CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Bugo National High School was adjudged as the champion in this year’s Higalaay Carnival Street Parade held Sunday afternoon, August 26, besting other 10 contingents.
Other winners were the Mamabuaya National High School and Macabalan National High School as first runner-up and second runner-up, respectively. The competition started at Luna-Velez Sts. and ended up at the Rodelsa Circle in Barangay Nazareth, while the Carnival Queen and King awards went to the Mambuaya National High School.
As part of its presentation, the contingent from Barangay Patag did a short dramatization of the conflict in Mindanao. The group also brought in a military truck to the contest venue as props.
The Higalaay Carnival Street Parade is one of the core events of Cagayan de Oro’s annual feast in honor of St. Augustine, the city’s patron saint, on August 27-28. Other core events included the dragon boat race, rodeo and horse show, Ms. Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao Fashion Summit, among others.
Meanwhile, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), upon the request of City Mayor Oscar Moreno, had ordered telecommunications companies to cut off their signal for three days during the holding of major activities from August 26-28.
Security precaution
In his August 24 memorandum, NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba had directed Globe Telecom Inc., Smart Communication Inc., Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc., and ABS-CBN Convergence Inc. to “temporarily cut off all network services along the routes of the following Higalaay Festival 2018 activities,” specifically the Higalaay Festival Carnival Street Parade on August 26, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Float and Civil Military Parade on August 27, from 7 a.m to 12 noon; and religious procession on August 28. From 4 a.m. to 8 a.m.
Responding to a complaint a netizen posted on social media, the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) spokesperson, Supt. Mardy Hortillosa, apologized for the jamming of the cellphone signal.
He added: “We are very sorry to cause this inconvenience to all,” Hortillosa said, “but our safety can’t be paid with our convenience. It’s better to sacrifice for a little bit rather than to suffer the consequences that we will regret.”
“It’s very easy to say it now that this idea is not good but try to imagine if there will be an unexpected terroristic attack that will happen in the city just because we failed to do this? Hope that everybody will understand that safety and security are better than convenience,” he added. (Jigger Jerusalem/PNA)
