Mount Samat, to become a leading revenue-earning hub in the country

 PILAR, Bataan-  A well-known real  estate broker and contractor  is opting to bid for the development of the 77-hectare famous battle site  atop Mount Samat this town,  which is envisioned by the Bataan Peninsula Tourism Foundation Incorporated (BPTFI) to become  a premier tourist destination in the country.

 Mayor Alice Dizon Pizarro said the newly-created Mount Samat Shrine Tourism Enterprise Zone (MSSTEZ), one of the six tourism zone enterprises identified by the Department of Tourism (DOT) in the country, would start the bidding process in October this year.

 Prospective investors, developers and locators can avail of numerous incentives such as tax holiday and duty free importation for the operations of tourism–oriented establishments located at the heart of the Bataan Peninsula, Pizarro explained.

 Local tourism officers observed that thousands of Japanese, American and other Asian tourists, including Australians who would like to stay behind after the short program on the annual commemoration of the infamous Fall of Bataan and Death March every April 9 held at the Dambana ng Kagitingan in Mount Samat, upland village of Liyang here, reportedly leave due to the absence of comfortable hotels, eateries, souvenir shops, audio-visual facility portraying the heroic deeds of Filipino and American soldiers during World War 11.

 Tourists who reportedly just took shots from the view deck of the huge cross, awed by  the  panoramic view  of fertile lowlands and farmers harvesting palay on the rice fields of Pilar, Orion and Abucay towns, had no choice but to ride  back to their waiting air conditioned buses for Manila where they were billeted in classy hotels.

 This third class municipality is expecting to improve its revenues with the implementation of the Mount Samat Development Master Plan which would create livelihood opportunities and greater income from the strategic tourism entrepreneurs to be put up in the periphery of the historic Mount Samat, Pizarro added.

 The first termer lady municipal mayor who took tourism course at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City  is confident that the positive results  of the proposed development plan would make  Mount Samat  a leading revenue-earning historical  and tourism industry hub in the country.