Training for Mt. Apo guides begins in Kidapawan

KIDAPAWAN CITY, Philippines  ---- The city government on Tuesday started training 30 forest tour guides, 11 of them members of ethnic groups that revere the majestic Mt. Apo as “tribal god,” to help protect the country’s highest mountain.

Mt. Apo, a known sanctuary of endangered animal species, including the Philippine Eagle, with thick forests that are also watersheds of rivers that flow downstream to hundreds of villages in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato and Davao del Sur provinces, has an altitude of 2, 954 meters, or 9, 692 feet above sea level.

Joey Recemilla, chief of the Kidapawan City Tourism and Investments Promotion Center, said the three-day training of the mountaineering guides seeks to improve services to tourists that come in big groups during summer to trek to the peak of Mt. Apo.

The guides  will be supervised by the city tourism office.

“The training is focused on safe mountain-climbing procedures, jungle survival and emergency life-saving techniques, and  building good relations between the city government and tourists,” Recemilla told reporters.

Recemilla said the trainees are also to study during their three-day schooling the country’s eco-tourism  goals and the role of indigenous people, or IP communities, in protecting tourism sites from ecological and environmental hazards.

Recemilla said 11 of the 30 trainees are members of IP groups that dwell in Mt. Apo and revere the mountain as "Apo Sandawa," which they worship and regard as a “peace sanctuary” for all mountain dwellers, regardless of tribes and ethnic identities.

”This training is part of a continuing capability-building effort for our local tourism industry players and stakeholders,” Recemilla pointed out.

Recemilla said the city government’s tourism activities are supported by the director of the Department of Tourism for Region 12, Nelly Dillera, the Philippine National Red Cross, the provincial police office and the Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion, the Naturalists Guide, the Mt. Apo Foundation, and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.

Mt. Apo is also host to two geothermal plants, located in Barangay Ilomavis here, that supply about one-third of mainland Mindanao’s power requirements. - John Unson