BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance institutionalizing the Colors of Incredible India festival and making it a regular annual activity of the local government.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Lilia A. Fariñas stated that November 27 every year is the day commemorating the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and the Philippines and recognizes its celebration on a day nearest to the said date or as may be decided by the committee which will be created.
The ordinance added that a committee composed of the chairman of the Baguio Filipino-Indian community, the Baguio museum president, the chairperson of the City Council Committee on Tourism, Special Events, Parks and Playgrounds, the City Tourism Officer, and other members which the committee deems necessary to include, to coordinate the activities spearheaded for the said purpose.
The ordinance stipulated that all activities in relation to the celebration of the Colors of Incredible India festival shall be included in the calendar of activities of the local government annually.
Proclamation No. 1924 declared the month of November 2009 as the Philippines-India Friendship month by former President and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and for this year, the 69th anniversary of the Philippine-India diplomatic relations will be commemorated.
According to the proposed ordinance, the first Bollywood festival happened during the centennial year celebration of Baguio in 2009 when Ram Sharma and Dipac Punjabi, international core group members of the Baguio Museum organized the festival at the Baguio Museum and SM City Baguio in tandem with the local government’s celebration of the program entitled, Baguio, A Melting Pot Celebration at the Baguio Museum.
For this year’s event, the ordinance claimed that it will be a celebration of the Colors of Incredible India which focuses on the beauty of India sites and destinations, culture, heritage, food and traditions and intends to gather the Indian community and their families in Baguio again.
Pioneering Indian families in the early 1930s started to settle in Baguio and established businesses, and to date, the community has grown, which therefore, warrants the celebration of the Colors of Incredible India 2018 to honor and highlight Indian contributions to the history of Baguio.
Earlier, the Philippines established diplomatic relations with India on November 26, 1949 where the first Philippine envoy to India was the late Foreign Secretary Narciso Ramos. Five years after India’s independence in 1947, the Philippines and India signed a treaty of friendship on July 11, 1952 in Manila to strengthen the friendly relations between the two countries and soon after, the Philippine established an office in New Delhi which was later elevated to an embassy.
As a result of the bipolar alliance structure of the Cold War and foreign policy differences, the ordinance explained the development of bilateral relations was stunted and it was only in 1976 that relations started to normalize. By Dexter A. See
