SFI corrects error in Sinulog award
After careful review of the scores, the Sinulog Foundation Inc. recognized the candidate of Catbalogan City as winner of the Best in Festival Costume award in last January’s Sinulog Festival.
The award was given mistakenly to the festival queen of Daanbantayan town.
Jess Anthony Dela Cruz, program director of Sinulog 2018, said he went to Catbalogan, Samar to hand the award and P20,000 cash prize personally to Mary Faith Libres who was also the Sinulog Festival Queen first runner up.
“The event was under the management of Victor Hao Cuenco Productions. With respect to the contestant’s costumes, there were two categories involved namely Best in Sinulog Festival Costume and Best in Costume Design,” reads Dela Cruz March 8 letter to Catbalogan City.
Dela Cruz said the tabulation results revealed that Daanbantayan won Best in Costume Design while Catbalogan won Best in Sinulog Festival Costume.
However, Cuenco's production team reportedly failed to hand in the cue card for the Best in Sinulog Festival Costume, which was why only the Best in Costume Design was announced. The latter award was mistaken to be the Best in Costume award.
“Wala naka-prepare og cue card for Best in Festival Costume. Ang ilang naannounce is Best in Costume, which is Daanbantayan, maong wala na-announce pag-awarding. Pag-release sa mga prizes, na found out nga ang cheke naka-name sa Catbalogan as Best in Festival Costume,” Dela Cruz explained.
SFI itself extended its apology to Catbalogan for the incident.
Councilor David Tumulak, SFI Executive Committee chairman, said the foundation and the city government will improve procedures to ensure that the incident will not be repeated.
He said the incident serves as an “eye opener for the organizer.”
He said SFI investigated the incident after it received a letter from Catbalogan's tourism officer, Ador Hurtado, who asked for a review of the tabulation.
In his February 26 letter, Hurtado said the foundation should review the scores as these would have changed the major awards, making Catbalogan's candidate possibly win the Festival Queen title this year.
Dela Cruz said a careful review of the tabulation of scores revealed the same Festival Queen winner, Shaila Mae del Mar Rebortera of Talisay City.
Catbalogan Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan commended SFI and Dela Cruz for correcting the mistake and for recognizing the rightful winner.
“I would like to commend the one who's holding the Festival Queen for the courage to visit us and to personally hand the title and the prize to us,” she said.
Tan said the city is yet to decide whether or not to join the Sinulog Festival next year – not because of the incident – but because Catbalogan will participate in an international festival.
For his part, Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot said it should be the SFI that should explain the incident to the public.
“They should explain it to the people. Not me. Kung dunay mga questions, sila ang mopasabot sa mga tawo kung ngano man nga naabtan man og pila kabulan usa narectify,” he said.
Loot said the town will not file charges against SFI.
“Kami, dili na namo pagdak-on ang isyu. If that becomes an issue, we don't want a part in that kay makadismaya. Naa koy daghang atimanonon… dili lang ta moatiman anang mga butanga nga makadaot sad sa kredibilidad sa mga organizer,” he said.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña, for his part, said the rightful winner should be given due recognition.
“A very important element in the Sinulog is the integrity of the judging. Once it becomes… mogawas gyod nga naay tikas, who will participate?” he told reporters.