THE CITY of Baguio opened the 19th Panagbenga with a parade along Session Road that culminated at Baguio Athletic Bowl where performers representing 11 schools showed off their best choreography. Saturday’s event was the first in a series of parades in the long Spring Festival holiday weekend. RICHARD BALONGLONG/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON
BAGUIO CITY—Tourists who spent the long Spring Festival holiday in the summer capital were treated on Saturday to the first of three parades, mounted by a succession of events that Baguio hosts in February.
The annual Baguio Flower Festival (Panagbenga) opened with a street dancing parade on Saturday, and city officials closed major streets to accommodate performers.
Motorists endured an hour’s worth of traffic jams because of street dancers who took over downtown Session Road at 8 a.m., but the treat was well received by visitors from Metro Manila and other Luzon provinces who chose to spend the long weekend here.
Today, the city’s Ibaloi community will mount its opening parade for the monthlong Ibaloi Festival that showcases dances, rituals and lectures on Ibaloi culture at a section of Burnham Park. The festival will culminate with a grand cañao (feast) that will be joined by Benguet Ibaloi clans on Feb. 23, Ibaloi Day.
On Monday, the city’s Chinese-Filipino community will hold its Spring Festival parade at 3 p.m. Mayor Mauricio Domogan has directed officials of the city’s elementary and high schools to suspend afternoon classes on Monday for the event.
The dropping temperatures here have been drawing visitors into Baguio this month, city officials said.
The city experienced its coldest day this year on Jan. 19 when temperature was recorded at 8.1 degrees Celsius. The mercury rose from 9.4 degrees on Jan. 27 to 10.4 degrees on Thursday, settling back down to 9 degrees on Saturday.
Tourists have been advised by officials to park their vehicles at their lodging areas in the morning and to take public transport because of the anticipated traffic jams.
Panagbenga organizers also opened Market Encounter, a flower landscaping exposition, at Lake Drive of Burnham Park.
Market Encounter was almost postponed, following a dispute between the city government and the festival organizer, Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. (BFFFI), over the release of audited financial reports covering last year’s festival.
BFFFI officials declined to release details of its 2013 expenses, after asserting that its transactions have become a private affair after the Baguio government left the festival foundation.
Panagbenga was organized 19 years ago by city officials and the defunct John Hay Poro Point Development Corp. of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority to drum up tourism for Baguio, which was rising from the devastation wrought by the 1990 Luzon earthquake.
The city council initially refused to grant BFFFI permission to mount its annual Session Road in Bloom, a weeklong street bazaar, because it violates a trade fair ordinance.
But Baguio Mayor Domogan intervened and the legislators last week agreed to amend the ordinance to accommodate the money-drawing event.
The cold weeks of January also added flavor to many festivals in northern Luzon.
Young performers representing 15 elementary schools in Quezon town in Nueva Ecija province braved the chilly morning on Thursday to join a street dancing showdown for its Patimyas Ani Festival.
The festival honors the liberation of over 500 Americans and Allied Forces prisoners in Camp Pangatian, Cabanatuan City, on Jan. 30, 1945.
The weather bureau recorded Cabanatuan City’s coldest day this year on Jan. 26, when temperatures dropped to 15.8 degrees.
On Jan. 29, giant mascots and displays greeted residents of Isabela province who joined the Bambanti (scarecrow) Festival’s street dancing parade.
Booths set up by 34 towns and the cities of Ilagan, Cauayan and Santiago showcased Isabela’s agricultural products and eco-tourism destinations during the festival this week. Reports from Vincent Cabreza and Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Armand Galang, Inquirer Central Luzon