ILOILO City – Business magnate Rogelio Florete Sr. is heading the Iloilo City Festivals Foundation, Inc. (ICFFI), a newly-formed foundation that will handle the staging of Dinagyang Festival and other festivals of the city.
ICCFI, made up of respected business executives mostly from the Filipino-Chinese community, held an organizational meeting yesterday. Mayor-elect Jerry Treñas said interim foundation officers were selected.
His only advice to them, he said, was, “Waay lang pulitika.”
Other interim officers of the foundation are:
* Felipe Uygongco – vice chairperson
* Atty. Jobert Peñaflorida – president
* Dr. Ronald Raymond Sebastian – vice president
* Roland Uy – treasurer
* Judgee Peña – public relations officer
The following are theICFFI members: John Alexander Que, Allan Ryan Tan, Phillip Chua, Joemarie Layson, Atty. Eugenio Hautea, Molly Grande, Ivy Gurrea, Angel de Leon Jr., and Honorato Espinosa.
Treñas’ incoming executive assistant for tourism Benito Jimena said the tripartite agreement for the staging of Dinagyang in January 2020 would soon be forged between the city government, ICFFI and Parish of San Jose de Placer.
He also said ICFFI should “make sure the festival will run on its own without consideration of what happened in the past.”
Early this week, Treñas confirmed his administration would no longer tap the Iloilo Dinagyang Foundation, Inc. (IDFI) as yearly partner of the city government for the festival’s staging.
IDFI got Treñas’ ire for not inviting him to the Dinagyang 2019.
It was during Treñas’ term as mayor from 2001 to 2010 that the private sector – the IDFI for that matter – was tapped as official managing partner of the Iloilo City government and the Parish of San Jose de Placer for the Dinagyang.
Treñas said that as an official of the city, he should have been invited and that the festival should have been spared from politics. He was then running for mayor against Mayor Jose Espinosa III.
Espinosa had long denied he had a hand in the non-invitation of Treñas to the 2019 Dinagyang.
“Wala ko gapahilabot sa program sang IDFI,” said Espinosa in a previous interview.
In deciding to drop IDFI, Treñas said there were people in the foundation that he could no longer work with.
Panay News tried to reach IDFI chairperson Ramon Cua-Locsin for comment but to no avail./PN
