Mayor mediates rift between city council, Panagbenga organizers

BAGUIO CITY – The city mayor here showed his diplomatic skills when he resolved the rift among feuding Pangbenga Festival organizers last week.

It’s all systems go now for the 19^th Baguio Flower Festival after concerns and issues that caused the rift between the public and private sectors  was deemed settled.

The mayor on Tuesday gathered members of the city council and the Baguio Flower Festival Inc. (BFFI) executive committee led by chair Anthony De Leon and vice chair Frederico Alquiros to a caucus where a consensus was reached for the resolution of all the concerns.

The two parties earlier met during the city council session last Monday while tackling the BFFI’s various requests to facilitate the requirements for the Panagbenga activities and aired their grievances and sentiments on the issues mainly on financial matters involving the Market Encounter and the Session Road in Bloom.

The dialogue however ended in a deadlock prompting the call for the mayor to broker the meeting.

Following the caucus, the city council held a special session on Friday where it granted all the requests of the BFFI on the use of the venues and closure of roads needed for the activities.

The aldermen also laid down the legislative basis to justify the holding of the Market Encounter now called “Baguio Blooms” in relation to the ordinance banning the conduct of trade fairs in the city by adopting the endorsement of the council committee on laws led by Councilor Richard Carino.

In the endorsement, the committee clarified that “the legislative intent of the Trade Fair Ordinance of 1994, as amended, it covers only trade fair organizers and private individuals.”

“All activities which are incidental to other official festivities like the Panagbenga, Christmas in Baguio and SUMVAC where the city government is the main sponsor, is exempt from the ordinance,” the committee noted.

The mayor earlier promised to intervene to resolve the disagreements and ensure the smooth staging of the festival.

He said that Panagbenga remains to be a city activity sponsored by both the city government and the private sector through the BFFI and he will not allow conflicts to mar the event.