MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/11 Dec) – The Bukidnon Provincial Tourism Council is reviewing activities for next year’s Kaamulan Festival, checking particularly the significance of activities like the motocross competition, dance clinic, musical bonanza and beauty pageant.
Council member Erlow Talatala said initial discussions were focused on the significance of the activities and the message these would send to the spectators in preparation for the final planning on Dec. 15, 2010.
Bukidnon celebrates the annual Kaamulan Festival from February 18 to March 10, when the province celebrates its foundation anniversary.
One of the participants stressed that motocross is inappropriate for the Kaamulan Festival not only because of its huge budget of P400,000, but also because of the traumatic experience in previous years involving deaths of some spectators because of accidents. In 2008, a rider overshot to the side of the grandstand, killing two spectators, one of them a boy.
Talatala also cited the ethnic dance clinics as eyed for review because of the lack of qualified personnel assigned to facilitate and conduct proper orientation on the sacredness of Bukidnon dances. He said instead of teaching ethnic dances, some of them sacred to the lumads, the sessions turned out to be a mockery because many of the participants were drunk and were making a fool of the dance steps.
Lumad resource persons were invited to demonstrate the dance steps but there were no personnel in charge of briefing the participants and guiding the activity, Talatala added.
Kaamulan Jam, a musical bonanza, was also identified as one of the factors that caused juvenile
violence during the festival. In 2010, a 15-year-old girl with mental disability was reported to have been raped by three male minors the day after the jam.
In 2008 and 2009, police random frisking of party-goers to the jam and other ground activities showed scores of youngsters bringing bladed weapons. The media reported in 2008 that the Kaamulan grounds became a battleground for gangsters.
Laga ta Bukidnon, a beauty pageant, drew lengthy discussions for review, he said, pointing out that the pageant should be thoroughly reviewed to avoid mockery and wrong impression about Bukidnon women.
Talatala said there is also an initial plan for the Bazaar, a trade fair, to be turned over to the City of Malaybalay to be put up at the Plaza Rizal. (Walter I. Balane / MindaNews)
Bukidnon tourism council reviews Kaamulan 2011 activities
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/11 Dec) – The Bukidnon Provincial Tourism Council is reviewing activities for next year’s Kaamulan Festival, checking particularly the significance of activities like the motocross competition, dance clinic, musical bonanza and beauty pageant.
Council member Erlow Talatala said initial discussions were focused on the significance of the activities and the message these would send to the spectators in preparation for the final planning on Dec. 15, 2010.
Bukidnon celebrates the annual Kaamulan Festival from February 18 to March 10, when the province celebrates its foundation anniversary.
One of the participants stressed that motocross is inappropriate for the Kaamulan Festival not only because of its huge budget of P400,000, but also because of the traumatic experience in previous years involving deaths of some spectators because of accidents. In 2008, a rider overshot to the side of the grandstand, killing two spectators, one of them a boy.
Talatala also cited the ethnic dance clinics as eyed for review because of the lack of qualified personnel assigned to facilitate and conduct proper orientation on the sacredness of Bukidnon dances. He said instead of teaching ethnic dances, some of them sacred to the lumads, the sessions turned out to be a mockery because many of the participants were drunk and were making a fool of the dance steps.
Lumad resource persons were invited to demonstrate the dance steps but there were no personnel in charge of briefing the participants and guiding the activity, Talatala added.
Kaamulan Jam, a musical bonanza, was also identified as one of the factors that caused juvenile violence during the festival. In 2010, a 15-year-old girl with mental disability was reported to have been raped by three male minors the day after the jam.
In 2008 and 2009, police random frisking of party-goers to the jam and other ground activities showed scores of youngsters bringing bladed weapons. The media reported in 2008 that the Kaamulan grounds became a battleground for gangsters.
Laga ta Bukidnon, a beauty pageant, drew lengthy discussions for review, he said, pointing out that the pageant should be thoroughly reviewed to avoid mockery and wrong impression about Bukidnon women.
Talatala said there is also an initial plan for the Bazaar, a trade fair, to be turned over to the City of Malaybalay to be put up at the Plaza Rizal. (Walter I. Balane / MindaNews)