Mayor Salvador Escalante said Cadiz City in Negros Occidental generated about P700 million in income from its two week celebration of the 50th Dinagsa Festival that ended Sunday, January 28, with a street dancing competition and parties.
Escalante believes the crowd on the last day of this year’s Dinagsa surpassed last year’s 450,000. The two-week celebration was peaceful, he also said.
Aside from the thousands of private vehicles parked all the way up to highway at crossing Cadiz, the mayor also requested Ceres Liner to add 200 more bus trips to ferry guests in and out of the city.
He said while the city government spent from P20 to P25 million for the festival, the income it generated was far larger.
The P700 million income estimate is conservative, it probably is larger, he said.
Escalante said Cadiz City’s economy is fast growing with more solar farms expected, and investments in agriculture.
The construction of more roads to remote barangays of Cadiz is expected to draw more agricultural investments, he said.
He said Cadiz has 54,000 hectares of land, which gives it a huge potential.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. is eyeing Cadiz and neighboring areas as a potential agricultural hub to meet the food needs of Metro Manila through the Cadiz port to the Batangas port, Escalante said.*