Tacloban plans low-key festivals this weekend

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—The show must still go on.

Thus said city officials about their decision to observe Tacloban City’s annual fiesta with several activities lined up, like a street parade.

Tacloban, still reeling from massive destruction caused by Super Typhoon “Yolanda,” is to observe its 125th annual fiesta on June 30.

Councilor Cristina G. Romualdez, who chairs Sangyaw Foundation that runs the city-sponsored Sangyaw Festival, however, said there was a conscious effort on their part not to make this year’s celebration ostentatious.

“It will be a low-key celebration out of respect to the victims and survivors [of Yolanda],” Romualdez said.

But there was clamor that activities like  Sangyaw Festival be continued, the wife of Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez said.

Malou Tabao, member of  the Sangyaw Festival committee, said this year’s cultural presentation involving groups that would participate in  the festival would be more of a thanksgiving than a competition.

“The festival is more about thanksgiving to our Señor Santo Niño for all his help when Tacloban was wrought by Yolanda,” she said.

Romualdez said it was good that some international humanitarian groups still based in Tacloban offered financial assistance to the cash-strapped city government to shoulder the expenses  of the participating contingents during the street parade, which is scheduled on June 29 or a day before the fiesta.

Among the international organizations that provided financial assistance were Oxfam, Save the Children and International Organization for Migration, Tabao said.

These groups gave financial assistance ranging from P20,000 to P30,000 to be used for the procurement of costumes for the participating contingents of  Sangyaw Festival.

For this year’s celebration, eight schools and five barangays are to join the street parade dubbed Sangyaw Pasasalamat Festival. And unlike last year, the participating contingents will not compete against each other for a cash prize.

The city government is suffering from financial difficulties as only 2,803 of 12,900 business establishments are currently operating in Tacloban after it was pummeled by Yolanda seven months ago.

Last year, the city government set aside more than P5 million for the staging of  Sangyaw Festival and other activities related to the fiesta.

Another festival, Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals, supported by the provincial government of Leyte, will also stage its own street parade around Tacloban’s major streets with contingents like the Masskara of Bacolod City and  Sinulog  of Cebu province among the participants.

Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals is to be staged on June 28.

Fr. Amadeo Alvero, one of the assisting priests of  Santo Niño Parish, said the church had no direct control over the decision of the city and the provincial governments to stage the two festivals.

“We just hope and pray that the festivals will become a true and genuine worship to our heavenly patron, the Señor Santo Niño de Tacloban. And may the celebration of festivals be frugal and prudent considering that there are  people still living in tents and are yet to find jobs to sustain their families,” Alvero said.

Archbishop John Du will officiate the High Mass on June 30 at Santo Niño Church.