COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Government and private sector have joined hands to launch the 1st Sagayan Festival in Maguindanao from February 10 to 14 as an aggressive drive for an enhanced ecotourism promotion meant to showcase local potentials dwarfed by the adverse effects of the infamous 2009 massacre of 58 people including journalists in the province.

Organizers said Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu, who lost his wife and several relatives in the massacre, has formed various committees including the media to promote a better image of his province through the conduct of an institutionalized festival starting this year.

They said a press conference will be conducted in Buluan town, the transitional capital of Maguindanao, to drumbeat the significance of the Sagayan Festival and other accompanying activities that would culminate on Valentine’s Day.

The origin of Sagayan, a Moro ethnic warriors’ dance featured regularly in foreign and national activities, is traced in Maguindanao and Lanao provinces but it has been dismally promoted by residents for their tourism potentials, organizers said.

Raquel Magalona, overall feast coordinator, said the maiden Sagayan Festival will formally begin on February 10 with a parade in Buluan of hundreds of officials and residents from the 32 towns of Maguindanao wearing colorful Moro woven dresses representing their tribes and ethnicities.

She said a grand pagana (food offering and thanksgiving) will follow after the parade to serve the guests and participants with Moro delicacies and dishes including varied cuisines of tilapia that abound in Lake Buluan.

Magalona said the five-day activities will also feature street dance competition, carabao and horse fight, a contest among choral groups representing schools in Maguindanao, and a kulintang rendition tilt.

Apart from the cultural presentations, some concerned government agencies will conduct free dental and medical services, a jobs fair, technical demonstration of T-shirt printing, palm oil and rubber tree farming, and other ecotourism activities, Magalona said.

In another development, the Sangguniang Panglunsod (SP) here has passed a resolution seeking President Aquino’s intervention in the growing clamor for improved peace and security situation in Cotabato City.

Lawyer Froilan Melendrez, a senior SP member, said in a radio interview here Thursday that the passage of the resolution this week was prompted by the City Legislature’s receipt of a police report showing that 85 murders had been committed in this city last year with dismal rate of resolution.

Melendrez said such volume of murder incidents was a record high in the city, and has caused a scary among residents especially the business community.

He said the original copy of the resolution was sent to President Aquino asking him fervently to order the substitution of the Marine Battalion Landing Team-7 with another Marine team, the replacement of the current city police director, and the creation of a task force to be led by the 6th Infantry Division in replacement of the police-led Task Force Cotabato.

Melendrez said the passage of the resolution was also prompted by the sluggish dispensation of justice in the January 10 foiled assassination plot on Vice Mayor Muslimin Sema, who was wounded in the jaw by motorcycle-riding gunmen in the ambush.

He hinted that the city’s current law enforcement, investigation and security setups are appeared to be “partial” for a few local groups or sectors.