If you’re heading to the strawberry fields of La Trinidad, Benguet, you’ll be greeted by a colorful sight — a sunflower mural painted on 170 houses located on the hillsides of Barangay Balili. The Department of Tourism for the Cordillera Administrative Region (DOT-CAR) officially unveiled this colourful street art along Kilometer 3 in La Trinidad, Benguet in June.

Part of DOT-CAR’s Rev-Bloom (Rev up, Revive, Revisit, Revitalize) Urban Rehabilitation Campaign, the mural was painted by a team from Baguio City artists’ colony Tam-awan Village, together with volunteers and residents from the barangay.

The project is called “Colors of Stobosa”, a reference to the three sitios covered by the project: Stonehill, Botiwtiw, and Sadjap. The mural’s design was conceptualised by artists Jordan Mang-osan, Clinton Aniversaryo, Ged Alangui and Jenny Lorenzo. “There were four designs and we joined them together. We chose the sunflower theme because this area used to have a lot of these flowers,” explained Mang-osan.

DOT-CAR is planning to implement a similar project in Baguio City in time for next year’s Panagbenga Festival. A particularly suitable site is Quirico Hill, which is three times wider than Barangay Balili.

This article originally appeared in the August 2016 issue of Smile magazine.

Written by

Celine Reyes