Saturday, February 26, 2005
Panagbenga street dancing on
Rimaliza Opiña

ALL is set for the holding of the "Flower Power" street dancing parade starting at 2 o'clock this afternoon.

Tourism Officer Benedicto Alhambra told Sun.Star that last minute details have been ironed-out. Organizers are praying that no one will sabotage one of Panagbenga's crowd-drawer events.

Security measures have already been intensified following the series of bombings that took place in Davao, General Santos and Makati on Valentine's Day.

City police director Isagani Nerez earlier reported that around 700 personnel of the BCPO have been deployed to ensure the safety of the Panagbenga spectators.

Military reservists, volunteers as well as additional police force from the PNP regional office in Camp Bado, Dangwa will also augment the needed personnel for this afternoon and tomorrow's affair.

The route for this year's parade will start at Session Road down Magsaysay Avenue then Harrison Road, ending at Burnham Park Athletic Bowl. Tomorrow's parade of floats will also take the same route.

Parade starts at 2PM. Assembly time is at 12:30NN at the Session Road extension.

Mayor Braulio Yaranon, meanwhile, suspended the number coding scheme for privately-owned vehicles to give access to residents and visitors going to and from the various features of the ongoing Baguio Flower Festival.

He also suspended classes in all levels today to enable students to witness the street parade and dancing competitions.

In an Administrative Order, Yaranon lifted the ban on private vehicles from entering the central business district on Feb. 26, 27 and 28 as well as on March 1-4. The ban, however, stays in effect for public vehicles.

"There is a need to allow our residents and visitors alike to have access and mobility in and around the city for them to enjoy the events of the festivities. Visit places of tourist interest and avail of urban services in the city," the AO stressed.

Patterned after that of Metro Manila, the city's number coding scheme was adopted through an ordinance passed by the City Council in 2003 as a means to ease the daily traffic congestion within the CBD.

As provided for in the ordinance, vehicles with plate numbers ending in 1 and 2 are covered by the ban on Mondays, 3 and 4 on Tuesdays, 5 and 6 on Wednesdays, 7 and 8 and Thursdays and 9 and 0 on Fridays.

Saturday, February 26, 2005
Mr. Panagbenga muscle war tonight

BAGUIO City declares its bid anew as the muscle capital of the north when it holds for the fourth time the Mr. Panagbenga Bodybuilding championship at the Baguio Convention tonight at 6 o'clock.

Expect a blockbuster as close to a hundred competitors from the country's best fitness gyms meet in a sizzling muscular sideshow to this year's edition of the flower festival.

Anthony Manjares of Manila's Slimmers World will be in for a rough and rugged battle this time as a tough field of ironmen in five weight divisions will be expected to fight and dislodge him as defending champion.

The contest, designated as a special event of the 10th Panagbenga, offers a champion's purse of P10,000 plus a specially-crafted home-made giant trophy.

The muscle competition will group the contestants in five weight classes - novice, flyweight, bantamweight, lightweight and open - with the winner in each division advancing to the winner-take-all finals to determine the overall champion.

Backed by the Flower Festival executive committee, the contest is organized by one time Mr. Phil. national winner Troy Mencio, chairman of the United Bodybuilders of Northern Luzon, and veteran Jas Taguiling, fitness gym director of the University of Baguio and concurrent Cordillera regional head of the Phil. Bodybuilding Federation.

Local bets Paolo Vergara, Cesar Lokines and reigning Mr. Baguio Nick Domalsin Jr., are now in top form and their handlers predict they will be tough nuts to crack in the annual spectacle that has caught the attention of Manila's big names in the sport.

