DANCING CONTINGENT Dancers in colorful costumes, in this January 2018 photo, perform during the culminating parade of the Sinulog Festival. —PHOTO COURTESY OF SINULOG FOUNDATION INC.
CEBU CITY—The cities and towns in Cebu province will get a P1.6-million subsidy if they join the dance parade of the world-famous Sinulog Festival on Jan. 15 that local officials promised to be grander this year.
According to Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, participating municipalities and cities under her jurisdiction will receive P800,000 from the province.
She said the Cebu City government also promised to give P800,000 to each participating contingent, which is a huge rise from the P150,000 that City Hall used to give to each contingent in the previous staging of the Sinulog Festival.
Garcia announced the province’s subsidy on Dec. 29 through Sugbo News, the online news portal of the Cebu provincial government.
One island
The governor has sent a memorandum to all local chief executives in the province, inviting them to join the “one Cebu island” Sinulog festivity this year, which organizers promised to be grander after it was scaled down and held mainly online for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Local governments in Cebu were given until Jan. 2 to decide if they would be sending a contingent to the Mardi Gras-like culminating event of the weeklong Sinulog Festival, the secular counterpart of the Catholic Church’s Feast of Señor Sto. Niño (Child Jesus), which is celebrated every third Sunday of January and had drawn millions of religious pilgrims and revelers to the city.
Last Dec. 27, Garcia met with Elmer Labella, the chair of Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI), to discuss the upcoming festival in honor of the Sto. Niño or the Child Jesus.
During the meeting, Labella said the Cebu City government would give subsidies to contingents joining the Sinulog. Garcia, in response, said the provincial government would also distribute subsidies to participating localities in Cebu province.
Apart from the subsidies, Garcia said the province would extend financial assistance to SFI for the staging of the Sinulog, considered as one of the grandest festivals in the country.
New location
In 2020, the province gave P3 million to SFI and P5 million in 2021. This year, Garcia said the province would extend another P12 million as assistance to SFI.
The One Cebu Island Sinulog 2023’s grand parade will be held for the first time at South Road Properties, Cebu City’s newest commercial hub that rose out of a city-developed 300-hectare reclamation area.
The festival used to be held at the city’s main thoroughfares, mainly along Osmeña Boulevard, with the final staging held at the midtown’s Cebu City Sports Center.
The festival highlights some of the country’s most colorful displays of pomp and pageantry: participants garbed in bright costumes dance to the rhythm of drums, trumpets and native gongs. —ADOR VINCENT MAYOL INQ
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