Panagbenga home in Camp John Hay

BAGUIO CITY -- Seventeen years since it was founded, the Panagbenga Festival, previously known as the Baguio Flower Festival, is coming home to Camp John Hay.

The festival was conceptualized at the time of the John Hay Poro Point Development Corporation (JPDC, John Hay Management Corporation today) in 1995 by lawyer Damaso E. Bangaoet, Jr., then JPDC vice president.

Implemented in 1996, Panagbenga has grown to be the premier festival in the Cordillera and has become one of the most popular festivals in the country, inspiring the birth of festivals all over the Philippines.

Born from the people of Baguio’s love for flowers, the festival was spearheaded by JPDC and its mother corporation, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) during the first few years of its existence.

This year, JHMC has slated several events to celebrate Panagbenga in Camp John Hay.

First is the street dancing and drum and lyre parade which will commence at the John Hay Gate 2 at 11 a.m. on Feb. 26 and traverse the thoroughfares of the camp until the Historical Core, where the Bell House is located.

The dancers and bands are participants in the main Panagbenga event.

Second, there will be an exhibit of top winning floats within the camp on Feb. 27 at the Camp John Hay Bell House grounds from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. where they will be on display until the 29th.

A Fujifilm mobile photo van will be parked at the entrance of the Historical Core, to take instant souvenir photos of visitors.

To cap the activities, JHMC will be unveiling at the Bell House on March 4 at 9 a.m. a brass marker and a gigantic replica of the Panagbenga sunflower logo to honor the pioneers of the festival.

The unveiling is open to the public and will be spearheaded by BCDA and JHMC board of directors, led by BCDA chairman FelicitoPayumo, BCDA president ArnelPaciano Casanova, JHMC chairman Silvestre Afable, Jr. and JHMC president Dr. Jamie Eloise Agbayani.

According to Dr. Agbayani, “This is one of the many ways we honor those who conceptualized, crafted and labored for the greatest of the Cordillera festivals. It is but fitting to put the marker here at the heart of Camp John Hay because it is here where the beautiful idea that is the Panagbenga Festival was born.”