The Dinagyang 2011

Hole of Justice

by Peter G. Jimenea

The pretty-bad sides of Dinagyang 2011

Iloilo Dinagyang Festival is now an institution. But the organizers and city public officials who deserved credit for the success must also take note of its pretty-bad aftermath to obviate criticism that can taint the face of success of this celebration.

Before the good and bad sides of this story, let's look back to history of this affair that started in 1971. It is named Ati-atihan in honor of Senior Sto. Nino, by the parish priest of San Jose Church at Plaza Libertad, Iloilo City.

Big shipping lines with offices in the city like the Negros Navigation, Compania Maritima (which lost a warrior), Go Thong, and many others, together with local business establishments, joined the affair by sponsoring a tribe-of-choice participating in the contest

As far as I can recall during the festival, aside from the Mardigras, Ati-atihan tribes alone is more than 30, sporting different costumes, marching on the streets with the sound of drumbeats towards the finish line until 3:00 oclock pm.

Nearby municipalities like Guimbal also sent tribes to join the festival. The province of Antique which doesn't want to be left behind has also its Binirayan Tribe in queue with others contestants participating in the affair.

In 1988, however, the Ati-atihan was renamed Dinagyang Festival by the late Pacifico Sudario, also a journalist by profession. The festival continue to develop in honor of Senior Sto. Nino until it became one of tourists attractions in this country.

But not until corruption hit the officials managing the affair for non-accounting of expenses for years due to lack of documents or no document at all. To get out of the mess, the previous administration renamed the Festival into a Foundation Inc. The same dog of different collar, that's it!

Now let's go to the good side of the story (bankrolled by druglords?) under the administration of Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog and the Foundation under a new Pres. Ramon Cua Locsin. Together with all city officials, they mustered an unprecedented number of local and foreign tourists during the festival. For that, let's give them the credit due.

Congratulations to Mayor Mabilog, Cong. Jerry Trenas, Pres. Cua Locsin, City Tourism Officer Ben Jimena, the SP members and the rest of good Ilonggos who took part in preparation of the successful festival.

Also to Gov. Arthur Defensor, the Prov'l. Board Members, the municipal mayors and town officials who took part in the celebration, and to all LGUs and NGOs that has extended support for the success of the affair.

We salute PRO6 Director, C/Supt. Cipriano Querol, Jr. for the commendable performance of the PNP in preserving peace and order during the entire celebration. We extend this credit to Prov'l. Dir. Gil Leben, ICPO Dir. Marietto Valerio and to all members of the police force who assisted us during the festival.

Also to PDEA Reg'l. Dir. Paul Ledesma for his group efforts to contain the flow of illegal drugs before, during and after the celebration. This is evident by the good behavior of drug addicts who participated in the festival..

The only bad side of this story is the stinks of human-urine at the central site of the festivities. This is easily smelled by people after the celebration ended. This is the same problem that we have left behind unattended in 1971.

This is an agonizing problem of the Iloilo resorts and restaurants association members with food-stalls in the main streets of the city. They had been appealing to our city officials to put up a proper public urinal system during the festivity, yet, nothing happened to date.

The people are wondering if our city officials are interested only in money as no public urinal was constructed in preparation for the affair. This problem of 1971 is still our irritant problem today. Our

city officials must do something to get rid of this mess before the Dinagyang 2012 comes.

If the stink of human urine remains a problem-in-eternity, the growing public scorn against our city government officials for dereliction of duty may eventually redound into a scroll that forms the basis of their blasphemy!.