"We expect the event to be successful since many contestants have expressed their intention to join," Taguiling said.(Delmar Cariño)

Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Much to see, experience @ BFF Flower Expression

THERE is more to do at the "Flower Expression" at Burnham Park between the Children’s Park and the Baguio Orchidarium. You will see a bit of Japan, China and even Kathmandu in some of the booths. The landscape gardens are still a joy to behold, as they were during the past Panagbengas. Winner of the landscape garden category, the Pagsolingan Garden Center in San Fabian, Pangasinan, did not use much props like the others and instead used the plants to speak for themselves. Its agave and dendro, which are part of the exhibit, also won individual prizes. Other landscape gardens were also as impressive. Internationally-famous painter Ben Cabrera Jr. showed off his bonsai collection at the FX. His decades-old bonsai were as graceful as his paintings, and some say, as equally expensive. Lectures on bonsai-making and other gardening tips are being presented in the afternoons till the remainder of Panagbenga 2005.

But not only the horticulture exhibit are the must-see in the area. There is also a booth of huge landscape fountains which looked like an area of Halsema Highway during a particularly strong typhoon. But in this atmosphere, it will only lull you to a blissful sleep. The fountains sell from P2,000 to P5,000. There is also a booth where huge Chinese ceramics are being sold. Joseph Huang, a resident here for the past 30 years, said that the urns, some selling as much as P5,000 amd some as tall as five feet, were imported from China. He and his partners are also selling genuine porcelain jars and figurines. He is also selling Chinese zodiac mugs and porcelain chopsticks.

Namaste Nepal, on the other hand, sells Nepalese and Tibetan crafts. Alice Shakya, a Baguio girl who married a Nepalese artist trader, is selling pashmina scarves, prayer wheels, Nepalese woodcarvings, Lapsi pickles, Indian cotton curtains, teas, incenses and bangles. Her Tibetan woolen carpet, guaranteed to last for a lifetime and are hand-woven and vegetable-dyed, are a bargain at P7,000, if you know your carpets. There are also handwoven paper and lamps. As far as we know, this is the only Nepalese shop in the country. But then again, the FX is a once-in-a-blue-moon experience and a good post-Valentine dating area where you can smell the flowers away from the Panagbenga crowd.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Only 2 Baguio hotels report full bookings
Rimaliza Opiña

AS PANAGBENGA goes full steam this week, two of the biggest hotels in Baguio City are now fully booked.

Inns, lodges, and smaller hotels, however, still have several rooms to spare for visitors.

That, as Tourism Secretary Ace Durano yesterday turned over P1 million in promotional fund to the Baguio Tourism Council and the Benguet Tourism Council.

Despite government and tourism sectors’ assurances of Baguio City being free of meningococcemia, the number of visitors for the Panagbenga is still low, an industry official said.

Jeanine Chan, president of the Baguio Association of Hotels and Inns, told Sun.Star yesterday that "only trickles" of visitors have billeted or reserved rooms in these establishments.

The group remains hopeful, however, that more visitors will arrive this week.

According to reports, majority of the guests at the Camp John Hay Manor and the Baguio Country Club are alumni of the Philippine Military Academy.

In general, tourist arrivals in the city have reached 30 percent for the past two weeks, said Tourism Regional Director Purificacion Molintas.

In a press conference yesterday at the Baguio Country Club, Secretary Durano said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo identified Baguio and Benguet as priority areas for the promotion of tourism especially in Northern Luzon.

He said the city should be promoted not only during special events such as the Panagbenga and the PMA alumni homecoming, but year-round.

"Baguio and Benguet should be tourist destinations for all seasons," Durano said.

Meanwhile, BTC chair Bong Tabora said CJH and BCC have brought in, at their own expense, public relations groups to sell not only their establishments but also Baguio.

Tabora said the members of the PR group are composed mostly of writers working for international newspapers and magazines.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Panagbenga funds audited: Vergara
Ernie N. Olson Jr.

FORMER mayor Bernardo Vergara described Saturday as "very serious but unsubstantiated" the allegation of Mayor Braulio Yaranon that funds of the Panagbenga 2003 and 2004 "were not audited."

In an open letter, Vergara said that in the last two celebrations of the Baguio Flower Festival (BFF), income was "properly reported out" by the ways and means committee for 2003 and 2004.

