by Rene V. Carbayas
ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Apr 30 (PIA) –
Colorful street dancers from the five clustered groups of the forty-five
barangays adorned the main thoroughfares as Isabela City marks its 11th
Founding Anniversary Wednesday (April 25).
Various activities filled the week-long
celebration of the Cocowayan Festival, which culminated on April 25 with street
dancing, to include medical and dental outreach program, hip-hop and ballroom
dance competitions, mural-wall painting competition, a mass wedding, some
sports events for city employees, and the soft opening of the city’s children’s
mini-library and playhouse center.
In her message, City Mayor Cherrylyn
Santos-Akbar congratulated the city officials and employees and constituents
for the successful celebration of the city’s founding anniversary.
“For the past eleven years, all of us have
been part of this celebration. I would like to thank all of you for supporting
my administration,” the mayor said as she takes pride of the significant
accomplishments of her administration in terms of infrastructure projects and
services.
“We have done so many things for Isabelaños.
We have served many poor individuals and families especially in burial
assistance, medicines, and medical services, PhilHealth insurance, assisted
many groups and organizations like the senior citizens in their different
activities, provided scholarship programs to the indigent and deserving
students, supported the military, police and barangay officials for peace and
progress. All of these projects are visible anywhere in the city,” she said.
The mayor proudly announced, too, that
anytime this May, the groundbreaking of the new city police station will be
conducted, wherein the DILG Secretary Jessie Robredo has allocated some Php10
million for its construction.
The lady mayor further reiterated her
advocacy of unity and cooperation as key to the progress, peace, and
development of the city. “I believe, we can never attain peace if we are not
united. We have to understand and respect people around us, help others with
sincerity, be committed in our actions with the hope to reach-out to other
people in the community,” she said.
“It is our social and moral responsibility to
help the needy,” she stressed, as she renewed her call for cooperation and
unity toward better quality of life.
Impressed with the participation and efforts
of the street dance contingents, the mayor gave additional Php10,000.00 for
each group on top of the cash prizes. The contingent from cluster 3 bagged the
Php100,000.00 1st prize plus P10,000.00, which consist of Carbon,
Diki, Lampinigan, Lukbuton, Marang-Marang, Panigayan, Sta. Barbara, Tampalan,
and Balatanay barangays.
Second and third placers get P80,000.00 and
P60,000.00 cash prize, respectively. The rest gets a consolation prize of
P50,000.00.
The rain before the last contingent completed
its performance did not dampen the festive mood of the people. At the awarding
ceremony of the winners, the mayor went down from the comfort of the makeshift
stage and joined the street dancers under the rain, bare-footed.
The Cocowayan festival is a local annual
celebration of the cityhood of Isabela. Cocowayan is coined from two dominant products: coconut
and kawayan.