By Mae Singuay

The annual Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival will go on amid Typhoon “Betty” (international name “Mawar”) which entered the Philippine area of responsibility yesterday.

Councilor Jason Villarosa, chair of the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on tourism, said tents will be installed at the festival sites — North Capitol Road, Manokan Country and the Upper East-Megaworld — in case there will be rains.

The councilor hopes this year’s three-day festivities will be successful, after the three-year hiatus brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, and due to typhoon’s threat. ​

Villarosa said the event will give a chance to bring back the economy and those in small businesses, particularly inasal vendors.

On the other hand, the office of Councilor Celia Flor, chairperson of the Sangguniang Panlungsod committee on markets, led the distribution of chicken inasal to 1,600 city beneficiaries as part of the festival.

The beneficiaries belonged to charitable institutions like the Home for the Aged, Boys and Girls Home, and the Social Development Center.

The three-day festivities kicked-off on North Capitol Road yesterday.

More than 600 personnel from Bacolod City Police Office, the Bureau of Fire Protection, the Philippine Coast Guard, Bacolod Traffic Authority and the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office were deployed to maintain peace and order during the period of the festivities in the three festival sites./MS, WDJ