Paknaan, Mandaue to stage 7th Silhig Festival
CEBU, Philippines — For the seventh time, Barangay Paknaan in Mandaue City will stage its annual Silhig Festival, a means of promoting its main product — brooms.
“Ang main purpose ana para ma-highlight amo main product (silhig or broom),” said Paknaan Barangay Captain Malaquias Soco.
He said the silhig lanot producers in their barangay will showcase the broom made from buri.
The festival, slated for February 3, will be joined in by eight contingents from the barangay’s 24 sitios. They will compete in the street dancing and showdown competition.
The showdown winner will receive P25,000. The second and third prizes will receive P20,000 and P15,000, respectively.
Non-winners will also receive P8,000 each as consolation prizes.
To give way to the street dancing, the barangay will be closing its roads, including Plaridel Street, A. Sanchez Street, and S.E. Jayme Street, for four hours from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Aside from the festival, the 32nd search for Miss Paknaan 2018 is also one of the highlights of the annual celebration. Fifteen candidates representing the barangay’s sitios will compete in the pageant.
The pageant will be held on the evening of February 2 at the Paknaan gymnasium.
The Silhig Festival was launched in 2012 in a bid to attract more investors and showcase the barangay's main source of livelihood, "silhig lanot" or broom. It’s part of the fiesta celebration of the barangay which honors the Holy Child, Senior Sto. Niño.
Soco said Barangay Paknaan is the biggest supplier of silhig lanot in the country.
He earlier said 15 percent of the livelihood and businesses in their barangay are related to broom-making, a skill that was passed to them by their elders.
The Paknaanon Multi-purpose Cooperative buys all the brooms made by its constituents and distributes these products nationwide.
Soco said their products are also part #IamMandaue expos, and some of these are reportedly being shipped abroad. (FREEMAN)
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