Binay to attend 2013 Sinulog festival in Cebu

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay will be attending the Sinulog festival today in Cebu.

Binay, one of the founders of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), is also expected to meet Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia who had been ordered suspended by Malacañang for six months for administrative cases.

Garcia continued to defy the order and dug in at the capitol building.

Her suspension, however, has fueled political tension between the ruling Liberal Party of President Aquino and the UNA to which Garcia belongs.

Binay, and fellow UNA stalwarts Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and former President Joseph Estrada earlier expressed their support for Garcia and visited her at the provincial capitol.

Binay’s visit to Garcia today would come in the midst of festivities of the yearly Sinulog festival.

The festivities will be held at the provincial sports complex where thousands of tourists, foreign and local, are expected to attend.

The grand parade will start with Mass at the Basilica at 7 a.m.

The parade will start at 9 a.m. and end at 7 p.m.

The event will also highlight a competition among street dancing performers where the winner would get a P1-million cash prize.

The daylong event will end with a pyromusical display at the provincial capitol grounds. -Jose Rodel Clapano, Jessica Ann Pareja/The Freeman