Solon: Dinagyang's religiosity should be maintained
Iloilo City Representative Raul Gonzalez Jr. said the religiosity of the Dinagyang Festival should be maintained even if it has already become a tourism event in the entire country.
Dinagyang Festival is held every January in honor of Señor Sto. Niño.
Gonzalez Jr. said the people behind the festivity should not lose their sight on the religious aspect of the celebration. He said the people should not forget the decade of favors granted by the Child Jesus because of their eternal devotion to the Señor Sto. Nino.
Dinagyang Festival will already be on its 40th year this coming 2008.
Dinagyang Festival was recently chosen as the Best Tourism Event in the country by the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (Atop). It was also given the sole privilege to promote the localization of Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The Asian Development Bank also cited Dinagyang as a best practice that illustrates an effective public-private partnership.
Gonzalez, in last Saturday's launching of the festival urged all the government officials and non-government organizations to support the Dinagyang celebration. He also recognized the effort of the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation Inc. (IDFI) in promoting the celebration.
Gonzalez said the decision of the 2001 elected officials both in the legislative body and the executive, of which he was then part as a city councilor, to turn over the management of the festival to the IDFI yielded positive result. "We never made a mistake when we decided that the festival will be managed by a private sector," said Gonzalez.
According to Department of Tourism (DoT) Regional Director Edwin Trompeta the month of January is listed as the "Sto. Nino month" in their calendar. January features different celebrations not only in Iloilo City and Kalibo, Aklan but other parts of the country where they have their own celebration in honor of the Sto. Nino.
Trompeta, just like Gonzalez, congratulated the IDFI for all their efforts in improving the festival every year. Through the foundation various innovations were initiated to attract the attention of tourists from all over the world.
IDFI executive director and City Tourism chief Ben Jimena added because of the transformation and evolution of the festival, Dinagyang has reached the peak of success with the positive response from both the local and foreign spectators.
This year's innovation includes the changing of the warrior's body paint from soot to dark brown. It even stirred varied public opinion. The IDFI has adopted a dark brown color concept to give Dinagyang its own identity because other festivals have been also using black body paint. "What's in the color? What is important is Dinagyang will be forever, " said Jimena.
The Tribu Taga Jaro whose warriors were painted with black and Tribu Atub Atub who are in dark brown body paint performed to the delight of the spectators.
The launching started with a motorcade in the city's main streets. IDFI officials and June Rivera of the Sto. Niño association of the San Jose de Placer Church joined the motorcade. Vehicles carrying the Sto. Niño image, Dagoy, the Dinagyang mascot and Miss Dinagyang 2007 Cara Jeanne Sullano also joined the motorcade which signaled the start of Dinagyang fever in the metropolis.