Sinulog contingent disqualified

CEBU, Philippines - From 36, the number of Sinulog contingents for the grand parade is now down to 35 after Cebu City's Banay Azami was disqualified yesterday since they could not come up with the sufficient number of participants as required by rule no. 4 of the Sinulog General Guidelines.

 Sinulog Foundation Inc. executive director Ricky Ballesteros said Banay Azami, a group from Azami Japanese KTV Bar in F. Jaca Street, violated rule no. 4 which provides "the composition of the contingent shall be within the minimum of 60 and a maximum of 100 dancers."

Banay Azami, during yesterday's final briefing of all 131 contingents for the Sinulog-based category, free interpretation category, float category, higante category and puppeteers category, revealed that they only have at least 30 dancers.

 While the group can no longer join in the competition on Sunday, Ballesteros said they may join in the street dancing to acknowledge their efforts.

He added that they still need to evaluate the performance of Banay Azami for the street dancing to assure that the latter will comply with the rest of the rules.

 "Religious and historical in nature ang Sinulog, so we have to respect it," Ballesteros told the participants.

Banay Azami accepted Ballestero's decision.

Meanwhile, Lumad Basakanon still can't get the P150,000 cash assistance allocated to all performing contingents on January 19.

For about four years, Lumad Basakanon, a barangay-based contingent has been requesting SFI to include them in the said cash aid. However, the rules provide that only school-based contingents are qualified to receive the P150,000 cash assistance to subsidize some of their expenses.

 Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said the concern of the Lumad Basakanon and other local contingents has yet to be discussed by the board of trustees considering that there are other things needing priority.

"It's not going to be now because we even have to adjust to many things like right now I still have to check whether the board of trustees had help on addressing the crowd control concerns," Rama said.

Lumad Basakanon choreographer Norman Navarro said they will avenge last year's loss to Placer, Masbate, for the free interpretation category.

"Sigurado nako nga makadaog mi," he said confidently, although he admitted they have been facing financial problems considering that Barangay Basak had to finance all their expenses.

The group has 100 dancers and propsmen./BRP (FREEMAN)