Tuesday, January 23, 2007 They didn’t know guidelines, says SWU group chief By Rene H. Martel Sun.Star Staff Reporter
“WE DID not know about the guidelines.”
So said Southwestern University (SWU) contingent director Al Evangelio after the school’s bet, Dyzsa Jagna, was stripped of her Sinulog Festival Queen crown.
“I was not aware that she should be part of the contingent. I thought it was a beauty contest. We didn’t intend to cheat,” said the Cebuano scriptwriter-director.
He said the Sinulog Foundation Inc. called him “at the 11th hour,” asking him to field a candidate for the contest.
That explained why Jagna was the only one among 16 participants who failed to join the photo shoot.
Evangelio said they only decided to let Jagna join the contest because they wanted to cooperate with organizers.
“Wala mi sultii (We weren’t told) that she has to be the lead dancer of the contingent. They did not send me a set of guidelines,” he said.
Evangelio said he thought it was a beauty contest, so he naturally picked SWU’s best bet.
But Eli Manlangit, Bayawan, Negros Occidental’s Tawo-tawo Festival artistic director, said they received a complete set of guidelines of the different categories, including the festival queen search, from the Sinulog foundation before the grand parade.
Sun.Star Cebu chanced upon him yesterday while he was getting a certification from the foundation’s office.
Vince Escario, festival queen organizing committee overall chairman, also said that right after Jagna was proclaimed winner last Saturday night, she was told to bring the queen’s arc for the grand parade the next day.
And Jagna, he said, showed up at the Cebu City Sports Center with her back-up dancers, gown and make-up artist from Danao City.
She was just waiting for Evangelio to call and tell her what to do. But he never did.
The SWU contingent performed on the grandstand without Jagna, which photographers, reporters and the judges noticed.
According to the guidelines, the festival queen must be the lead dancer of her contingent during the grand parade.
Evangelio said Jagna was naturally embarrassed and hurt by the incident. She even declined to take his calls, he said.
Last Sunday night, Escario announced that Jagna will lose her crown because she did not join the parade.
According to a TV Patrol Cebu report yesterday, Evangelio was apprehensive that Jagna will just disturb the presentation, as she was never a member of the contingent.
Painful
Evangelio merely picked her to represent the school for the Sinulog Festival Queen contest.
Escario said that although it was a “painful decision” for them to make, they had to impose the rules and give the crown to Eastern Samar Karasikas Performing Arts Guild’s Rosjane (not Rose Jane as earlier reported) Tiunayan.
Tiunayan, for her part, said the recent development came as a “pleasant surprise.”
She said she was already happy being first runner-up.
“(But) to be the festival queen is much better,” she admitted.
Tiunayan was crowned during the Sinulog 2007 awarding ceremony yesterday.
