Glan celebrates agricultural bounty

MANILA, Philippines – The town of Glan, Sarangani, celebrated its cultural heritage and agricultural bounty in its recently-concluded 101st founding anniversary and 16th Lubi-Lubi Festival.

The locus of the festival is the street dance parade and competition with revelers dressed in colorful costumes made out of lubi (coconut). Street presentations portrayed old religious and animistic belief of the townsfolk about the tree of life, as well as traditional dances from Moro and lumad tribes.

Situated on the easternmost coast of Sarangani, the town is regarded as the province’s coconut capital as some 90 percent  of Glan’s total land area is planted with the tree of life.

The town is the top producer of fresh coconut coconuts, copra and derivative products in Soccsksargen or South Central Mindanao Region.

Aquaculture is the second biggest economic activity with sizable production of milkfish and shrimps culture. The town’s municipal waters also form part of Sarangani Bay, one of the country’s richest body of water, where the world’s tastiest tuna is caught.

Other agricultural produce include corn, sugar cane, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, poultry and livestock which are produced for consumption within the town and the province.

Glan traces its roots to Oct. 8, 1914, when the pioneering batch of Colony No. 9  from Cebu arrived. It officially became a municipality on July 25, 1949 when President Quirino issued Executive Order No. 250 creating the town.