After shining brightly in previous stagings of the Aliwan Festival at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in the past years, this year’s Laoag City delegates could only settle for runner-up finishes.

The float competition, which had been dominated by the city in the past two years, saw this year’s entry only finishing third behind Isabela province and Baguio City.

The city’s Reyna ng Aliwan bet also failed to improve on the performance of the float entry as former Miss Laoag City Mary Jane Pascual could only manage a third runner-up finish in a field of 14 candidates.

The city’s dance competition entries struggled to an 11th place finish.

Ms Chevylle V. Fariñas, City Tourism and Social Concerns Council chairperson said the results are good enough as they were not given any financial support by the city government when they competed.

“Maybe it’s not yet the right time for this new administration to win in this competition despite of no financial support given by the city government. We tried our best to represent the city of Laoag in this very momentous yearly undertaking by the Department of Tourism and MBC,” Ms Fariñas said.

Fariñas added that the city’s representatives would have easily made it to the top three of their respective fields if only there was sufficient funding.

The past year’s delegates had been supported by the city government through the Philippine Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) fund.

“If this competition was really financially supported, I assure you, we [could have done it]. We only utilized what we [had], compared to the other participants that were well prepared,” Fariñas explained.

The Ilocos Times learned that the Sangguniang Panlungsod did not appropriate any fund for the city’s participation to the said tourism event.

Taking the poor showing of the city’s delegates in stride, Fariñas said she is set to compete again in the next staging with or without the support of the city government.

Fariñas also took the opportunity to thank those who had supported the city delegates to the 2005 Aliwan Festival mainly the Fort Ilocandia Resort and Casino, which sponsored the city’s float entry.

“Inkarigatan mi iti nag partisipar saan nga iti bukod mi ken Apo Mayor, no di ket para Laoagueños ken iti sibubukel a siyudad iti Laoag (We tried hard to participate not for me and the mayor but for all Laoagueños and the whole city of Laoag),” Fariñas mentioned.

She went on to say that the city’s participation in the said event is a form of tourism promotion for Laoag City as a number of probable foreign and domestic tourists were on hand during the duration of the event and if they would be attracted by the city’s delegates, which is a sort of representation of the way of life in Laoag, then they may just visit the city.

Dominic B. dela Cruz