing competitions, cultural presentations and exhibition of products. There were also the Gabi ng Kabataan, OFW Night and Barangay Night, dental mission, among others.

Once a lowly community with poor road networks and high incidence of poverty, Lamut is a 4th class municipality which is continuously emerging as an investment center in Ifugao.

Lamut has a land area of 14,581.25 hectares with 5,480.18 has. for agriculture. As an emerging agro-industrial center, the municipality has trading centers that function as “bagsakan” or drop-off areas for the wholesale transaction of products and goods.

The town boasts of its flourishing tilapia fish production. The presence of the provincial hatchery and the regional hatchery for pangasius (catfish) in the municipality makes Lamut the center for tilapia and pangasius production in the province. There is also the Provincial Livelihood Center that showcases Ifugao products and provides market linkage among buyers and producers.

Under Buyagawon’s term, Lamut received several awards for good governance. It was also top performing Cordillera local government unit in the 2018 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index of the National Competitiveness Council. (JDP/DBC-PIA CAR, Ifugao)