BARANGAY Dolores of the City of San Fernando will be taking a break from its four-year winning streak in the annual Giant Lantern Festival (GLF) or “Ligligan Parul” as it declined participation in the competition this year.
This was confirmed after the list of barangays participating in this year’s GLF was obtained by SunStar Pampanga. Barangay Dolores was not on the list. The annual fest is set on December 15.
Participating barangays include Cululut, Del Carmen, Del Pilar, San Jose, San Juan, San Nicolas, San Pedro, Sindalan, Sta. Lucia, Sto. Nino, and Telabastagan.
Giant Lantern Festival Foundation, Inc. (GLFFI) President Bong Mah also confirmed to Sun.Star Pampanga the non-participation of Barangay Dolores, saying: “We cannot force them to participate if they do not want to.”
“They actually have a reason in their non-participation. They told us that they do not want to lose. So I asked myself, does that mean the 11 other barangay contenders wanted to lose then?” Mah added in jest.
Meanwhile, City Tourism Officer Ching Pangilinan clarified that Barangay Dolores officials were given a letter of invitation to participate in the GLF 2018 annually organized by the city government and the GLFFI.
However, Barangay Dolores only wanted to participate in the exhibition stage and not as a contender in the competition proper, Pangilinan shared.
“There is actually no precedent in their suggestion that a hall of famer will not be allowed to participate in the competition proper of GLF, and only join for an exhibition so it was a common decision that they will not join and the committee accepted it,” she explained.
Pangilinan added that during the early years of the GLF, Del Pilar became the reigning champion for nine consecutive years but continued participating in the competition proper all throughout the “Ligligan Parul” years.
“Besides, this is a competition to showcase the talent of our lantern makers and the beauty of our parul, so we cannot really agree with their suggestion,” Pangilinan said.