By Nora Soriño
Iligan City Bureau Chief
and Sita Asequia
Correspondent
Iligan City — A city councilor here explained why the decors in a Christmas tree here seemed sparse and thus the subject of bashings in social media.
Councilor Rudolph Tamula who spearheaded that city project explained during the Sangguniang Panlungsod regular session on Monday that the cost of such a project is only P750,000 and the aim of the city is to put up the “tallest” Christmas tree, and “not necessarily the grandest.”
This was achieved and at 203 feet tall, it is easily the “tallest tree” not only of this region but the whole country as well.
Koronadal, he said, which also boasts of a “very tall tree” is only 120 feet tall, Tamula said. Tagum city has 193 feet, he said, and they have millions of pesos in budgets.
This was lighted last Friday and he admitted that there were “five or six stars” that did not light up. Because of that, some business establishments here offered to assist, like Holcim and Jollibee.
He said the city would appreciate such simple help as adding some stars, never mind such things as pizza or other goodies.
The triangle in the tree signified the branches of government, he said, the executive, legislative and the judiciary. The buntings around it signify the “cooperation of the people.’’ It is a sturdy tree, complete with braces so that it won’t fall down in the case of a storm, even with its weight, unlike some Christmas trees in some places which fell down during some storm.
But there have been bashers, especially on social media he said, as “you really cannot please everybody.”
The controversial tree is at Centennial Park at Dalipuga this city.
Dalipuga, to note, is near the first municipality of Misamis Oriental which is Lugait.
