City to ‘showcase’ Sinulog in quincentennial celebration

CEBU, Philippines — After the cancellation of major Sinulog activities last week due to the pandemic, the Sinulog performances for the celebration of the 500 years of Christianity in April would depend on the trend in COVID-19 cases in Cebu City.

Acting Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, the overall convener of the Sinulog this year, said they are seeing the quincentennial celebration as an opportunity to showcase the Sinulog.

But he said they are yet to decide whether the performances will be done physically or virtually.

He said they are coordinating with the church for the performances of the Sinulog contingents.

The acting mayor also mentioned that they are set to have a meeting with regard to the matter to ensure that health and safety protocols will be strictly observed.

To recall, the Sinulog Foundation Inc. (SFI) cancelled the Sinulog ritual showdown on January 17 following the recommendation of the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force-7 for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (RIATF7-MEID)

The RIATF-7-MEID discouraged all physical and actual performance-based Sinulog Festival activities in Cebu City.

“Even with limiting the number of performers/participants for each contingent or holding of the said activities through a ‘bubble’ concept or even pre-recording the videos of the performances of the performers/contingents in their respective places, it will nevertheless pose an increasing risk of being infected with COVID-19 and/or transmitting the virus since it still requires the performers to gather and interact during their rehearsals and actual performance for the video recordings and will still likely to draw crowds, which may be difficult to be controlled by the law enforcement agencies due to the limited security personnel,” read RIATF-7-MEID Resolution No. 97.

The SFI together with the executive committee decided to shelve the ritual competition.

The activity last Sunday was a virtual Sinulog Grand Rewind wherein performances of the winners from different Sinulog categories through the years were aired online.

Rama said the executive committee is continuously communicating with the choreographers.

The acting mayor also expressed his gratitude to the media for their contribution in the success of the virtual Sinulog Grand Rewind. — KQD (FREEMAN)