DOT-6 open to backing Dinagyang 2021 but…

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

The Department of Tourism (DOT)-6 regional office is willing to sponsor Iloilo Dinagyang Festival 2021 but only if it is held in an entirely virtual or online format, the department’s regional director said on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Atty. Jobert Peñaflorida, president of the Iloilo Festivals Foundation Inc. (IFFI) confirmed that they have been preparing for the 2021 Dinagyang Festival.

IFFI is the private sector organization in charge of organizing yearly celebrations in Iloilo City.

DOT-6 Regional Director, Atty. Helen Catalbas, told Aksyon Radyo Iloilo on Thursday that they would support an online 2021 festival.

If the online format pushes through, this would be the first time the festival will not feature any street celebration or live merriment due to the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Catalbas pointed to the events held by the DOT-6, such as the ongoing Western Visayas Film Grants Online Film + Educational Showcase, a five-month long virtual educational film festival.

This showcase that runs from August to December 2020 features past recipients of DOT-6’s cash grants which were premiered during past editions of the annual CineKasimanwa Western Visayas Film Festival.

She added that bringing the festival online would make it convenient to millions of viewers worldwide at any time and from any place.

While an “all-virtual Dinagyang” would entail expenses for marketing and promotion from all sponsors, she said that it would be an “investment” that will be “very much worth it”.

The region’s tourism chief said that presentation of the best performances of past Dinagyang Festivals would be much better than real-time live presentations because of the lack of social distancing in the latter format.

“The 2021 Iloilo Dinagyang virtual version can do this – that the best of the last years of Iloilo film festivals – they can edit it in clips. The mayor’s and the city’s IT experts can do this. They can use clips and put labels and narrate in between and show it online. We cannot allow 100 to 150 warm bodies to perform outside because there is no social distancing,” Catalbas told Aksyon Radyo Iloilo.

Catalbas said she, the Iloilo City Government and the IFFI can decide on the content of her suggested online Dinagyang.

“I’ll leave it to the discretion of the LGU, of the mayor’s office, of Mayor Treñas and the Iloilo Festivals Foundation if they will use only last year’s performances to replay and repackage, or include those in the past years. I have no objections on what they would do. If they will continue the virtual [mode], I will support it. If they won’t continue it, I’ll revert the fund, and I’ll channel it to other LGUs and other festivals,” she added.

Catalbas also explained that a “virtual Dinagyang” can feature tourism destinations in the Western Visayas region as a backdrop to continue tourism promotions despite the pandemic.

“The main purpose of virtual festivals being conducted and supported by our office is for the world to retain as top-of-mind destinations in Iloilo City, Negros [Occidental], Capiz, Guimaras, Antique, mainland Aklan, and all other important attractions in Western Visayas, and that includes Iloilo Dinagyang,” she said.

In emphasizing the DOT-6’s sponsorship of an all-virtual edition of the Dinagyang, Catalbas mentioned pulling out DOT-6 from sponsoring a national convention organized by a local government unit (LGU) in the region due to its insistence of a face-to-face convention.

“I’m disappointed with one LGU here in Western Visayas because I already committed to co-host a national convention. All of a sudden, it shifted because of the new normal, to a virtual national convention. They wouldn’t accept my co-sponsorship because they can’t do virtual and they want to do face-to-face. They would have to wait until 2023 because that’s when things would start to normalize. I doubt it if DOT Region 6 could give that same support,” she lamented.

When the city government and the IFFI take her suggestion, Catalbas said the budget would be taken from the DOT-6’s 2020 budget savings.

“We still have one month and a half, so I’ll get the budget for Dinagyang 2021 to our budget from 2020 because we still don’t know what happens next year, if it will still continue or the budget will be cut because of the national government’s fight against COVID. I’m looking at my savings for 2020 which I will spend for Dinagyang 2021,” she said.