Contingents of the Haladaya Festival. (CDN PHOTO/NORMAN MENDOZA)
A smaller budget and fewer contingents have not prevented Daanbantayan residents from enjoying this year’s Haladaya Festival which is held as part of the town’s annual fiesta celebration in honor of Sta. Rosa de Lima.
Around 10,000 people gathered at the municipal grand stand last Saturday to witness the showdown of dances from five clustered contingents for the 12th Haladaya festival.
The parade of colorful costumes started at the municipal plaza grounds, and contingents danced their way to the streets in a show of recovery from supertyphoon Yolanda which hit last Nov. 8.
The festival showcases the town’s history and is named after Datu Daya who led their community before the Spaniards came.
It depicts the celebration of the tribe’s triumphant victory against foreign invaders and was conceptualized during the time of former governor and now Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia’s tourism efforts.
John Chao Ling Valiente, chairman of the Haladaya Festival 2014, said there were more contingents during the administration of former mayor Ma. Luisa Loot, but the audience has grown over the years.
“We had more contingents in her time as the province poured in bigger budgets. Now due to budget constraints, we just clustered them into five groups,” said Valiente.
The grand champion for this year was “Tribu Kasikas sa Kandaya” composed of barangays Maya, Logon, Talisay and Tominjao.
They went home with P50,000 cash.