Politicians take advantage of Panagbenga crowd

BAGUIO CITY—Candidates gunning for national positions in the coming May elections took advantage of the multitude of tourists who flocked to Baguio City on Saturday for the street dancing parade, one of the biggest crowd-drawers of this year’s Flower Festival celebration, more widely known as Panagbenga. Reelectionist senators Manuel “Lito" Lapid and Ramon “Bong" Revilla Jr. toured the city’s main thoroughfares, giving away shirts and paper fans to the massive crowd that gathered for Saturday morning’s parade.

Since this year’s festival fell within the campaign period, Panagbenga organizer Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. (BFFFI) earlier issued its policy statement that prohibits political personalities—except for Baguio’s incumbent local officials—from participating in the grand street parade. “The challenge to the organizers [of this year’s festival] is discouraging politicos from campaigning during the event," BFFFI Executive Committee Chairman Anthony de Leon said in an earlier interview with GMANews.TV. De Leon pointed out, however, that Lapid and Revilla’s presence later in the afternoon was not among those banned by organizers. “We are fine with the campaigning as long as it was not done during the parade," De Leon explained in a separate interview on Saturday. Politicians are also prohibited from joining Sunday’s float parade, which is expected to showcase over 30 giant floats made entirely of flowers. Aside from Lapid and Revilla, supporters of Ang Kapatiran Party also handed out campaign leaflets to tourists along Session Road, including face masks of its standard bearer Olongapo City councilor John Carlos “JC" de los Reyes. Pocket calendars of Bagumbayan frontrunners Senator Richard Gordon and his running mate Bayani Fernando were also distributed. Lakas-Kampi-CMD’s vice presidential bet Edu Manzano’s own campaign team also drove around the city distributing pocket calendars and button pins. Also spotted working the crowds were campaign teams of party-list groups Alyansa ng Media at Showbiz (AMS), Yes, and Gabriela, whose most prominent member Rep. Liza Maza is seeking a senatorial seat as a guest candidate in the NP ticket. The earlier street dance parade, which drew an estimated one million tourists according to De Leon, featured 22 groups from the elementary, secondary, and collegiate levels in Baguio’s schools clad in colorful costumes and native Igorot garb. Panagbenga, which means “season of blooming," is now on its 15th year. –JV, GMANews.TV