No smile to brighten Bacolod as MassKara canceled

MISSING ‘MASK GATHERING’ Bacolod City’s MassKara Festival, one of the country’s biggest tourist-drawing events, will not be staged in October amid the government’s prohibition on mass gathering during the pandemic. —KARLOS MANLUPIG

BACOLOD CITY—The streets of Bacolod will be quiet in October after the city government canceled the staging of MassKara Festival, one of the country’s grandest celebrations, to comply with health and safety protocols amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Facts and scientific studies … have undoubtedly established that mass gatherings can be an effective channel of transmitting and spreading infections, like COVID-19, among the population, thus suspending the MassKara Festival celebration and its attendant activities … is called for,” Mayor Evelio Leonardia said.

Bacolod, which is under modified enhanced community quarantine, had recorded 3,419 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday, the biggest among the provinces and cities in Western Visayas. The region had a total of 9,974 infections.

MassKara, which started in 1980, is coined from the words “mass” for many and “kara” for “faces.” It features street dancers wearing smiling masks, colorful headdresses and costumes.

The festival was organized in a time of tragedy when Negros Occidental was reeling from a sugar crisis and many Negrenses died when MV Don Juan collided with a tanker en route to Bacolod and sank in Tablas Strait off Mindoro Island.

In Iloilo City, Mayor Jerry Treñas ordered the lockdown of 13 barangays for five days starting 6 p.m. on Tuesday due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in these areas.

In the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan, Mayor Emerson Lachica placed the villages of Estancia, New Buswang and Old Buswang on lockdown due to a surge in infections. —REPORTS FROM CARLA P. GOMEZ AND NESTOR P. BURGOS JR.