THE day after the Sinulog grand parade was the presentation of winners in a special event held Monday, Jan. 20, 2020, at the Cebu City Sports Center.
Some of the winners did a repeat performance during the presentation of awards. Winners are the Sinanduloy Cultural Troupe of Tangub City, Misamis Occidental that won first prize in the Sinulog-based category and in the street dancing competition, and Lumad Basakanon of Barangay Basak San Nicolas, Cebu City, that won the top prize in the free interpretation category.
The awarding marks the closure of the secular part of the celebration of Sinulog 2020. The religious part will end this Friday, Jan. 24, with the Hubo rite or the changing of the vestment and regalia of the image of the Señor Sto. Niño, in preparation for next year’s feast.
Tuesday, marks the first day of the preparations for next year’s secular celebration. Some might say it’s too early or that organizers still have to recover from sleepless nights and the days of working hard and fighting fires but they should take the cue from Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella who said something like the work for tomorrow begins today.
The days prior to last weekend were hectic for organizers and their chosen marketing arm because of conflicts in priorities and what appears to be unclear accountability over decisions made.
Just days before the grand parade, media organizations, including SunStar, were told of the exclusive live streaming agreement between the Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI) and cable channel MyTV. Labella had to step in to remove that exclusivity and open live video coverage of the grand parade to local and national television and to the public in general who, otherwise, could not do their own Facebook Live of the presentations without the permission of MyTV. At least that’s what the contract said.
But Labella came in, cleared things up. The mayor admitted he didn’t know of that exclusivity agreement.
There were other exclusivity deals entered into by the SFI which were questioned and which also required Labella’s entry into the picture.
These incidents raised questions about who calls the shots in SFI, who is accountable, what are the priorities and why the mayor or vice mayor didn’t know about these exclusive agreements.
Labella recognized the situation and called for guidelines on sponsorships and solicitations done by the SFI or its marketing arm. This is to avoid conflicts that arose in this year’s Sinulog preparations, he added.
The mayor said both the SFI and the new creation, the Sinulog Governing Board, have to assess what happened and come up with ways to ensure those difficulties are resolved.
The morning-after scenario is not about the tons of garbage collected along the parade route or from the overnight partying on the streets, or the drunk revelers who could not find their way home. It’s about waking up fresh from the success, and failures, and identifying ways to improve the next.