Re-examining Panagbenga: A historical trail

5 MIN READ

(First of two parts)

BAGUIO CITY (Feb. 7) — While the public eagerly awaits what is in store on the 13th staging of the Baguio flower festival, the city council here remained in limbo over the official result of the government audit of some P7 million.

In a resolution filed in January, and approved Monday, the city council asked the Commission on Audit (COA) for an official audit report of city funds disbursed to the Panagbenga stagings for 2003 (P2 million) and 2004 (P2.4 million) including other disbursements (P1 million) allegedly from the Priority Development Assistance Fund of Congressman Mauricio Domogan.

The COA audit observation memorandum, done in October last year, implicated several members of the local finance commit-tee and former elected officials in the disbursements of public funds to the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc. (BFFFI).

The city council also wants a copy of the corresponding comments of named city officials, including City Budget Officer Leticia O. Clemente, City Treasurer Thelma B. Manaois, City Accountant Antonio Tabin and then Mayor Bernardo Vergara, among several other city hall personnel.

There is (government) money in Panagbenga

The Baguio Flower Festival, originally a week-long celebration of flowers and the city of pines, was purely a private endeavor when it started 12 years ago in 1996. Being a private endeavor, a minimal amount of government funds was allotted.

It was on February 9 to 18 that year when the first flower festival week was declared in Baguio City through Resolution 007-1996. Then led by Atty. Damaso Bangaoet, who incidentally headed the John Hay-Poro Point Development Corp. (JPDC), the first flower festival relied heavily on private and community participation for the success it claimed to have achieved that year.

Government co-sponsorship then amounted to P25,000 only, appropriated for the official float and landscaping, through Resolution 037-1996.

Now called Panagbenga, from a Cordillera term for that time of year when plants start blossoming as reportedly coined by then Mayor Mauricio Domogan, the flower festival has since become a yearly activity in the highland urban city that people in the lowlands usually yearn to witness and experience.

On the second staging of Panagbenga in 1997, it was envisioned to be a yearly event that would draw throngs not only from the different provinces in the country, but also international tourists.

Claiming to be biggest crowd-drawing event, the street-dancing and float parade, which was originally staged on the same day and later on different days, has registered humongous viewers.

Department of Tourism (DoT) records show a significant increase in tourist arrivals in the city in February each year since 1996.

The number, claimed to be reaching millions in recent years only dropped in 2005, due to the meningococcemia scare that hit the city that year.

The festivities remained week-long until 2001, when Resolution 033-1991 declared a Panagbenga Month. The city allotted P100,000 that year for the float, volunteer meals and other related expenses, slightly lower than the 1997 government funding of P105,000.

According to Clemente, the city usually spends some P100,000-P200,000 yearly, on top of private sector generated funds. The appropriations were usually done to finance the official floats, costumes and meals of officials and volunteers and are made through the City Architect’s Office, she revealed in an interview.

Legal accountability over public spending

Panagbenga’s public funding reached its peak in 2003 and 2004 when organizers, then led by Mayor Vergara as chairperson of the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. (BFFI) drew from the city treasury P2 million and P2.4 million, respectively.

Clemente said the amounts were drawn from the city as seed funds when the city took over the management of the flower festival. She claims the BFFI was able to raise P10 million in 2003 and another P12 million in 2004.

The amount were reportedly deposited in a private bank account in a government bank where expenses were allegedly drawn, free of the usual government accounting and budgeting procedures.

BFFI was formed in July 2002 after which the city council passed a resolution designating the mayor as the chair of a body to manage the flower festival.

Chie Galvez, secretary-general of the Tongtongan ti Umili, the urban chapter of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (TTU-CPA) said city officials should look into the audit report and exercise its authority over “erring public officials.”

“Public funds have to be accounted for and it is but apt for Baguio constituents to hold their officials responsible,” Galvez said in an interview. “Those found guilty of graft and corruption should be made to answer in the proper venue,” she added, insinuating the filing of graft charges before appropriate courts by concerned citizen groups.

TTU urged the present administration to pursue the resolution of the issues raised by the COA and have those accountable properly sanctioned.

The accounting report demanded of Manaois, Clemente, Tabin, Vergara and Domogan should once and for all be completed.

“The Baguio people have the right to know where their money was spent,” Galvez said.

“We also urge the Baguio citizenry to demand for transparency and accountability in the use of public funds for Panagbenga celebrations and all government transactions,” Galvez said in an interview.

Long and lonely crusade

Then Councilor Braulio Yaranon twice proposed a resolution asking for the accounting of city funds given to the 2003 and 2004 stagings of the flower festival. Yaranon then started claiming that millions in people’s taxes went to the pocket of politicians and their cohorts in city hall through the flower festival.

When he ran for the mayoralty seat in 2004, Yaranon made it his campaign battle cry to hold those accountable for the “theft of government funds,” that he created a multi-stakeholder group, the Baguio Flower Festival Association (BFFA) to handle the Flower festival during his term as the city mayor.

Yaranon claimed, not a single centavo from the government coffers was spent for the Panagbenga in 2005 and 2006, although Clemente said, there are drawings from the BFFI funds in those years.

Yaranon, however, kept the management of the festival to the government, although he involved the private sector and even the religious in running the affair.

Two Panagbengas

Tension loomed with dissatisfaction in running the 2005 Panagbenga. There was an over-extended celebration to cover losses incurred by the BFFA, which was then claiming that the extension in the trade fair would help recoup the losses.

What seemed wrong to the city council, however, was the involvement of a private promotions company, Publicis Dialogue, Inc. which took 25% of the promotions income, through a contract that the council did not confirm.

This built tension again between the legislative and the executive departments, which added more controversy in the 2005 Panagbenga, on top of other old controversies that allegedly marred the earlier flower fests.

Bangaoet resigned as co-chair of the BFFA and eventually managed the Adivay, another tourism-driven affair in nearby La Trinidad, Benguet, almost simultaneously with the Panagbenga that year.

In 2006, there were two bodies preparing for the Panagbenga, after the council returned the lead role to the BFFI, thus the controversial staging of two Panagbengas arising from its discontent over the alleged BFFA “failure” in 2005.

Obviously, Congressman Mauricio Domogan is allegedly the personality behind BFFI up to the present, while Yaranon allegedly controlled BFFA. Bangaoet and Catholic Bishop Carlito Cenzon were also involved in BFFI and BFFA, respectively.

Bautista boasted of a unified Panagbenga management in 2007. It was also returned to the original concept of a private-sector led; government-supported; and community-initiated tourism activity. Bangaoet called it his curtain call and made sure the holding of the activities was beyond criticism.

Again, organizers claimed no government funding for the flower fest and income was envisioned for the promotion of tourism and livelihood.

Next Week: Public view and the leaked audit report