By Dominic B. dela Cruz
Staff Reporter
PROVING THAT Laoag City can
hold its own in national competitions, the city’s contingent to the 2014 Aliwan
Festival took fourth place in the dance competition.
The event, held April 24-26,
2014 in Manila, was organized by the Manila Broadcasting Co. and Star City in
cooperation with the city governments of Manila and Pasay, the Cultural Center
of the Philippines and the National Parks Development Committee.
Competing with 15 other
groups from all over the country, the city’s Pamulinawen Festival entry shone
in the country’s grandest festival. This year’s event featured the best talents
from the country’s 16 regions in a showcase of cultural tourism highlighting
the Filipinos’ penchant for merrymaking in its colorful and grandiose
proportions.
Laoag mayor Chevylle V.
FariƱas congratulated all the students, parents, choreographers and all the
people who supported the city’s contingent.
Ms. FariƱas said it is a big
honor for the city to be in the top five as this is a national event.
She added that the Laoag
Pamulinawen Festival showcases the unique characteristics, traditions, hobbies,
and cultures of Ilocanos and parts of the presentation were shown during the
province-wide Tan-ok and Mini Tan-ok Festivals where Laoag emerged as champions.
Laoag strictly followed the
criteria that props in all the competitions shall focus on presentations that
best incorporate indigenous culture and folkloric traditions.
The Pamulinawen Festival
dancers used authentic cultural elements and the dance movements were enhanced
by live music and fully showcased with full color of the community represented.
This time, Laoag focused only
one entry which was the dance competition. The city forego competing in the
float competition since it has already won this multiple times.
Ms. FariƱas stressed that the
win was not simply about the prize but the honor and pride in promoting Laoag
as the northern tourism gateway to the Philippines.
The Laoag government spent
less than P1 million for the competition compared to other competitors which
they assessed have spent multi-million pesos for their presentations.
The top winners for the dance
competition received cash prizes of P1,000,000, P500,000, P250,000, P150,000,
and P100,000, aside from the P50,000.00 each for the top five.
While the Festival Queen
winners received cash prizes of P100,000, P50,000, and P10,000 for the Reyna ng
Aliwan, first runner-up and three second runners-up, respectively.
Winners for minor awards like
the Best in Festival Costume, Best in Evening Gown, Best in Swimsuit and Best
in Talent also received cash prizes of P5,000 each.
Comments
Post a Comment