Panagbenga logs higher number of float parade participant

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Thirty-four flower-bedecked floats joined Pangabenga’s Float Parade from Session Road to the Melvin Jones Grandstand in Burnham Park here yesterday.

Of the figure, 29 competed in various categories, to the delight of an estimated 30,000 local and foreign tourists.

The number of revelers on Saturday’s street dancing parade also doubled from the previous year, according to city police chief Col. Francisco Bulwayan Jr.

Anthony de Leon, chairman of the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation executive committee, confirmed that the number of entries this year nearly doubled.

De Leon said that in the 28 years of celebrating Panagbenga, the number of participants usually averaged 14 to 15 floats.

“This is a historic record, considering that it is not easy to come up with a float. You have to spend a lot for a float,” De Leon said.

He said flower floats are judged according to standards. Mostly, 95 percent of the decoration is made of fresh flowers and greens.

A large float’s decoration may cost P500,000, excluding the rental fee for the vehicle.

Flower prices usually drop after Valentine’s Day, but this year it did not, according to Panagbenga secretariat chief Evangeline Payno, noting the high expenses for each float.

Festival organizers were happy that the high cost of flowers did not stop participants from joining the float parade.