THE scorching heat on Saturday morning, August 24, did not stop spectators from witnessing the Pamulak sa Kadayawan floral float parade.
For the first time, Pamulak, one of the event highlights of the Kadayawan Festival, was celebrated on a Saturday as it previously held on Sunday, a day after the Indak Indak sa Kadayawan street dance competition.
Three winners from different categories were declared grand champions.
Tahawrog Tribe Marilog District Davao City won the Lahi/Alternative Category, Davao Crocodile Park and Zoo won the Small/Gamay Category, and International Pharmaceutical Inc. won the Big/Dako Category. Winners took home P150,000, P400,000, and P800,000 respectively.
Other winners for the Lahi/Alternative Category are 1 Ganap Guardians - GBHFI (second place), Guardians Philippines Anti-Crime International, Inc. (third place), and Bangka by JMA Team and Gasa by JMA Team (consolation prize).
For the Small/Gamay Category, other winners were Palawan Pawnshop – Palawan Express Pera Padala Consolation (second place), Teleperformance (third place), and S&R Membership Shopping and Frontrow (consolation prize).
Other winners for the Big/Dako Category are Kisan Lu Lands and Development Inc. (second place), Cybercity Teleservice/iQor Company (third place), and Philippine Air Asia (consolation prize).
Meanwhile, Mugnapak Drumbeaters were declared the grand champion in the Pitik Kadayawan drumbeating competition. They took home P800,000.
Other Pitik winners were Davao Drumbeaters Association (second place), Caraga Drumbeaters (third place), Sta. Ana Performing Arts Guild (fourth place), and Kabilin Mindanao Cabantian (fifth place).
Vice Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, in his speech during the event, congratulated all the winners, also thanking the organizers and the security forces for making the Kadayawan festival “very successful”.
“And of course, to my fellow Dabawenyos who came out and participated in all the events, daghang salamat (thank you very much),” Duterte said.
City Tourism Operations Office (CTOO) head Generose Tecson and Pamulak sa Kadayawan and Pitik Kadayawan organizer Wadab Babao said they intended to end the float earlier before noon so that spectators could have their lunch break earlier.
Tecson also thanked the private sector for their active participation in the annual festival.
Meanwhile, Babao hopes that the city will have more contingents for these events next year.