Baguio City mayor, dads at odds over Panagbenga ’06

BAGUIO CITY — The 2006 staging of the city’s famous Panagbenga or Flower Festival is in a bind. The reason: politics.

This, as Mayor Braulio Yaranon, whom majority of the city’s 14 councilors have regarded as their "nemesis," remains firm in enforcing his Administrative Order 212, Series of 2005 designating the relatively young Baguio Flower Foundation Association (BFFA) to manage Panagbenga 2006 in February next year.

But the city council, in its regular session last Monday, overrode his veto on its proposal to give back Panagbenga to the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation (BFFF).

"Leave it to me," Yaranon firmly said. "What is important is that we will not fail the people."

"The (city council’s) resolution is non-implementable," the mayor said, adding that his AO 212 contains the guidelines on the staging of Panagbenga, including the BFFA being given the exclusive authority over advertisements, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.

Yaranon said Panagbenga 2005 was "successfully staged" under the management of the BFFA, a purely private organization, where funds received and disbursed have been liquidated, accounted for, and duly audited.

He said "not a single centavo of public funds" was spent for the BFFA-managed Panagbenga 2005, unlike the 2004 event where the BFFF, he claimed, "has not accounted for nor liquidated or audited the P2.4 million in public funds entrusted to it."

The mayor ranted about the alleged control of the BFFF by his arch rival, former mayor Bernardo Vergara, whom he defeated in the 2004 elections.

"The people will not allow Panagbenga to be controlled again by politicians," he said.

For Panagbenga 2004, Yaranon alleged that politicians were involved in opening a Philippine National Bank account, where funds purportedly belonging to the BFFF were deposited but were not subjected to liquidation and audit by the Commission on Audit.

Both Vergara and Rep. Mauricio Domogan denied Yaranon’s allegations.

For next year’s staging of the Panagbenga, Yaranon thinks it is best to limit the activities from the fourth week of February to the first week of March to "facilitate monitoring and regulation" and keep management cost down.

He sees this move as a "strategic marketing and investment promotions support to sustain (the festival’s) component activities."

Yaranon’s optimism, however, is negated by BFFF’s acceptance of the responsibility of managing Panagbenga 2006 in a duly notarized certification cited in the city council’s Resolution 294, Series of 2005 which the mayor had vetoed.

During a meeting of the BFFF board of trustees last Oct. 28 at Camp John Hay, Domogan, seconded by lawyer Damaso Bangaoet, the so-called "brains" of Panagbenga, moved for the foundation’s acceptance of the city council’s offer.

Yaranon, however, is unperturbed, saying he would emerge the winner in the "battle" over Panagbenga 2006.