As Cagayan de Oro City’s nearly month-long Higalaay Festival celebration reaches its peak next week, City Hall held a briefing with local media and vloggers concerning parameters on their coverage of six core festival events.
The briefing held Wednesday afternoon at the conference room of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Department (CDRRMD) was spearheaded by the City Tourism Office whose department manager Rico Libre called on both local media and vloggers for support in ensuring the success of the remainder of the festival calendar events in the city.
‘Generally the activities for this year’s Higalaay Festival will be the same prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. There will be the same events like the civic military parade but what’s different is that more contingents are participating. From 120 contingents (in 2019) this year we have 160 contingents in the parade. There are also new events but the public shouldn’t expect anything grand, just that (we leveled up),’ Libre said in Visayan.
Though health restrictions are eased following President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s proclamation ending the nationwide public health emergency, Libre and other event organizers said certain parameters would be enforced on both local media and vloggers to allow participants in events like the international dragon boat race and the street parade to perform minus any distractions or obstacles on their way.
While local mainstream media and vloggers will be assigned spaces near the performance area for their coverage, those using drones to cover the international dragon boat race at Isla de Oro will have to secure clearance from the CDRMMD based on evaluation by the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (COCPO), said CDRRMD department manager Nic Jabagat.
‘There are a lot of drones being used especially for the fiesta events and while City Hall and the police’s drones are (authorized and prioritized for security and safety purposes) so those seeking to fly drones for coverage should undergo processing for clearance. We ask for understanding and cooperation from everyone concerned,’ Jabagat said in Visayan.
Jabagat said coordination is crucial between City Hall, the local media and vloggers to avoid any unfortunate incidents. ‘We don’t want you to lose your investment,’ Jabagat said referring to their drone equipment.
Aside from the dragon boat race, street dancing and civic military parade, other core festival events to be held outdoors are the Fiesta Sa Baryo on Aug. 22 and PE Rhythmic Competition on Aug. 25.
News and photo courtesy of CIO CDO