Group, Marikina gov’t in ‘food fest’ fight

It’s not exactly the most appetizing prelude to a food trip.

The Marikina City government is being accused by an events organizer of “stealing” her team’s idea for a street food and arts festival in the city.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Marisse Miziel Mañalac of EventHaus said the City Hall project dubbed Lilac St. Food Fest 2015—to be held on Lilac Street, Barangay Concepcion Dos on Oct. 17—was based on a concept they originally pitched to local officials.

According to Mañalac, her group earlier presented to the city government—first to the tourism department and later to the administrator—a proposal to gather restaurant owners and artists in a single location for them to present their products and creations.

Conceptualized as early as February, the project was intended to provide more public exposure for local entrepreneurs and artists and to showcase the beauty of Marikina to the new generation, she said.

“After several meetings and revisions, [the local government] ended up saying they will be the ones to execute our concept. We replied to them saying that if that’s what they want to do, we are disheartened and would like to meet halfway by getting paid for our concepts and production ideas. No response ever since,” she said.

“Now, without buying the rights to the idea, it is now being executed by the local government of Marikina City,” she added, noting that her team’s ideas in the city’s food fest ranged “from the collaterals to program segments.”

Mañalac went to the extent of discouraging the public from patronizing the event, saying her group “will not tolerate circumstances such as this.”

“Nakakawalang gana magtiwala sa local government (It makes you lose trust in the local government),” she said.

‘Preposterous, libelous’

But in a strongly worded statement issued Friday, Paul Edward Sison, the city’s public information officer, called Mañalac’s complaint not only “preposterous and presumptuous” but also “libelous.”

Sison recalled that Mañalac’s team was “accommodated” by the city government for a presentation on Aug. 6, where other stakeholders were invited.

“Our tourism officer made it clear that we are proceeding with no commitments yet and that it was up to them (Mañalac’s team) to sell the idea to the restaurant owners and to convince them. Unfortunately, they failed,” the official said.

Sison said the stakeholders and city officials did not appreciate the idea of a two-day event using small tents since they wanted to “veer away from the tiangge (flea market) look.”

“We are very sorry if her proposal to hold a tiangge, where they will charge an entrance fee of P200 per person and P20,000 per stall, was not acceptable to the city and to the restaurant locators along Lilac Street,” Sison added, calling the fees “outrageous.”

According to him, the city government “expressed [an] understanding that it is normal for [Mañalac’s team] to want to earn from the activity.”

But the city government’s primary concern was to “promote Lilac as a food destination” where it is the entrepreneurs who would “earn and flourish.”

After the Aug. 6 presentation, a second meeting was held where the inputs of the previous meeting were incorporated into Mañalac team’s proposal. “Unfortunately, it was evident that our objectives and motivations were not compatible with theirs. We really wanted to help these young organizers. But sadly they did not make the grade and meet our standards,” Sison said.

Inspired by Maginhawa Street

The idea to organize a food fair on Lilac was inspired by the success of similar projects held on Maginhawa Street (UP Village) and Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City, which in turn were patterned after street festivals abroad, he explained.

“There is no truth to their claim that we stole their idea because they only got in touch with our tourism office last February and met with the stakeholders this August,” he said. “Our intention to hold a Lilac food fair was arrived at last year, 2014. We have the e-mail trail to prove this.”

He said the original schedule in December 2014 did not push through because of problems concerning parking.

Timed with the fiesta

But the locators later agreed to hold it on Oct. 17 since it would coincide with the fiesta of the local parish, St. Paul of the Cross, and “they felt that the public would be more forgiving of the traffic since it was their fiesta anyway.”

“We are not in the habit of stealing intellectual property rights. The city stands by its 24-year track record of being pioneering and innovative during the past three administrations. We are not lacking in effective strategic ideas that promote the city and the welfare of our constituents. We have been awarded as Hall of Famers several times based on merit. We have experienced and seasoned conceptualizers and implementors who have served the city government since the time of Mayor Bayani Fernando in 1992, Mayor Marides Fernando from 2001-2010, and Mayor Del R. de Guzman since 2010,” Sison said.