Mandaue ‘monsters’ ready to spook visitors

The cast of characters of Mandaue City’s Horror booth get ready for the opening on Oct. 29 proceeds will benefit Mandaue’s indigent children. (CDN PHOTO/ NORMAN V. MENDOZA)

After skipping last year’s horror booth because of the Oct. 15-earthquake, the Mandaue city government again holds the activity this year to fund this December’s congress for indigent children.

Monsters, souls in distress and other such characters usually present in the All Souls’ Day celebration will again delight, or scare, horror booth goers as Sarah Cortes, wife of Mayor Jonas Cortes who chairs the Mandaue City Council for the Protection of Children and the Kaabag Inc. organize the Mandaue Horror Booth 2014.

“It will be a lot of fun this year as we will be creating again some new presentations to really attract the horror booth goers,” said Sarah Cortes.

To address the long queues usually experienced in previous events, Cortes said they will be creating three chambers which will include a child-friendly one where children can tolerate and enjoy the characters.

Entrance in each chamber is P20 per person, but children below 11 years old, pregnant women and people with hypertension or heart ailment are not allowed inside.

Notices will be posted at the entrance for the do’s and don’ts, and the casts are prohibited from touching guests, who are also barred from hurting the casts.

The booth will open on October 29 and will end on November 2, from 1:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight.

Revenues from the booth was P334,000 in 2012 after organizers spent P185,000 for the activity.  This year’s proceeds will help fund this year’s children’s party or the “iKids Congress” on December 22 wherein 650 indigent children will be treated to food and games.

Maricel Yu, the vice chairman of Mandaue City Council for the Protection of Children, said child-beneficiaries are selected from the poorest of the poor as determined by the barangay and social welfare department.

She said that the Mandaue city government is doing its best to take care of the indigent children including those in conflict with the law, the abandoned and the abused.

“Next week, we will be inaugurating the children’s center at Dunggoan Basak, Mandaue as phase 1 has already been done, and will soon start operating maybe in the first quarter of next year as we are waiting for the operational funds,”  Yu said.

The horror booth started in 2011 as an initiative of the Mandaue mayor’s wife.