Wanted: sponsors for Dinagyang '08
Iloilo City has few more weeks to prepare for the 2008 Dinagyang festival but the organizers have yet to pool enough funds for the grand celebration.
Even Mayor Jerry Treñas is becoming worried of the situation the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation Inc. (IDFI) is in. The mayor said the foundation needs sponsors especially the corporate sponsors to finance the activity and continue the good record that Dinagyang made not only in the country but in foreign countries.
It was learned the foundation needs some P12.75 million to finance the entire celebration.
This year, Dinagyang Festival will have several innovations-- from the color of the performers to the parade routes and other exciting new activities.
Treñas said he is very much concerned as the big sponsors for the event have yet to come out. The two giant mobile telecommunication companies, Smart and Globe, have not yet given their commitment to sponsor for the yearly event. In previous years, the two companies donated millions of pesos to the Dinagyang festival.
Treñas said the city government will be forced to release P2 million as additional help for the celebration if the IDFI fails to raise the needed funds.
Last year, the city already released an initial funding of P1 million for the Dinagyang 2008, said Treñas.
This year's Dinagyang festival will showcase twenty performing tribes, one coming from the far away Batanes province, the Ivatan tribe.
The other competing tribes are Tribu Ilonganon, Tribu Silak, Tribu Paghidaet, Ang Taga Jaro, Tribu Atub-Atub, Tribu San Pedro, Tribu Baryohanon, Tribu Molave, Tribu Aninipay and Tribu Kalubihan.
The other competing tribes are Tribu Pag-asa, Tribu Panaad, Tribu Dagyaw Ta / Binhi, Tribu Familia Sagrada, Tribu Parianon, Tribu Hamili, Tribu Angola, Tribu Bantu and Tribu Himala.