Tribu Sinanduloy of Tangub City, a perennial winner in the Sinulog grand parade won’t be defending its Sinulog-based title next year.
CDN FILE PHOTO
ONE of the most beloved contingents in the history of the Sinulog Festival will not be joining next year’s festivities.
Councilor Dave Tumulak, the over-all chairperson of the executive committee of the Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI), told Cebu Daily News yesterday that the Sinanduloy Cultural Troupe of Tangub City, Misamis Occidental, will not be making a comeback in the competition.
“I just received information from them on Friday afternoon, expressing their intentions not to join in the competition. They said they have other events to attend to during the Sinulog season,” said Tumulak.
Last November 7, Tumulak announced that the multi-titled contingent and a perennial crowd favorite expressed intentions to join Sinulog 2019 after taking a one-year break.
The delegation was declared grand prize winner in the Sinulog Based category 10 times (2002, 2003, 2005-2007, 2009-2011, 2013 and last year) and twice in the Free Interpretation category (2000 and 2001).
Fewer contingents
Tumulak also said that the number of contingents for Sinulog 2019 is fewer compared to this year.
SFI has tallied only 23 contingents who will be competing in the Sinulog Grand Parade this January 20 compared to 27 delegations this year.
Competing delegations
Competing contingents from Cebu City are Barangays Sapangdaku, San Nicolas Proper, Mambaling, Talamban, Cambinucot, Basak San Nicolas, Mabolo, Suba, Sawang Calero, Cogon-Ramos, Inayawan, Bulacao, Labangon and Guadalupe.
Cebu province has Carcar City, Bogo City, Talisay City, Toledo City and the towns of Ginatilan, Consolacion and Daanbantayan.
There are also only two out-of-town contingents for next year compared to four this year namely Placer, Surigao del Norte and Murcia, Negros Oriental.
Tumulak believes that the drop in the number of contingents can be attributed to the rising inflation.
Changes
This, he said, prompted the executive committee to enact some changes in the criteria for the grand parade contest to cushion the impact of the rising prices of goods.
“We understand and anticipated that one of the major reasons why some contingents will not be able to join in Sinulog 2019 is because of inflation,” said Tumulak.
As a result, they trimmed down the percentage for props from 10 percent to five percent while increasing the criterion for performance from 25 percent to 30 percent.
“During one of our meetings, we thought and agreed that the props criterion is directly affected by the inflation. That’s why we decided to decrease it to five percent so that others can still join without worrying too much on spending for their props,” Tumulak added.
The percentages for the remaining criteria, however, were retained.
Theme and concept will remain at 10 percent, choreography at 25 percent, costume at 20 percent, and musicality at 10 percent.