ILOILO City – For the second straight year, there won’t be a grand Chinese New Year celebration here.
The Chinese New this 2022 falls on Feb. 1.
The Chinese-Filipino community, wary of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, is not staging events that could attract huge crowds and violate health protocols such as physical distancing.
“We have no gathering. We have to prevent (close) contact (among people),” said Dr. Felipe Uygongco, respected Chinese-Filipino community civic leader and businessman.
Large gatherings are prohibited due to the pandemic.
Pre-pandemic, the Chinese New Year celebration in Iloilo City was considered the biggest outside Metro Manila and made lively by an estimated 3,000 mostly students from Chinese schools Hua Siong College of Iloilo, Ateneo de Iloilo, Sun Yat Sen, and Iloilo Scholastic Academy.
It featured a colorful Chinese lantern parade downtown, spectacular fireworks display, a grand cultural show at the Filipino-Chinese Friendship Arch on Plazoleta Gay (a busy intersection of three major downtown streets JM Basa, Iznart and Ledesma), and food festival showcasing the unique Chinese culture and traditions.
This year, just like last year, members of the Chinese-Filipino community will just welcome the new year in their respective homes, said Uygongco.
Mayor Jerry Treñas initiated the yearly Chinese New Year celebration in 2003 as a way of recognizing the significant contributions of the Chinese-Filipino community to the city’s booming economy.
The metropolis is home to some 13,000 Chinese-Filipino.
There are a lot of active Chinese-Filipino organizations in Iloilo. Among these are the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Iloilo, Inc., the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Panay, Inc., and the Philippine-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Panay Chapter./PN
