THE Estefania Elementary School and Mariano G. Medalla Integrated School were declared champions in the MassKara Street and Arena Dance Competition School Category held at the Bacolod public plaza on Saturday, October 26.
Estefania Elementary School also bagged three special awards as Best in Original Music, Choreography, and Concept, while Mariano G. Medalla Integrated School also won as Best in Original Music, Concept, and Choreography, as well as Best in Costume.
In the elementary category, Education and Training Center School-3 was the first runner-up and won the two special awards as Best in Mask and Costume.
Rodolfo A. Medel Sr. Elementary School was the second runner-up followed by Jose J. Gonzaga Elementary School as the third runner-up.
In the high school category, Luisa Medel National High School was the first runner-up and won the Best in Costume and Mask.
Angela Gonzaga National High School was the second runner-up followed by Domingo Lacson National High School as the third runner-up.
Each champion school received P150,000 in cash prize while first, second and third runners-up also received P100,000, P75,000, and P50,000 in cash prizes, respectively.
They also received trophies and for the special awards, winners received P10,000.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said this year, they increased the cash prizes from P85,000 in 2018 to P150,000 for the champion schools -- from P65,000 to P100,000 for the first runner-up, P45,000 to P75,000 for the second runner-up, and P35,000 to P50,000 for the third runner-up.
Leonardia said that this will be an incentive for the participants and that he requested festival director Eli Francis Tajanlangit and its committee to revise the prizes.
"It's very encouraging and inspiring, and I'm very optimistic that the MassKara will improve. Here we saw in the performances of the elementary and high school participants the future of MassKara. So we can already conclude that the future of MassKara is even much brighter," he added.
The mayor stressed that without the dancers and the choreographers, there is would be MassKara.
"I'm just amazed with how much time, effort, dedication and talents our constituents [put into their dance] considering that they're still young. But they already reached this, so I can see a very bright future for the MassKara," Leonardia said.
Allan Ellera, principal of Mariano G. Medalla Integrated School of Unit-4, said he was happy with the results of the competition.
"I'm very thankful for the sacrifices of our dancers, trainers as well as the schools in the Unit-4 who helped us get the championship," he said.