Baguio blooms!

YOU haven’t really seen the city of Baguio until you’ve seen her flower. And for one glorious day in February, all the flowers Baguio City and the Nothern Philippines have to offer — from regal roses to over–the-top–orchids — are shown at their very best at the Panagbenga Festival.

Already on its 12th year, the Panagbenga Festival shows no signs of slowing down as it once again wowed locals and foreigners alike with the display of Filipino dancing prowess and creativity over the two-day event.

Students from Baguio schools and universities paraded down to Session Road dressed in a variety of roles - from Elvis impersonators and majorettes, to the celebrated flowers of Baguio. Traditional Igorot garb was also in abundance, and amid all the more contemporary dance moves were the steady beat and steps of native dances.

The floats were a visual feast. Headed by Hall of Famer Chowking’s rendition of an enchanted garden, floats depicting trains, ships, music boxes and even dolphins jumping out from the sea amazed the crowd. Floats by SM Baguio and Greenwich won top prizes.

This year’s festivities are set to be the stepping stone towards a Panagbenga Festival with a more international flavor.

"I think we’re ripe for it now as we have been marketing the Panagbenga Festival as a domestic event for more than a decade," says Department of Tourism-Cordillera Autonomous Region (DoT–CAR) director Purificacion Molintas. "This time, after all of this evolution into what it is now, we would like it to now metamorphose into an international event. This year’s Panagbenga will only be the start of other events that will complement Panagbenga to create an international awareness."

Along with such a move, Molintas also says that DoT-CAR is also pushing tourism facilities such as hotels to step up, especially since Panagbenga visitors, according to Molintas, usually peaks at one million people.

"We’re improving on the quality of our service through trainings," she explains. "We are finalizing an ordinance which is supposed to make accreditation of the DoT as mandatory. All tourism establishments have to meet standards set by the DoT. All of us are to inspect all these establishments to be able to hit the international market. We have to clean our own backyard and upgrade the quality of our tourism establishments."

Whether geared towards an international audience or the local crowds, Molintas says that the Panagbenga Festival’s goal remains the same.

"The bottom line is, we just want to make everybody happy," she says. "We need to strike a balance between the income derived and the natural resources to be conserved. We have to consider the comfort level of the residents.When everybody is satisfied, then I think that is something we have achieved towards the success of Panagbenga."