Panagbenga festival organizers eye P11-M budget

BAGUIO CITY: For this year’s Panagbenga spectacle, organizers are aiming for a P11-million funding to defray for expenses in the festivities.

As a glimpse of what’s in store for this year’s celebration, a colorful parade on Session Road was held on February 1 to point out that this year’s festival is something different as they aim to showcase more on flowers to support the flower industry in Baguio City and Benguet.

Grade and high school students from 14 schools showcased their drum and bugle routines as one of the main attraction to kickstart the Panagbenga Festival.

City Mayor Mauricio Domogan, Baguio Rep. Bernardo Vergara and 129 barangay officials joined in the colorful parade clad in flowery tshirts as they marched smiling along Session Road down to Athletic Bowl.

Anthony De Leon, Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. (BFFFI) executive committee chairman said they have pegged the budget at P7 million from sponsors this year, while the City Government is ex- pected to give a counterpart funding of P4 million.

De Leon said sponsorships trickle down slowly and is not enough to spend for expenses of the festival that has drawn crowds running into more than a million in past celebrations.

The counterpart budget came from the City Government and the Priority Development Assistance Fund of Representative Bernardo Vergara.

The mayor said the budget will be released to the executive committee as soon as the City Council confirms the budget.

This amount, however, according to the mayor, will pass through the normal audit process.

Other sources for the festival budget include earnings from the Session Road in Bloom and Market Encounter.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO THE spikes that hold tiger grass ( tambo) blooms go into the making of walis tambo, a common household cleaning implement throughout the country. Tiger grass spikes also went into the making of this triad of tigers that have graced a Panagbenga festival in the recent past.