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Thursday, August 31, 2006
Benjo: Private sector may host fiesta 2007
By Stephen Capillas
WITH Wednesday's conclusion of the 2006 city fiesta Councilor Jose Benjamin Benaldo said it may now be the private sector's turn to host the annual activity.
In talks with Sun.Star, Benaldo, this year's fiesta executive committee chairman, said he was receptive to sentiments voiced by businessman Ruben Vegafria who had pushed for private sector management of the city fiesta.
"In fact I nominated him to chair the ways and means committee that would entice private sector involvement in this year's fiesta," Benaldo said, adding that he and the committee only had six weeks to undertake preparations for the fiesta.
Earlier Vegafria, president of the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation Inc. (Oro Chamber), voiced his lament over the short time alloted by City Hall for the fiesta preparations.
He said this is not the experience with other cities like Cebu, which had its Sinulog Foundation to prepare for its famous fiesta or Davao City, which also has its foundation for the Kadayawan festival.
He then pointed out the need to create an events management bureau that would spearhead in coordination with City Government officials the preparations for the fiesta, including sponsorships for the activity.
"The chairman of the whole fiesta committee would be a figurehead, while the brunt of the groundwork would already be done by this bureau or committee at least one year in advance so by the time the fiesta arrives, everything is already prepared and accounting of funds would be done," Vegafria explained.
Vegafria explained that what happens is that City Hall takes valuable time selecting local officials that would chair the fiesta executive committee.
"Compared to the Kadayawan festival in which the private sector secured large budgets from sponsors, all we received were small compared to them. Remember fiestas are a venue for them to maximize the advertisement of their products," Vegafria said.
Mayor Vicente Emano earlier reiterated that the celebration of the city fiesta would be kept simple in order to defray expenses and not place any burden on the city's business establishments.
Later Benaldo explained that he may pass a proposed ordinance co-authored by six other councilors that would turn over the planning, management and conduct of the fiesta celebration activities to the private sector.
"We will make this proposal to Mayor Vicente Emano and in fact we'll propose to name the fiesta as 'Tsada Cagayan' to convey to others in the country and the world that the city is going global in terms of its (tourism potential) and its economic progress," Benaldo said.
However, Vegafria told Sun.Star in a phone interview that he was open to the idea of focusing the Cagayan de Oro fiesta's theme, motif and image on the Lambagohan or river festival.
He pointed out that festivals have their motifs, themes, and image associated with and unique to the areas celebrating them that also makes for easy recall among domestic and foreign tourists.
"Sinulog has its Sto. Niño, Kadayawan festival has its native motif, the MassKara Festival in Bacolod has masks, even the Kaamulan festival in Bukidnon has its lumad theme. So why not name the Cagayan de Oro fiesta as Lambagohan in honor of the Cagayan de Oro river which is now being used as a tourist attraction and an income earner for enterprises like the river taxi and river restaurant?" he said.
(August 31, 2006 issue)
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