BAGUIO CITY – Politicians wanting to join the various activities lined up for the month-long 15th staging of the Panagbenga or Baguio Flower Festival will be allowed to do so provided they will strictly abide by the stringent rules crafted by the organizers of the city-s crowd-drawing activity.

The Panagbenga will officially kick off on Feb. 1 and will commence on March 7, with colorful and flower-based activities lined up for the benefit of local residents as well as foreign and domestic tourists who may want to join the festival.

Anthony de Leon, chairman of the Panagbenga organizing committee, said politicians and their supporters will be allowed to join the float parade provided they will come out with their own flower-based floats but they will not be allowed to break the parade line and shake hands with the thousands of spectators along the way in order not to disrupt the smooth flow of the parade.

Supporters of politicians will not also be allowed to distribute their campaign materials to the spectators so that the attention of the people will be on the colorful and attractive floats and not on the national and local candidates who will be joining the different activities for the flower festival.

De Leon warned national candidates to properly advise their supporters to strictly adhere to the parade rules since assigned marshals will not hesitate to pull them out from the parade line and the crowd if they will insist on distributing the campaign materials of their benefactors.

The Panagbenga will fire off on February 1, with the conduct of the elimination round for the hundreds of elementary and secondary schools interested to actively participate in the colorful street dancing parade so that the number of participants will be reduced to a manageable number.

Highlights of this year’s Panagbenga include the fluvial parade at the Burnham Lake on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day; streetdancing parade on Feb. 27,; float parade on Feb. 28 and week-long Session Road in Bloom on March 1-7.

At the same time, a market encounter where flowers and flower-based products will be displayed will be held at the premises of Burnham Park, the city’s premier tourist destination, from Feb. 1 to March 7 so that visitors and residents will be given a chance to witness world-class floral arrangements as well as innovative flower-based products from different parts of Northern Luzon.