TACLOBAN CITY-At least two Leyte festivals won in the recently concluded Sinulog Festival in Cebu City, besting other contingents from various provinces in the country.
The Lingganay Festival of Alangalang, Leyte and Karatong Festival of Dulag, Leyte were the grand champion and third runner-up, respectively, in the free interpretation category on Sunday’s Sinulog grand festival.
Mayor Loreto Yu of Alangalang, Leyte felt elated after receiving the P1 million cash prize Monday afternoon from festival organizers along with other co-winners.
“We are very happy that we won in the competition especially the children, sobra gud an ira pagrayhak. At least, our efforts became fruitful. Aside from the cash, we are very much happy that we are giving honor for our town and for the province of Leyte,” he said when reached by phone.
He said Lingganay Festival, which was the grand champion of Leyte’s Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival of Festivals last year, bagged the special awards for Best Musicality (Festival Music) and Best in Festival Costume.
Meanwhile, Karatong Festival of Dulag, Leyte, which was one of the festival contingents of the province, was declared third-runner up.
Placer, Masbate’s Tribu Himag-ulaw won second runner-up in the same category while Lumad Basakanon of Barangay Basak-San Nicolas in Cebu City and Toledo National High Vocational School of Cebu got the fourth and fifth post, respectively.
Nearly 400 performers to include the dancers, props men, musicians and support staff of the participating contingent fueled the grand performance of Lingganay festival, Yu informed.
“The Lingganay Foundation has still to plan out how the cash prize will be spent. And we will sustain the festival to take pride to the country of the rich culture of Leyte,” he said, adding that their preparations for Aliwan Fiesta have already started since they received the invitation after winning the festival competition during last year’s Tacloban fiesta.
Aliwan Fiesta, dubbed as the “mother of all fiestas” in the country, is an annual event that gathers different cultural festivals of the Philippines in Star City Complex in Pasay City wherein contingents compete in dance parade and float competitions, with prizes totaling to more than P3 million.
And because of this, Palo Mayor Remedios “Matin” Petilla, the executive chairperson of Leyte Kasadyaan Festival, said the League of Municipalities of the Philippines- Leyte chapter whom she also chairs, will give its all-out support to the municipal government of Alangalang
“The performance of our contingents is a confirmation of all our efforts. It was a community effort as everybody helped in the preparations. The dance execution and the costume wowed everybody during their performance,” she said over a radio interview yesterday.
This is the second time that Leyte produced a winning cultural festivals held outside the province with the famed Buyugan Festival of Abuyog being the first to do such feat.
Petilla said the achievement of Alangalang would serve as an inspiration for the next Leyte festivals.
Lingganay and Karatong were both winners in the 2011 Pintados-Kasadyaan Festival of Festival, held every June in honor of Sr. Sto. Niño, patron saint of Tacloban.
Lingganay also bagged the Best in Costumes and Best in Musicality in the Sinulog Festival competition.
Earlier, Nerissa Modesto, the lead dancer of Pasaka Festival of Tanauan, Leyte, took home the crown as first runner-up of the Sinulog Festival Queen 2012 competition and took home P30,000 while the second runner-up was Conchitina Cleofe Yu of Tribu Lingganay, Alang-alang.
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