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TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — A cultural festival that was created by former first lady Imelda Marcos is set to be revived by his nephew, Mayor Alfred Romualdez, and make it one of the highlights of this year's city fiesta.
City tourism officer Jake Ligan revealed that the "Sangyaw Festival" would be revived in June and would hopefully bring tourists into the city.
Ms. Marcos, a native of Leyte, organized the "Sangyaw Festival," (which means to herald news) during the rule of her late husband, former president Ferdinand Marcos. It was held every 29th of June or a day before the city fiesta of Tacloban.
Contingents coming from the different provinces and cities in the country joined in the festivities.
But when the Marcoses were booted out of Malacañang in 1986, the festival was stopped. Instead, a non-government organization organized the Pintados Festival, which is now recognized by the Department of Tourism.
Organizers earlier announced that with the decision of Mayor Romualdez to revive the festival organized by his aunt, the Pintados Festival would be canceled.
But they will continue to stage the Miss Pintados, a beauty search that is one of the fund-raising activities of the Pintados Foundation Inc.
Ligan acknowledged that the Pintados Festival helped in making the city known to tourists, especially from those coming from other regions.
Bernardita Valenzuela, staff of the mayor, said that Romualdez decided to revive the Sangyaw Festival due to "historical reasons" which she did not elaborate.
"But generally, the mayor wants to get involved with the fiesta celebration unlike previous city mayors. The (Pintados) Festival was not organized by the city government but by an NGO," she said.
"The fiesta is supposed to be the birthday of Tacloban so it is just right for the city government to get involved," said Valenzuela.
Valenzuela also helped organized the first Sinulog Festival of Cebu in 1980 while she was in the staff of then Cebu City mayor Florencio Solon. /Inquirer
