Piña Festival among the highlights
ORMOC CITY- Mayor Richard Gomez said that the second year edition of ‘Piña’ Festival will be bigger and better compare to last year.
This was declared by Gomez during the launching of the festivities held on Wednesday (May 23) at the newly-opened Robinsons Ormoc.
The actor-turned-city mayor said that for this year, the city government has allocated P20 million for the staging of the festival which highlights one of the city’s most known products which is the ‘queen pineapple, ‘said to be one of the sweetest in the world.
“It will be a bigger and better festival compare to last year,” Gomez said during the press launching of the festivities.
The city fiesta, which is held every June 29 in honor of Sts. Peter and Paul, will be made colorful by various activities which will start on June 16 through a ‘Parade of Lights,’ labeled by the organizers as ‘nighttime spectacle’ which will feature luminescent vehicular floats and lighted costumes.
The Piña Festival will be held on June 24, five days before the annual city fiesta.
And for this year, about 20 contingents from different schools and organizations are to participate the festival.
Mayor Gomez said that aside from promoting the city’s pineapples, the holding of the Piña Festival also aim to draw more tourists to Ormoc.
While Gomez could not provide data as to how many tourists attended last year’s Piña Festival, the city mayor said that they got a big crowd that saw the festival.
As they project a bigger crowd this year, the competition will be held at the city’s quadrangle located just in front of the city park.
And aside from the city police, they would also ask for additional men from the regional police headquarters to help secure the people who will witness the festival, Gomez said.
Meantime, Gomez said that visitors have hotels and lodging inns where they could stay during their visit to Ormoc during the week-long activities.
“Although we don’t have the luxury of having the big hotels for now we try to accommodate the visitors with what we have,” Gomez said.
He also said that aside from visiting Ormoc’s tourist spots, visitors could also visit nearby towns like Palompon, known for its white sand Kalangaman Island. (LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA/JOEY A. GABIETA)
