BAGUIO CITY – Some 30,000 people from all walks of life in various parts of Northern Luzon gathered along the 3-kilometer parade route from Upper Session road up to the premises of the Baguio Country Club (BCC) to have a close glimpse of the visiting Miss Universe contestants who arrived in the city Wednesday morning.
As early as 6 a.m., residents and visitors started to converge along the designated parade route to have a closer look at the 28 visiting beauty contestants from different countries and reigning Miss Universe titlist Pia Wurtzbach who arrived in the city shortly after 8 a.m., amidst the tight security implemented by local and international organizers.
The visiting Miss Universe contestants arrived in the city in two batches and were greeted at the Loakan airport by the famous silent drill of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) cadets who accorded them the draw-sword upon coming out of the chartered fights.
After being warmly welcomed by city officials led by Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan and officials and members of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB), the beauty contestants were ferried by bus from the Loakan airport to the assembly point of the parade at Upper Session road where they were again warmly greeted with cheers from well-wishers upon their arrival around 10:30 am.
The visiting beauty contestants boarded three flower decorated floats prepared by HRAB with island group motif of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, while Wurtzbach boarded the float that depicted the Baguio Country Club, the only exclusive club in the Summer Capital.
The parading floats were escorted by visiting and local marching bands and streetdancing contingents led by the famous PMA band, Saint Louis University (SLU) band, Baguio City National High School (BCNHS) band, Tabuk City drum and lyre contingent, Baguio Central School, Mabini Elementary School and other drum and lyre performers from the city.
The beauty contestants were obviously elated over the warm welcome and festive mood displayed by the performers and the residents and visitors as they were all smiles while they waved back to the onlookers along the parade route returning the compliment of their cheers.
Local organizers took time in ensuring the availability of the different kinds of flowers and orchids that were used to decorate the floats where the visiting beauty contestants rode and were paraded along the parade route.
Mayor Domogan expressed the local government’s gratitude to the residents and visitors who spared part of their time just to be along the parade route and patiently awaited the arrival of the beauties in time for the scheduled mini-streetdancing and mini-float parade which were accorded them.
Domogan also extended the city’s sincerest gratitude to HRAB and BCC management for taking the cudgels of making sure that Baguio City is one of the few places in the country to be visited by the Miss Universe contestants, saying that the time, effort and most especially their resources, used in this once-in-a-lifetime event in the city helped in directly and indirectly promoting the city as a prime tourist destination in the different parts of the world, thus, the fruits of the consolidated efforts among all the involved sectors will hopefully be reaped in the future. By Dexter A. See