MAGUINDANAO, Philippines - Despite hostilities in two towns in the province, local executives are pushing through with activities for the Sagayan Festival, which began on Saturday.
The Sagayan Festival, pioneered in 2010 by then newcomer Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, is now a yearly event in the province.
The event aims to showcase the unique culture and traditions of ethnic Maguindanaons, and the investment and eco-tourism potentials of the province.
"All is set for the festival..."Mangudadatu said.
Mayors from the first and second districts of Maguindanao will participate in the Sagayan activities, he said.
“All of us, local officials, and our respective constituents are optimistic this event will correct the impressions among people in Visayas, in Metro Manila, and in Luzon that Maguindanao is a dangerous area. It is not a dangerous area,†Mangudadatu said.
Maguindanao means “people of the perennially flooded plains,†or the Moro communities that dwell along the 220,000-hectare Liguasan delta in Central Mindanao.
Brig. Gen. Edmund Pangilinan, commanding officer of the Army’s 601st Brigade, said they have deployed ample security teams around Buluan town, where the Sagayan activities are to be held.
Mangudadatu told reporters that aside from the cultural and traditional events to be held from February 1 to 14, the provincial government will also embark on various humanitarian outreach missions during the period.
The Sagayan is a centuries-old Maguindanaon war-and-courtship dance depicting the readiness of locales to defend their lands, their women and children, and Islam from all kinds of aggression.
Saturday’s start of the Sagayan Festival was capped with the launching of a trade fair along a national highway straddling through Buluan town.
The Sagayan Festival will also showcase the agricultural products of the province, and the traditional crafts that have been a stable source of income for some sectors for generations now.
Organizers are expecting foreign merchants planning to invest in the province to witness the Sagayan Festival.
The provincial government has also invited officials of embassies in Metro Manila of member-states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to attend the festival.
Mangudadatu said the Sagayan Festival will also depict how the province has been recovering from devastation caused by armed conflicts in decades past. - John Unson