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BAGUIO
CITY—The searing heat of the sun Saturday did not drive
away crowds from watching the vibrant street dance of
the 13th Flower Festival or Panagbenga (Kankanaey term
for season of blossoming) on the city’s main streets.
Neither did cold winds and a drizzly weather later douse
the grandeur of the famous floral float parade.
Thirty-eight groups from the 13 school districts of the
city competed in a street dance. Colors from the coolest
hues of water to the most vivid tones of fire moved,
jumped, circled and danced on the streets all morning to
the delight of thousands of spectators Saturday
following an always-awaited Philippine Military Academy
Brass Band performance. The costumes and dances ranged
from ethnically inspired to Mardi Gras touches
in the most creative use of indigenous or ordinary
material transformed into startling designs of flowers,
butterflies and nature-inspired motifs.
Children
were back in the parade, a sensitive issue that hounded
the organizers of past festivals due to the fatigue
children experienced under the afternoon sun. The issue
reached infamy when heavy rain poured during one of the
past street dances and children drenched in the rain
were allowed to dance to the finish. This year’s
festival brought the delightful children’s drum and lyre
presence in a parade safely scheduled in the
morning—when the sun is milder and with rains normally
coming in the afternoon.
This
year’s float parade boasts of the most number of entries
in creations. At least 19 competing and 14 noncompeting
floats displayed little houses, forests scenes, giant
butterflies and birds, cakes, giant flowers were created
from everlasting flowers, mums, lilies, orchids and
other organic material such as wood shavings, bamboos,
reed grass sticks. Like paintings done with flowers,
every float wowed the street audience, but the floats
that carried celebrities were most cheered. ABS-CBN and
GMA carried their stars: Jomari Yllana and his female
costars stood atop the ABS-CBN float inscribed, using
thousands of white mums to form the letters, “One
Family, One Network, One World” on a competing float;
and Iza Calzado and company riding the noncompeting GMA
float.
Origins
in 1995
It all
started in 1995 when Atty. Damaso Bangaoet,
then-chairman of the Camp John Hay Development Corp. (CJHDevCo),
put into work a wish to put back the city on the map as
a premier tourist destination. Inspired by the sidewalk
cafes of European cities and the flower parades of other
countries, Bangaoet also thought it was time to draw the
city out of its somber mood after the 1990 killer
earthquake into a festive, colorful and enterprising
city. Bangaoet headed the festival for the next seven
years, drawing an increasing number of tourists to watch
the explosion of floral colors every year. At the height
of its success, the city took over its operation—which
led to political bickerings, defeating the spirit of
community in the holding of the festival. It was
returned to the hands of the private sector and this
year, the Panagbenga was handled by the Hotel and
Restaurant Association of Baguio.
Panagbenga has brought back the city as a preferred
destination falling under the tourism masterplan to
spread out the tourist activities throughout the year
and not just as a summer capital. February was always a
dead month for the city, thus the scheduling of the
Panagbenga tradition. It has helped the hotel and
restaurant and the trickle-down industry survive leaner
rainy months, with every tourist spending an estimate of
P2,500/day.
The
Panagbenga has also created a blossoming cutflower
industry for La Trinidad, Benguet, where farmers are
concentrated in barangays Bahong, Tawang, Bineng and
Alno. Farmers now export flowers to Singapore, Japan,
the US, Korea, the Netherlands, Portugal and Canada.
From
1995 to 1999, reports from the Department of Agriculture
placed the total export of fresh flowers to the USA at
430 metric tons annual, with cost value at $413, 240.
The Netherlands from 1995 to 1999 imported 22 metric
tons of dried flowers. Now Benguet is known as the
Flower Capital of the Philippines. |
