NEWSFLASH

AIR PHILIPPINES OPENS BUTUAN TO VISITORS

Butuan City, June 28, 2001 - Foreign and local tourists, businessmen, and residents in the Caraga region can now look forward to the easiest and fastest means of transportation with the launching recently by Air Philippines Corporation (APC) of its maiden flight to Butuan City, capital of Agusan Del Norte.

The inaugural flight, using a Boeing 737 jet, was joined in by top executives of the airline company headed by its president Captain Rogelio Narciso, Mila Limengco, the senior vice president for Sales and Marketing of APC, local officials, travel and hotel representatives, and members of the media.

The entourage and guests were billeted at the 24-room, top class resort hotel in Butuan, the Almont Inland Resort Hotel, which has been operating for over three years now.

The rationale behind having a resort in the middle of the city is both function and aesthetics. The former, being that it provides the healthy respite for the time-bound urbanite needing a place to escape and unwind. The latter being that resorts soften the harsh face of an edifice-strewn metro, lending it a more cooler, more natural feel.

Bustling Butuan definitely needs Almont Inland Resort, the first of its kind on the gateway side of the Caraga region. While Butuan City itself is in a class of its own, it is often overlooked by southbound trotters who are only much too eager to proceed further south to Davao, Surigao, and Bukidnon.

It is only recently that travel-related industries, namely, airline, hotels, resorts, restaurants and historical and tourism agencies have put their acts together to promote the City.

To date, no accurate claims can be made as to the origin of Butuan's name. Some suggest the name probably came from an acrid fruit called "butuan," a fruit indigenous to Butuan's terra firma. Still, some claim it comes from the name of a certain Datu Buntuan, a chieftain who once reigned in Butuan. Scholars, however, dispute the name comes from the word "but-an", literally referring to a person who has a "sound and discerning disposition."

Butuan is located at the northeastern part fo the Augusan Valley, nature's reclamation handiwork through the centuries. It must have been a watering hole for seafaring traders from mainland Asia.

Butuan is a minefield of archeological finds. Nine ancient Butuan boats or balanghai are now kept at the site of the first excavations at the Balangay Shrine Museum.

Several balanghai were found in the area around Ambangan, Libertad, just a stone's throw away from the old El Rio de Butuan and Masao river, two major troughs that open up into the Mindanao sea.

Scholars claim some writing prove that Butuan has already established trading relations since the 10th century, with the southern traders in Vietnam, which was then known as the kingdom of Champa.

Butuan's main attraction is its history. It holds some of the most important artifacts dating back since pre-Hispanic times. It has ancient China ceramics, and a replica of the Golden Tara. A student of history will find the city's museum a rich physical showcase of what used to be just descriptions in textbooks.

Since Almont Inland Resort's inception three years ago, it has thoroughly blossomed today as a soothing oasis at the navel of the city. Found a swift 15 minutes from the airport, Almont is located along J.C. Aquino Ave., Butuan City, Agusan Del Norte.

Almont is a sprawling retreat that seems to shut out the city. It's amazing how it provides altogether a sylvan ambience when, on the other side of the fence, the city shrieks in its usual reverie.

Just a five-minute drive from the heart of Butuan City, Almont is a 4-hectare "haven for a romantic rendezvous", a vista for your personal odysseys, an extension of home where the family can have fun, or the "other" boardroom for your corporate affairs. In fact, it can be anything you like it to be.

Almont Inland Resort has 4 suites, 8 deluxe guestrooms, a poolside restaurant called Manay Maling, a gift shop, and convention hall.

For fun and enjoyment, it boasts of 2 lagoon-shaped swimming pools with escalating waterfall, and a slide right smack on the children's pool. It has a tennis court, kid's playground, a small lake with fishing amenities, and a gameroom. It has also a putting green for golf enthusiasts.

The Almont Resort is being managed by 28-year-old Julie Christie Alegrado, who has been avidly involved in the hospitality and tourism industry for the past 8 years. Alegrado efficiently manages her time among the three properties to oversee, giving more attention to the latest additional property of the family-owned resort.

With the recent maiden flight of Air Philippines to Butuan City, it is expected that more tourists, businessmen would travel to the up-and-coming boomtown in Agusan del Norte and nearby provinces in the Caraga region.