BAGUIO CITY- Panagbenga 2018 ended with a fireworks display in five designated places Sunday night, after the closing and awarding ceremonies at the Athletic Bowl, Burnham Park.
Winners in the different contests including the small and big float categories and the streetdancing parade received citations and cash awards, from city officials and the Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. officials.
The Baguio Central School placed first in the streetdancing elementary category with a P250,000 cash prize; Mabini Elementary School in second place with P200,000 and Manuel Quezon ES in the third place with a P150,000 cash award.
For the streetdancing high school category, the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School romped off with the first prize and the P250,000 cash award, followed by the Baguio City and Pines City National High Schools, with P200,000 and P150,000 cash awards, respectively.
For the open category, synchronized dancing with excellent storylines catapulted the Saint Louis University into the champion’s lane, upstaging last year’s top awardee Tribu Tinungbo, of the Pugo Catholic High School of La Union.
The two winners got P300,000 and P250,000 cash prizes, respectively, with third placer Tribu Rambak of Umingan National High School, Umingan, Pangasinan going home with P200,000.
The elementary streetdancers won over 11 contenders and later, 8 finalists; the high schoolers had only five contenders and for the open category, there were 14 participants from Baguio, La Trinidad, Benguet, Mt. Province, Kalinga, La Union and Aurora who danced their way from the Panagbenga park to Session road, Magsaysay avenue, and Harrison road up to the Athletic Bowl for the showdown.
For the small floral float category, Maybank won the top plum for the second year, with Saleng Garden-Metro Pacific at second place. Coca-cola with its red-maroon color and the familiar logo won third place.
Master Siomai won over 11 participants in the big floral float category, with MLhuillier at second and Sitel at third place.
March 4 also marked the last day for Session Road in bloom with products and gastronomic delights in outdoor cafes at the city’s main thoroughfare. The Little Miss Panagbenga contest was also conducted at the Melvin Jones Grandstand, Burnham Park at 5 PM.
The theme for this year’s Panagbenga is “Celebrating Culture and Creativity” in line with the creative cities award given by UNESCO.
By: Julie G. Fianza
