After recently creating the Iloilo City Festival Committee (ICFC) via executive order, Mayor Jose Espinosa III hopes it will help ensure city festivals are run successfully.

The committee will work with the City Tourism and Development Office (CTDO) in planning and coordinating with all concerned sectors for city events.

“We [will] look at the activities of Iloilo City as a community, wherein there is collaboration among us,” said ICFC co-chair Benito Jimena. “Without [the] cooperation of everybody, it won’t be successful.”

City administrator, Atty. Hernando Galvez, meanwhile, serves as ICFC executive director.

Jimena also discussed an emphasis on promoting city heritage during local celebrations.

“I just came from Vietnam and [noticed] they are very keen in promoting their heritage tourism,” he explained. “We just [look] at old houses as mere infrastructure, [but] we don’t tell stories about it.”

“We have not linked it with what we have done before as a way of life,” he added.

Among the events the newly-created committee will be supervising is the 2018 Dinagyang Festival, set to take place from January 26 to 28./WDJ