BAGUIO CITY – The Baguio Flower Festival Foundation, Inc. (BFFFI) will conduct an investigation on the alleged violation of the rules and regulations in the participation of some politicians and members of their families to the grand float parade that earned mixed reactions from netizens as reflected in their social media posts over the past several days.
BFFFI Chairman Emeritus lawyer Mauricio G. Domogan said that the penalty that will be imposed by the organizers to the individuals, groups or companies that violated the parade rules will be for them to be banned from participating in future parades of the annual flower festival once there will be compelling evidence for the foundation to impose the said penalty.
He pointed out that it was clear from the start that local and national politicians who will participate in the grand floral float parade will be allowed to ride their own float, provided that, they should not break the line, they should not be distributing campaign paraphernalia, the should not be going down their float and shake hands with the crowd and for them to unload at the end of the parade at the Melvin Jones football field.
However, some occupants of a float, including a national politician, reportedly broke the line by alighting from the designated float at the junction of Harrison road and Abanao St. and reportedly shook hands with the crowd before boarding the vehicle assigned to bring the said official to the airport to catch a flight while the occupants of another float were seen distributing campaign paraphernalia for a member of a political family who was not in the float.
For his part, BFFFI president Freddie Alquiros pointed out that the occupants of the float where a national figure was on board were reported to have been wearing campaign shirts right from the start of the grand float parade.
He said that the organizers reminded the said occupants to either alight from the float and not continue with their participation to the parade or wear jackets to cover their campaign shirts pursuant to the established rules and regulations where they reportedly complied with the latter.
According to him, the grand float parade proceeded smoothly until the said national figure reportedly alighted from the designated float along the parade road to be able to catch up with a flight which will still be subject to the necessary investigation to be conducted by the organizers in fairness to the concerned personalities being dragged into the said issue.
BFFFI officials appealed to netizens to be responsible social media users by not immediately concluding allegations against the foundation with no concrete evidence, such as the organizers reportedly receiving certain amount of money to allow the participation of the floats to the said parade.
Alquiros, together with Panagbenga Executive Committee Chairman and Baguio Country Club (BCC) General Manager Anthony de Leon, vehemently denied these allegations and reiterated that the foundation never gets any funds from individuals, groups and corporations in exchange for their being prioritized to join any flower festival activity since they do not want to ruin the integrity and credibility of the organizers from being dragged into petty issues.
The BFFFI assured the public that it will come out with the details of the said incidents once the concerned committees will come up with their findings and recommendations that will be adopted by the Board of Trustees. By Dexter A. See