He said the festival management posted an income of about P2.32 million, which is deposited at the Philippine National Bank.

Transactions involving the money can only be made with authority from the board of trustees of the BFF Foundation, he said.

Vergara said he "felt compelled" to air his side to a story in Midland Courier that quoted Yaranon as having said that the festival funds in 2003 and 2004 had not been audited. Vergara, as mayor then, was chairman of the BFF.

The former mayor said Yaranon’s allegation was "very serious but unsubstantiated" and is meant "to continue flagellating the past administration for the incumbent’s present mistakes."

"All festival funds in my incumbency were audited and properly accounted for," he stressed.

He said a report of independent auditors signed by Christopher Ismael will bear him out of the allegation.

He described Ismael as a Baguio-based certified public accountant accredited with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Excerpts of Vergara’s letter said:

"(They) could have been assured that we had the appropriate authority in exercising management responsibility over the Panagbenga 2003 and 2004. All our policies and actions emanated from the expressed authority vested by the BFF Foundation. Acting in behalf of the Foundation, no less than its chairman, Atty. Damaso Bangaoet Jr., publicly turned over the festival management to the city government of Baguio in August 2002. The turnover to the city is pursuant to a governing City Council resolution that my successor voted for as a city councilor....

"I need not cite the stinking uncollected garbage, the conflicting anti-meningo policies, the debilitating traffic mess, the deteriorating parks and playgrounds, the filthy city market and the anti-business actions. But all these infirmities in governance seem to have been ignored...the truth was ignored."

Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Mayor vows full disclosure of flower festival funding

MAYOR Braulio Yaranon vowed to have the financial report on the ongoing Baguio Flower Festival released to the public before the end of March in keeping with his full disclosure policy.

"We will have the report posted here at City Hall, at the Baguio Convention Center and make the same available less than a month after the festival," Yaranon said yesterday after the regular Monday flag raising ceremony infront of the city's main building.

Yaranon reiterated that no government funds are being and will be used for the 10th edition of the crowd-drawing festival dubbed Panagbenga (a native term for a season of blooming) that celebrates Baguio's distinction as a city of flowers.

The city earlier contracted Publicis, an advertising agency, to handle promotions for the month-long festival and serve as the conduit for accepting commercial ads, with 70 percent of the proceeds to be spent for the festival and the remaining 30 percent going to the firm.

The mayor earlier expressed optimism that enough funds will be raised to cover the budgets for the various features of the special events project, adding that extra proceeds will be realized for next year's celebration.

Panagbenga will peak with the "flower-power" parade and street dancing competitions this coming Saturday and the parade of floats the following day. Both will wind up at the city athletic bowl where fireworks displays are scheduled for the two week-end evenings.

Simultaneously on Feb. 26-27, the Baguio Association of Restaurants will dish out the third serving of "Shake Baguio Shake", a display of the fruit shakes and strawberry products at the Malcolm Square.

A sidebar of the festivity at the square will be the raffle draw on Sunday afternoon of the Baguio Regreening Movement, with a brand new car as the top prize. Proceeds from the draw will fund the movement's environmental programs.

Golf enthusiasts will also take to the Camp John Hay fairways on Feb. 25 for the festival golf tournament.

Baguio's children, who were the centerpiece of previous stagings, will have their workshops on culture and the arts on Feb. 28 to March 2, topped by field dancing and drum and lyre competitions, also at the athletic bowl.

The focus shifts to the Wright Park bridle path with the "Pony Boys' Day" on March 5, featuring local horse

breeders and tenders in their graditional gymkhana, or races and games on horseback. The festival ends on March 6 with an awards program featuring dance and cheering competitions at the athletic bowl before the final fireworks display.(Ramon Dacawi)

Sunday, February 22, 2004
Downpour fail to dampen street dancing parade

THE show must go on, decided young street dancers and musicians who still participated in Saturday's Panagbenga Baguio Flower Festival street dancing parade despite the downpour.

