GUINNESS ATTEMPT. Tens of thousands of Davaoenos attempt to break a word record for the most number of people singing the national anthem in one location at the Crocodile Park here on Saturday. (Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY – Two days before the national and local elections, the grounds inside the Crocodile Park here were swelling with people coming from various areas in the city, including neighboring provinces for an attempt to break the Guinness record of the most number of people singing the national anthem.
The counter stopped at exactly 5:00 pm, Saturday with the official count of people who made it inside the venue at 94,584.
It may be far from the targeted figure of 300,000 people singing the national anthem in one location, but Arnold Garbanzos, a Guinness consultant for the Duterte National Campaign Team said they are still awaiting the tally from other places for the category of simultaneous singing of the national anthem in different locations.
“I am still awaiting data from other areas on our attempt. Several cities sang with us like Panabo and Tagum,” Garbanzos told Davao Today in an email.
Other areas that participated include the cities of Bislig, Iligan, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos City and Iligan.
Garbanzos said there were 1,064 people who participated in Bislig.
The world record is currently owned by Bangladesh, where 254,537 people sang their national anthem at the National Parade Ground in Dhaka, Bangladesh on March 26, 2014.
But the gathering of thousands of people in Davao City was not only to try for the Guinness record as it coincided with the miting de avance of political candidates.
Young and old started boarding buses as early as 7:00 am in different locations to ferry them to the venue.
The technical crew interviewed by Davao Today said by 12:00 pm the number of people inside is at around 7,000.
“But the influx of people started after lunch,” said Jeffrey Ligutom, one of the crew.
Ligutom said thousands more were not able to enter the grounds by 5:00 pm because of the heavy traffic.
Support for Duterte
Violeta Retes, 79 said she prepared for the event the night before cooking camote and preparing their shirts.
Retes is a president of the senior citizens group in their community in Agdao district. By 1:00 pm her group is already at the Crocodile Park waiting for the official singing of the “Lupang Hinirang”.
But aside from that, Retes said they went there to support Presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
“I support Duterte because of his peace and order program,” she said.
Alicia Barangan, 71, also from Agdao said this is the first time that she saw a big number of people gathered in Davao.
She said the event showed that the people are united.
“Enjoy, murag nagkauyon tanan (I enjoy the event. It seems everyone are united),” she said.
The crowd did not break up after the group singing of the national anthem as many waited the LED monitors to light up and show the televised Duterte grand rally.
Christian Lloyd Espinoza from Assumption College of Davao said even if Davao City was not able to break the record it was still “a proud moment”.
“We didn’t break the record; tens of thousands were still stuck in the roads when we sang Lupang Hinirang in unison. But it was a proud moment,” he said.
“People went under time on their jobs and literally walked miles to get to the venue, that’s how you show your love, you fight for it,” Espinoza said.
He said voters should also bear the same nationalistic ideals when they choose for their candidates on Monday’s elections.(davaotoday.com)
