BAGUIO CITY – A city-wide guided tour of art hubs dubbed “Creative Crawl Tour” will spice up the 1st Baguio Creative Festival (“ENTAcool!”) slated on Nov. 10-18 in various venues.
City Tourism Operations Officer Aloysius Mapalo said the Creative Crawl tour to be spearheaded by the Dept. of Tourism Cordillera will run throughout the festival and will feature a daily excursion to the various creative spaces which were grouped into five “circuits.”
Circuit 1 covers the BenCab Museum which features artworks exhibit and gallery by national artist Benedicto Cabrera and indigenous northern highland artifacts exhibits; Asin Woodcarvers Village (woodcarving and weaving and bamboo crafts); Dominican Hill Heritage Site (venue of the “Kulay ng Siglo” Visual and Media Arts Gallery and Workshop; and the Baguio City Museum;
Circuit 2: Tam-awan Village (An art and cultural village featuring Cordilleran folk art and cuisine, uniquely local solar and sand painting; Easter Weaving (Home of quality hand-woven products now with a wide array of other local handicrafts); Narda’s Weaving and Handicrafts (World-renowned hand-woven arts and crafts); and UP Museo Kordilyera (Ethnographic exhibits and gallery);
Circuit 3: Villa Romana (Venue of Tinatik Art Exhibits and Workshop); Hanan’chi Creations (An independent art space with installations and crafts made of metal and wood); Philippine Treasures (Locally designed and customized handicrafts and home decors); and OTOP Philippines Hub (Buyers’ showcase and gallery for local crafts products like weaving, silvercrafts and woodcarving);
Circuit 4: Bell House, Camp John Hay (Photo and Art Gallery Exhibition by BenCab in conjunction with the Forest Bathing project of DOTCAR); Pilak Silver Crafts (Locally designed and crafted sterling silver crafts and accessories); Aguinaldo Museum Park (Bamboo installations by Edgar Banasan); Baguio Media Newseum (Interactive edutainment center that focuses on media methods and techniques, emphasis on print, radio, television and the power of the new media; and Creative Brewery at St. Louis University (Metal Art Studio and Gallery by Archt. Dulthe Carlo Munar); and
Circuit 5: Mt. Cloud Bookshop (An independent bookshop and gallery); Vocas (Victor Oteyza Community Art Space) (A vegetarian café featuring organic cuisines and mini art gallery); Ili Likha Artist Village (An art hub conceptualized by Kidlat Tahimik, designed as a treehouse of various art experiences: gastronomy, independent cinema, art appreciation); Pasakalye Art Space; and Latag @ Malcolm Square (A fair featuring independent local handcraftsmen and street busking and performances).
Open to tourists and residents, the activity aims to drumbeat the city’s various art hubs as tourist attractions.
The Creative Crawl Map used in the tour will also serve as an avenue to build a “Creative Baguio” image and sustain it beyond the festival along with an active online portal among which the official Creative Baguio website www.creativebaguio.com .
The DOT-CAR said all five Creative Crawls will include transportation and tour guides at a package promo cost of P999 plus a raffle entry if availing of all the crawls although the crawls can be availed of separately.
Each circuit tour lasts for four hours. Assembly time for circuits 1 and 2 will be at 7:30 a.m. while circuits 3-5 will be at 12:30 p.m.
Daily raffle winners will be given special prizes, which can be claimed at the Latag Fair in Malcolm Square. Winners will be announced daily from Nov 14 to 18, 2018.
By: Aileen P. Refuerzo
Release No.
baguio traders sue benguet gov’t over animal quarantine rule
BAGUIO CITY – Meat and fish product dealers in the city have challenged in Court Benguet Province’s Ordinance No. 17-216 imposing animal quarantine regulations including the collection of fees on meat products that pass through checkpoints in the province.
Businessman Rosito Domingo Jr. and the Baguio Fresh Market Unity Development Association which he heads last Thursday filed a case docketed at the Regional Trial Court as Civil Case No. 18-CV-4312 for “injunction and declaration of nullity of (the said measure) with prayer for issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction.”
In the complaint, the plaintiffs said that while the ordinance was adopted in September, 2017 and implemented in February this year supposedly to prevent the entry and spread of diseases, it did not provide procedures for determining if the products were exposed to diseases or for addressing the prevention of spread of said infections.
They questioned the imposition and collection of fees, fines and penalties over goods “merely passing through Benguet en route Baguio City” which they said violates section 133 of Republic Act 7160 or the Local Government Code which prohibits the “exaction of fees, administrative fines and penalties over goods carried into or out of, or passing through, the territorial jurisdiction of Local Government Units.”
They added that the Food Safety Act of 2013 “limits the food safety functions of the LGUs (and) does not include collection of monies in relation to purported inspection of goods merely passing through its boundaries en route another point of destination.”
The same act, they argued, vested various agencies known to have knowledge and expertise with the same regulatory tasks “far removing the Province from its current ‘lone’ venture under Ordinance 17-216 for lack of needed expertise, tools, implements and manpower.”
They said the authority given to the provincial veterinarian through the ordinance to create and hire quarantine officers, designate tasks and operation of quarantine checkpoints, order the payment of fees, fines and penalties without giving the purported violators a day in court and order confiscation of good without the violators being accorded due process of law is without basis.
In pleading for the issuance of a TRO or writ of injunction, the petitioners offered that they have the right to be protected of their businesses and goods being legitimate businessmen.
They said that the ordinance violated their right to conduct lawful business and to due process given the provisions of section 133 of RA 7160, the Food Safety act of 2013 and section 1, Article III of the 1987 Constitution and that “there is an urgent and permanent act and urgent necessity for the writ to prevent serious damage.”
The petitioners also sought an order for the reimbursement of the monies collected and eventually issued an order for a permanent injunction and for the declaration of said ordinance as null and void.
The hearing for the motion of preliminary injunction has been set for Nov. 8 at the RTC Branch 63.
Mayor Mauricio Domogan on Wednesday expressed regret that the provincial board insisted on implementing the ordinance despite questions from the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Benguet.
He said a continuing dialogue with the Benguet officials is a must to ensure that the move is rationalized. – Aileen P. Refuerzo
