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Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Farmers confused, bat for flowerfest unity
By Jane Cadalig
BENGUET Board Member Aloysius Kato said Tuesday even cutflower growers in the province are now confused whether or not to supply Baguio City with flowers to be used in the upcoming Panagbenga celebration.
Kato said there might also come a time when the city would be hard up looking for flowers to be used in the crowd-drawing tourism undertaking. If the dilemma on the management of the festivity continues, he said cutflower producers in Benguet might stop propagating flowers that would be supplied to Baguio.
He said farmers might no longer consider Panagbenga in the cultivation of cutflowers. "There are only two events that our cutflower growers consider in the cultivation of their plants - All Saints' Day and the Panagbenga festival. But with what is happening right now, they might no longer include the flower festival in the scheduling or timing of their cutflower propagation," he said.
He added that farmers are now confused as to when they would exactly harvest their flowers because of the absence of a unified schedule of Panagbenga activities, brought about by the presence of two groups wanting to manage the affair - the Baguio Panagbenga Flower Festival Association (BPFFA) endorsed by Mayor Braulio Yaranon and the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation (BFFF) supported by Baguio City Representative Mauricio Domogan and led by flower festival founder Damaso Bangaoet Jr.
The BPFFA already published its schedule of activities but the BFFF has yet to finalize its own calendar.
"We do not want, as much as possible to, (come into the picture) because this problem concerns the city. But we can not also afford to remain (indifferent) because it is now affecting our constituents in Benguet as far as the economy is concerned," Kato said.
As a consequence of the failure of the two groups to come up with a unified activity for the 11th Panagbenga festival, the board member said some farmers might be harvesting their cutflowers either prematurely or late, which means economic loss on their part.
Majority of the cutflowers used to decorate the floats that are paraded down the city's main thoroughfares as the highlight of the celebration are grown in Benguet.
Kato said farmers are now apprehensive because by the time they harvest their flowers to be used for the floral floats, these are already overblown.
There were also requests from cutflower producers to appeal for unity among the city officials and other stakeholders so that only one festival would be celebrated.
But Kato said it would be useless doing it. "If the appeal of the constituents in Baguio was not heard, how much more if we (in Benguet) are the ones asking?" he said.
(January 18, 2006 issue)
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