Dumingag raises another Red Orchid Award to promote healthy lifestyle

Mayor Jun Pacalioga holds the Red Orchid Award trophy as

his wife Girlyn (beside him) and his municipal council pose

with him during the awarding ceremony for the Mindanao

cluster in Davao City. (Photo provided)

By Julius Breva

DUMINGAG, ZAMBOSUR - As the environment month of June ends, the Dumingag LGU raises its 2^nd Red Orchid Award to promote healthy lifestyle in the upcoming health and nutrition month of July.

Dumingag Mayor Jun Pacalioga together with his councilors received another Red Orchid Award last June 20 at SMX Convention Center, Davao City. The award is an annual nationwide search for LGUs, agencies, and institutions that work hard to implement 100% smoke-free environment.

Mayor Pacalioga said the Duningag LGU campaigned no smoking in all public places of Dumingag because it envisions having a productive citizenry with a healthy mind and body.

Smoking which is no doubt dangerous to health contradicts this vision, he added.

Being a model organic agriculture municipality of the country, Dumingag has a clear policy on organic living that includes cultivating a healthy environment not only in the farms, but also in the homes and wherever people converge.

To go organic is not only a farming technology, but it’s a way of life, a way of thinking, a worldview, Pacalioga said.

In Dumingag, when we campaign to people to quit smoking, it is not only meant to comply with the requirements of the Red Orchid Award.

It is about being consistent with our campaign for organic living and about living up to our honor as an international awardee in the organic world, Because of the outstanding organic agriculture program in Dumingag, Mayor Pacalioga went to Legau Germany last September 2012 to receive the One World Award from the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and Rapunzel Naturkost, one of the largest organic foodstuffs manufacturers in Europe.

IFOAM is the umbrella organization of organic agriculture advocates worldwide.

For winning the Red Orchid Award, Dumingag LGU received a specially-designed trophy and P100,000 worth of drugs and medicines.

Since Dumingag already won the award for two consecutive years, it only lacks one more award to be Red Orchid Hall of Famer.

A hall of famer will receive a 500 thousand pesos grant to be used for tobacco control projects.