Panagbenga float parade becomes platform for social advocacy
SUPERHERO | To dramatize the importance of adoptive parents and foster parents, the National Commission on Child Care selected superheroes as the theme for its floral float in the 2024 Baguio Flower Festival Grand Float Parade held on Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. (Photo by NEIL CLARK ONGCHANGCO / Inquirer Northern Luzon)
BAGUIO CITY, Benguet, Philippines — Along with celebrities who lent their star power to flower-decked carriages, this year’s Baguio Flower Festival Grand Float Parade held on Sunday as the highlight of the Panagbenga Festival also served as a platform for social issues and call to action by some government agencies.
The Commission on Election (Comelec) float displayed a flower-encrusted ballot box with the banner “Magparehistroka (Register)” to remind people to sign up for the next polls.
Another float that caught the eye of many people was one carrying a giant Superman-like figure made of blue and red flowers.
Called the “Guardians of Hope” floral float, it was commissioned by the newly formed National Authority for Child Care (NACC) to encourage families to adopt abandoned or neglected children and foundlings, according to Undersecretary Janella Ejercito Estrada, NACC executive director, during a Friday briefing.
NACC, described as a “quasi-judicial agency on alternative child care” attached to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, was formed by Republic Act No. 11642, which grants it complete jurisdiction over all domestic adoption proceedings.
The NACC joined Panagbenga to advocate community participation in alternative child care and to remove the stigma surrounding family adoptions, she said. From 2009 to 2023 in the Cordillera, 233 children have been certified as “legally available for adoption.”
“Adaptive parents and foster parents—and even community volunteers and social workers—are the superheroes of adopted Filipino children. They are the unsung heroes who take care of them, which is why we chose superheroes as the theme of our float,” Ejercito said. She said NACC also tapped 40 celebrity influencers to popularize alternative child care, “because social media is the best tool to spread awareness.” The float also featured NACC mascots “Super Ampon” and “Wonder Foster.”
The Baguio City entry featured the head of a horned ram or deer that leans up from a forest backdrop. On its social media page, the city information office said the deer was “‘Lampong,’ the guardian of animals.”
By melding the animal’s torso with the mountain contour, the Baguio float could depict “how nature and wildlife are connected.”
Good-natured rivalry
Most of the floats favored fantasy designs.
Still, celebrities—like Lovi Poe and the cast of GMA 7 sitcom “Walang Matigas na Pulis sa Matinik na Misis (No such thing as a tough cop with a crafty wife)”—were the eye candies for spectators.
Tourists and young residents cheered when actor and former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla danced with his young costars atop the television network’s float, which featured large birds made of flowers.
READ: Baguio’s floral icons battle it out at Panagbenga
Poe was on a corporate float filled with giant mushrooms made of flowers. Also spotted were basketball legend Benjie Paras and son, athlete-turned-actor Andre, who rode a float commissioned by a leading pawnshop.
About 30 floral carts and large and medium-sized floats rolled down Session Road towards Burnham Park for about two hours, forcing motorists to take roads outside the central business district.
