Panagbenga 2013 closing program set on March 3

Saturday 2nd of March 2013

BAGUIO CITY, Mar. 2 (PIA) -- The five week celebration of Panagbenga 2013 ends on Sunday, March 3, with spectators up for more surprises.

Baguio Flower Festival co-chair Freddie Alquiroz, in a kapihan forum, Wednesday, at Session Road said that a lot of raffle prizes will be given including appliances such as television and refrigerators. Raffle coupons will be distributed to the first 1,500 persons that will come to watch.

Panagbenga 2013 will be capped by simultaneous fireworks display from several locations in Baguio on the evening of March 3.

In the same forum, Alquiroz affirmed a successful staging of Panagbenga 2013, with an estimated crowd of over 2 million that came to Baguio to watch the festival’s main attractions, the grand street dancing and grand float parade over the weekend.

For the remainder of the week, Baguio residents and visitors alike can still enjoy a whole day of fine dining, shopping and entertainment at the Session Road in Bloom, wherein Baguio's most famous thoroughfare is closed to motorists for a week and transformed into a food haven and trade fair ground.

As for entertainment, this coming weekend, Session Road in Bloom visitors will be entertained by performances from well known groups such as 6 Cycle Mind, Danz De Ballet, cultural dance groups, among others.

Baguio folks and visitors can also continue to visit Baguio Blooms, another trade fair offering of Panagbenga, where various floral landscapes are also being showcased at the Burnham Park.

Other events like the Pony Boys Day – a day of fun, games and entertainment with Baguio’s horseback riding groups will also be held at the Athletic Bowl.

Meanwhile , Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) Director Police Senior Superintendent Jesus Cambay, reported during the kapihan a peaceful and orderly staging of the opening parade and the two grand parades of Panagbenga, which he attributed to a better crowd control and security policy.

“There is a noted decrease in crime incidents particularly on the streets like pick-pocket incidents compared to last year’s Panagbenga; there is an almost 50 percent decrease in crime incidence,” Cambay said. (CCD- Mikyla Samantha Isleta, PIA intern)