DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Despite Martial law in the island of Mindanao, the annual celebration of the 33rd Kadayawan festival here which ended on Sunday, August 19 was successful.
“I can say that the event was a success since I can see that people are happy with our celebration,” Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said in a statement.
The city’s local chief executive thanked the people “who strived hard to produce a joyful and successful 33rd Kadayawan Festival as well as the people who came out of their houses and joined the festivity”.
During her speech at the Pamulak sa Kadayawan, Mayor Sara also thanked the 11 tribes of Davao who actively participated in the events including the private sectors in making the Kadayawan festival events successful.
Kadayawan Festival director Gatchi Gatchalian attributed the success of the festival because all events pushed through.
Gatchalian said that the number of local and foreign tourists for this year’s Kadayawan Festival exceed last year’s count. Though they are still going to verify the exact count of visitors, he said all hotels in the city were fully booked due to the in flock Kadayawan expectators.
“Our hotels and other business establishments are all fully booked even before the Kadayawan Festival. This means a lot of people are interested to witness our various events” Gatchalian said.
Kadayawan Social Media matrix has also way higher than last year, according to Gatchalian. He said this is because people were actively updating their social media accounts about Kadayawan events making the festival trending globally.
With the initial target budget of P44 million which the city government allocated P12 million for the prizes and the food of the security personnel, Gatchalian said that a total of P22 million in cash and another P13 million in kinds had been raised by the private sector.
He also added that in the future they would present the breakdown of expenses of this year’s Kadayawan Festival.
But Gatchalian also said that a lot of things can still be done for next year’s Kadayawan Festival. He said that if given a chance to still direct the celebration next year, he will ensure the improvement of coordination between the security personnel, event organizers, and coordinators as well as the journalists covering several events.
In Sunday’s Pamulak sa Kadayawan, the journalists were dismayed over the deployment of the security personnel in the area where they positioned.
But Gatchalia, on his part, said that they don’t know the security protocol being implemented by local authorities.
He then assured the media to engage in next year’s core group for proper coordination. He also added that they would look into consideration on how to improve media partnership.(davaotoday.com)
