CAGAYAN de Oro City Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy has vowed to fix the glitches surrounding the sub-standard handling of the recent Higalaay Festival pageantry.
Uy, however, said the discrepancies will only be ironed out if the pageant's responsibility will be given back to the local government.
“If the City Council will go for it in taking back the pageantry’s franchise then I will support them all out. The mayor’s power is with the Council’s approval too,” said Uy when asked to comment on the Miss Cagayan de Oro 2022 controversy.
It was city councilor Edgar Cabanlas who raised some of the pageant’s notable issues, apparently triggered by a male group of performers who sang out of key during the grand coronation night.
Uy also agreed that the pageant’s cash prizes of P50,000 each to the top three winners and P10,000 to the fourth placer are not reasonable.
“The prizes are really small not at par for a big city like Cagayan de Oro,” Uy said, assuring that things will change for the better next year with the local government at the helm.
“Increasing the prizes will surely motivate the candidates to perform better because preparing and undergoing training for the contest is not an easy task. I understand that they also spent a considerable amount on their trainers,” Uy said.
Cabanlas ranted during the 20th City Council meeting about how the amateurish singers spoiled the city fiesta’s major highlight that was streamed live on Facebook via Parasat Cable TV.
The winners of the Mister Teen International Philippines came here to serenade the candidates of Miss Cagayan de Oro 2022 on August 27, instead of the usual professional singers hired in the past.
When the four male vocalists, including the son of one of the event organizers, sang together the One Direction's popular hit Little Things, they apparently went in the opposite direction.
“The music is here, but the melody goes somewhere else. Kagay-anons did not deserve this kind of entertainment. We are a billionaire city known for economic growth and respected even in other countries,” rued Cabanlas, who also complained when the organizers broke the tradition of having more than one winner of the major awards.
Fellow councilor Jay Roa Pascual ― who chaired the city tourism committee ― revealed he was also surprised by the changes without informing them and the public.
“I have no problem with three queens emerging as it will help the city conserve funds instead of holding three pageants to select our representatives in three different national competitions. But they should inform us about some changes,” Pascual said.
Cabanlas’ seriousness on the matter did not spare him from getting flak as some netizens advised him to focus instead on addressing the city's pressing problems such as the crime wave and urban flood.
Some even called him ‘Marites’ (referring to a naughty woman who thrives in gossip), “bully” and “nonsense” in their social media posts.
But Cabanlas was undaunted.
“I know that somebody will get angry with me for this, but the Higalaay Festival especially the Miss Cagayan de Oro must change for the better,” Cabanlas said.
“We also have the accountability, hence the need to review the franchise being given or entrusted to these private event organizers. We have to explain because many have been asking,” he added.
