Alcoy ‘almost missed Sinulog’

ALCOY’s Siloy Festival, the grand champion in the Sinulog-based category last Sunday, almost didn’t join the contest for lack of funds.

Vice Mayor Antonio Plando said that if not for the P150,000 cash assistance from the Cebu Provincial Government, they would have opted to defer their plans of joining the Sinulog sa Kabataan sa Lalawigan.

Alcoy defended their title, which they first won in 2007.

During Tuesday’s giving of Capitol’s incentives to the winning delegations from the province, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia narrated that days before the competition Plando and Mayor Nicomedes de los Santos visited her to ask for support.

The governor said she could not forget the faces of de los Santos and Plando.

“They kept staring at their shoes. They said they it would be awkward if they did not join because they were the defending champion. But they said they could not afford it. They asked me if I could help. When I said, of course I will help you, it was then that they pulled out a resolution,” Garcia said in Cebuano.

“I knew that with the Siloy festival, we have a winner,” added Garcia.

As she promised earlier, Garcia gave P100,000 to Alcoy, P50,000 to Carmen and P25,000 to the city of Carcar.

Carmen won second place in the free interpretation category while Carcar City got fifth place in the Sinulog-based category.

Carmen also got the best in costume award and placed third in street dancing.

Garcia said that the incentive she gave is for the pride and honor the delegations gave to the province and “for continually pushing the bar and relentlessly seeking that which is better.”

The governor also challenged other municipalities to join the next Sinulog competition, assuring them of her support.

“While I am governor, I will accept responsibility of showing the youth that this is our culture,” she said.

Alcoy and Carcar City will show their winning performances to tourists who will join the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo Southern Heritage Trail, which will start today. (KNT)