It was the first time heavy rains accompanied the Panagbenga’s grand street parade since the start of the annual festivity nine years ago. The downpour lasted about four hours.

The downpour, which started 30 minutes before the street dancing parade, drenched thousands of participants, majority of whom are elementary and high school students from various schools in the city.

Officials from the Baguio Health Department had expressed concern over the health of the participants who braved the rain.

Aside from thousands of street dancers, thousands of spectators-- both local and foreigners--stayed to witness the street dancing parade while some decided to go home amid heavy traffic outside the Baguio's central business district area where the event was held.

Close to half million visitors came to Baguio to witness the activity, city tourism officials said.

This year, street dancing troupes and drum and lyre corps from 12 elementary schools, seven high schools, eight colleges and universities, as well as 16 others in the open category joined this Panagbenga main highlight.

Those that pitted dancing and musical skills against each other in the elementary category Saturday were contingents from the Doña Aurora H. Bueno Elementary School, Doña Aurora Elementary School, Baguio Central School, Mabini Elementary School, Quezon Elementary School, Rizal Elementary School, the Special Education or SPED Center, St. Louis University Laboratory Elementary School, Josefa Cariño Elementary School, Loakan Elementary School, Aguinaldo Elementary School and Magsaysay Elementary School.

In the high school category, those who qualified to participate in Saturday’s contest were students from the Baguio City National High School Main third year level, Irisan National High School, St. Louis University Laboratory High School, Pines City National High School Pinsao Annex, the BCNHS Main fourth year level, the PCNHS Main and the PCNHS Bonifacio Annex.

In the tertiary or college category, joining in yesterday were participants from the Philippine Women’s University, Pines City College, AMA Computer Learning Center, Baguio Colleges Foundation University, University of Baguio, Data Center College of the Philippines, St. Louis University and Baguio Central University.

Also joining the open category then were street dancing groups from the BCU-BIMAAK, SLU Fusion, Central Guisad barangay, Jollibee Foods Corporation, the Maritime School of SAn Fernando, La Trinidad valley, Abra High School, Greenwich Pizza Corporation with the Doña Nicasia Puyat Elementary School, Kalinga Professional & Students Association Baguio - Benguet chapter, Jadewell Parking Systems Corporation Ati-Atihan troupe, Northern Naguilian National High School, Lorma College, Baguio Korean Extension, McDonald’s Baguio, Galicay and Abante Caoayan from Ilocos Sur. Harley Palangchao

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Saturday, February 21, 2004
Street dancing, float parade kick off

BAGUIO gears up for throngs of tourists and spectators expected to flock the city to witness the street dancing and float parade, the centerpiece of the month-long Baguio Flower Festival Saturday and Sunday.

Mayor Bernardo Vergara said in the past years, the City will implement tighter peace and order measures for the security of residents and visitors who will witness the festivities which, for the past years, have been the biggest crowd-drawing events of the Panagbenga calendar.

As the main attraction of the festival, the opening parade will start at 2 p.m. and turn the city's main streets into a riot of colors as residents of all ages take on costumes arrayed with the flowers in the street dancing competition.

Street dancing and parade participants will again be divided into four divisions. Each division will start marching from various points and will converge at the top of Session Road to Magsaysay Avenue, will turn left at the Y-shaped overpass, back to Magsaysay Avenue until the U-shaped overpass going to Harrison Road.

From there, the parade will turn down Abad Santos Drive to the Athletic Bowl where the presentation will be held.

Twelve schools will again vie in the elementary school category, while seven will compete in the high school and eight in the college levels. Sixteen groups will also compete in the open category, which will take long this year with the acceptance of entries from other places.

Spectators need not rush home after the street dancing show as the fireworks competition will immediately follow the ground contest at the Athletic Bowl.

On Sunday, 26 beautifully decorated floats will take over the main streets beginning at 9 a.m., winding up the at the football grounds for the drum and bugle corps competition. The float contest will be divided into two categories this year - the small and big floats.

