Baguio ends Panagbenga hiatus

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said that Panagbenga 2022 will kick off the revival of tourism in the city as the pandemic has hit its residents very hard in the past years

BAGUIO CITY — Finally, after two years, Baguio City residents on Sunday were able to listen to the Panagbenga Hym during the holding of a toned-down Baguio Flower Festival at the Melvin Jones Grandstand.

Former mayor Mauricio Domogan said that after a Covid-19-induced hiatus in 2020 and 2021, the Panagbenga Festival has been resumed to wide acclaim even as the country cautiously eases virus community restrictions.

We manifest once again that we, as one people, can always take the higher road of teamwork, cooperation, collaboration and great sacrifice to prove at home and even the outside world our never-say die spirit.

Domogan, the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. chairperson, said the cooperation, sacrifices and determination of the residents of the Summer Capital of the Philippines have paid off with the resumption of the festival started in 1996.

He honored the brains behind the festival, namely Atty. Damaso Bangaoet and Dr. Macario Fronda, the latter the composer of the Panagbenga Hym.

“We manifest once again that we, as one people, can always take the higher road of teamwork, cooperation, collaboration and great sacrifice to prove at home and even the outside world our never-say die spirit,” Domogan said.

Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said that Panagbenga 2022 will kick off the revival of tourism in the city as the pandemic has hit its residents very hard in the past years. He said the festival ushers in a “season of hope.”

Originally, the Panagbenga was launched as early as November with the main activities like the Grand Street Dancing and Float Parade happening in February.

This year’s Panagbenga, however, was still without the street dancing and float parade.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ALFONSO PADILLA FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE @tribunephl_al NeveronSunday?Eat your heart out, Connie Francis. Vice President Leni Robredo and Kiko Pangilinan hold a caravan along the Tikling Rotonda in Taytay, Rizal to prop their respective presidential and vice-presidential bids. There’s no resting for all the candidates with the May elections just around the corner.