Sitoy: Institutionalize Pasigarbo

CEBU, Philippines - The lone opposition in the Cebu Provincial Board is seeking to institutionalize the annual staging of the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo.

PB Member Arleigh Jay Sitoy has sponsored an ordinance creating a committee to institutionalize the festival which Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has initiated in 2008.

The proposed ordinance was passed on first reading last Monday.

The Pasigarbo sa Sugbo was organized in order to showcase the different festivals of the cities and municipalities in the Province of Cebu in one single venue, the Cebu International Convention Center.

It is held annually within the month of August in line with the celebration of the founding anniversary of the province.

It is a competition of sights and sounds, of rhythm and motion depicting the various local festivals.

Sitoy said that the annual holding of the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo is not only a good venue for tourism promotion but likewise an opportunity to develop awareness and appreciation of distinct local cultures.

“The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Cebu finds it appropriate to institutionalize the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo by way of an ordinance to ascertain that the yearly activity will have continuity and permanence,” reads the proposed ordinance.

It is also proposed that a Pasigarbo sa Sugbo Committee shall be chaired by the SP committee on tourism and the committee on arts and culture as vice chairman.   

The move comple-ments Garcia’s appoint-ment of her daughter, lawyer Maria Esperanza Christina Garcia Codilla-Frasco, as consultant on the institutionalization of programs and projects.

Frasco’s job is to immerse in key programs like the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo and the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo, and ensure they continue beyond her mother’s term, which ends in 2013.

Garcia recently announced what the provincial government intends to accomplish this 2012.

Garcia said it is also imperative to set the wheels for the institutionalization of programs that she started such as the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo Festival of Festivals, the One Cebu Expo, and eGwen Program, among others. – (FREEMAN)