Vergara said he expects the city police to mount a new special security and peace and order plan aimed not only to ensure the safety of the participants, guests, and visitors but also to work for smooth traffic flow during these activities.

Various volunteer and communication groups are expected to assist the city police force in the campaign.

Vergara earlier enjoined the cooperation of other sectors, particularly the transport and business groups catering to tourists here.

"Since you are the forefront of our tourism industry, we trust that you will treat our visitors with utmost courtesy and honesty as you mirror the image of our entire city," the mayor told businessman, vendors, and drivers.

He said abuses and illegal trade practices will be closely monitored and will not be tolerated by the city government, especially since the Panagbenga is an important event for the city.

Vergara said instead of pursuing selfish intentions, all sectors must work together to ensure the success of the event, which will redound the benefit of all.

He added that various Panagbenga committees have been coordinating with concerned agencies to tackle other festival requirements like accommodation, water and power supply.

Now in its ninth year, the Panagbenga celebration began here last February 1 featuring 23 events including four new activities that run in various venues, including session road, the city's main street , Camp John Hay and historic Burnham Park until Feb. 29.

The Feb. 1 opening ceremonies at the city athletic bowl served as the pre-judging of all group contestants in the street dancing and parade, with the top performers qualifying for the grand parade on Feb. 21.

That day, the 21-day market encounter was launched at the nearby Burnham Park where the whole football grounds showcases flower arrangement and landscaping competitions, floral and ethnic-designed products.

Landscape and floral competitions also opened in the barangays, schools, and business establishments, the winners of which will be honored during the awards ceremony at the closing program on Feb. 29.

Melvin Jones grounds was again awash with blooms depicting the theme of the festival under the carpet of flowers project also put on display beginning Feb. 1.

Fireworks display capped the opening day activities, which also lent a prelude to the fireworks display competition, a new activity, slated Saturday.

Last Feb. 7, the ninth Panagbenga Golf Fest opened and wound up the following day, Sunday at Camp John Hay and the Baguio Country Club.

The "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom" was also held last Feb. 7 when artists captured the concept of Panagbenga through floral paintings that are now displayed in strategic areas of the city.

Last Feb. 13, residents got a glimpse of the colorful and meaningful costumes donned by pupils from the various public and private elementary schools in the city during the first-ever Burnham Park Flowermania and children's day, the latest addition to the Panagbenga revelries.

On Feb. 14, the fluvial parade and competition fired off at the Burnham Lake. Only on its second year, the parade featured boats lavishly decorated with flowers depicting the theme of the Panagbenga.

The following day, residents and tourists were again treated to a day with horses during the "Pony Boys Day" equestrian show featuring gymkhana or games on horse back events and races that re-live Baguio's formative years when horses were the native's means of transport.

On the same day, the 14-day flower fest arts and cultural show unfolded at the Malcolm Square, Botanical Garden and Sunshine Park.

The "Mr. Panagbenga" physique competition took centerstage last night, underscoring the city's contributions to body-building as a sport.

The Baguio Association of Restaurants (BAR) will also lend additional entertainment this weekend with its Shake-Baguio-Shake treat at the People's Park.

From Feb. 23-29, the main street will be closed to vehicles to allow thousands of revelers to promenade in the "Session Road in Bloom" feature.

Sidewalk cafes, flower-inspired trinkets and novelty products will be installed along the inclined stretch, with musicians dishing out instant concerts.

The Search for Flower Queen, which revived the Ms. Panagbenga tilt staged during the formative years of the festival, will take centerstage on Feb. 25 at SM City Baguio.

Another new activity dubbed "The Panagbenga Jeepney King Challenge" featuring the search for jeepneys with the most colorful rooftop design will kick off on Feb. 28 at Burnham Park.

The festival will close on Feb. 29 with the BFF National Half-Marathon which will end at the Athletic Bowl at 11 a.m.

At 1 p.m., the closing program will be held at the Athletic Bowl with which will be capped by another fireworks display. Aileen Refuerzo and Ramon Dacawi

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