Pavia town's Tigkalarag

Last week, I stayed for three days in Iloilo City and found myself buffeted by a lot of big stories from Negros Occidental and Iloilo City. But the most surprising was the excitement over the forthcoming Tigkalarag festival of Pavia town, the suburban community of Iloilo City.

Thursday, however, saw Pavia Mayor Arcadio Gorriceta with Social Welfare and Development regional director Teresita Rosales distributing the initial release of P1.43 million of the P2.492-million financial assistance to 143 families whose houses were destroyed last June 21 by typhoon “Frank.”

The cash assistance meant P10,000 for each of the families whose homes were destroyed by the killer flood that rampaged through Pavia and affected about 89 percent of families and damaged 43 percent of houses. The flood also killed 11 people, making Pavia the worst hit by the typhoon.

Despite that, Pavia residents were in a tizzy preparing for the town’s Tigkalarag, the Karay-a term for the All Soul’s Day observance.

But this time, the traditional observance will be held tomorrow, with dramatic costumes and spectacular depictions by participants of the traditional Halloween festivities.

The Pavia plaza has been decorated and the celebration braces for a bigger crowd this year because it will be covered by television stations and participated by all the barangays of the town, Gorriceta explained.

The affair was further sweetened by a big donation from Senate President Manuel Villar for cash prizes for the participating groups, especially the barangays, Gorriceta added.

Meanwhile, a lot of other events also attracted my attention. Other than the fact that a lot of Negrenses stuck to their television sets to catch the drama of the return to the Philippines of former agriculture undersecretary Jocjoc Bolante, there were other exciting events.

The first was the announcement by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas that the city government will proceed with the construction of the new city hall at its old site across Plaza Libertad.

Megaworld Corp. backed out of its earlier offer to sell 4,596 square meters in the old airport in Mandurriao. Antonio Tan, Megaworld senior vice president for operations, informed the city government of the withdrawal of their offer to accommodate the new city hall in their Mandurriao property.

Megaworld had upped its initial price of P3,000 per square meter to P3,500.

In a way, the five Western Visayas governors also waved the branch of peace with Treñas on their opposition to Barangay Ignore in La Paz district as site of the Global Power Corp. coal-fired power plant.

Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez, who chairs the Regional Development Council, and Guimaras Gov. Felipe Nava told Reklamo Publiko that they are willing to compromise their stance with Treñas, contending that the site should be located in a less populated rural area.

The two were speaking on behalf of three other Western Visayas governors who had petitioned President Arroyo to request the DENR to withdraw the ECC issued to Global Power for the project in Barangay Ignore. The other governors are Isidro Zayco of Negros Occidental, Catalino Marquez of Aklan, and Vicente Tanco of Capiz.