By Joel B. Belinan
This time of year, Baguio City would have been crowded and lively as the main Street Dancing and the Float Parade weekend of the Panagbenga would have been yesterday and today (Saturday and Sunday). Many residents would have been cursing at the inconvenience brought about by the hundreds of thousands of visitors while the businesses would have been having their best time of the year. Bus passengers coming up would have endured hours of waiting in long lines of people at the bus stations in Manila and traffic in major highways leading to the city would have been at a turtle pace. Alas, that was before this pandemic struck everywhere, without any exemption. After skipping it for two years in a row (2020 and 2021) the city government and the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. (BFFI) decided to conduct a much toned-down version of the festival, and even delayed at that. Instead of having it in February, it will be in March this year.
It shall only feature the following events: Opening Ceremony on March 6, Landscaping/Gardening (formerly called market encounter) from March 6 to 27, Handog ng Paanagbenga sa Pamilya Baguio, Zumba, Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom, Kite Flying Competition and Cultural show on March 13, the Baguio leg of the 9th Ronda Cycling Race on March 13, Montanosa Film Festival on March 19 to 27, Open Dance competition, cultural category, and festival dance category on March 20, Session Rd. in Bloom on March 21 to 27, and the closing fireworks display on March 27.
The Panagbenga has been the opening salvo of several smaller festivals in the Cordillera. Among those well-known festivals in the region are the Etag Festival in Sagada, Mtn. Province in the first week of February, Ullalim Festival in Kalinga and the Sayam festival (Apayao province foundation day) in the middle of February, the Strawberry Festival of La Trinidad Benguet covering the whole month of March, the Kawayan Festival of Abra in March, the Begnas di Bauko on the second week of March, the Ayyoweng di Gangsa of Tadian in the 3 week of March, and the Lang-ay Festival during the first week of April, the Mataguan festival of Tabuk City in the middle of June, the Gotad ad Kiangan in the first week of September, and the Adivay Fest of Benguet in November.
During my active years as a journalist, we would be roaming around the Cordillera region continuously covering these festivities. The Panagbenga started in 1996 through the partnership of the City Government of Baguio (under the leadership of Mayor Mauricio Domogan) and the Camp John Hay Poro-Point Development Corporation (CJH-DevCo.) under Atty. Damaso Bangaoet ushered the sprouting like mushrooms of locally initiated festivals not only in the Cordillera but in the entire country. Take note that before the advent of our Flower festival, later on renamed Panagbenga, the only known festivals in the country are the religious-inspired ones like the Sinulog of Cebu, Ati-atihan of Aklan, the Dinagyang of Iloilo City, and the Mascara Festival of Bacolod City, among others. As it has been the leading festival, will it’s toned-down staging this year signal the coming back of the other festivities in the region? We are hoping that it will.**
A news item last week states that at least 35 covid-19 related suicide cases had been recorded in 2021 according to the City Health Services Office (CHSO). This only confirms what many experts have been saying that the government’s covid-19 response would have several collateral damage. As had also been explained in the NEDA’s audiovisual posts towards the fourth quarter of 2020, preventing covid-19 infection using lockdowns and other shotgun type restrictions would have a long-term impact on the populace.
While such measures may have minimized infections, they also resulted in thousands of casualties due to various economic and psychological reasons.
People may have died due to their failure to have their regular medical consultations with their Health professionals due to either lack of money as they had not been working as a result of lockdowns or purely due to hesitation to go to health facilities for fear of getting infected with the Covid-19 virus. On the mental aspect, the CHSO statement is clear evidence.
Trying to be optimistic, how I wish the sarcastic comments of many that politics and this election will reduce the covid-19 virus to an ordinary one would be true. And that after the May 9 elections we will all wake up to a new day with new hope. Like our hope that we will be electing much better leaders for our localities and leave this past two years plus like a bad dream. I do not have much hope at the national election though. I hope I am wrong.**
