Participants want Kabilin event held every month

CEBU, Philippines - With the success of the seventh Gabii sa Kabilin the other night, participants want the annual event to be done once a month.

Cebu City Tourism Commission executive director and Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission officer-in-charge Cinbeth Orellano said that this was the common plea of the participants the other night.

“Bisag naay gamayng ulan-ulan, daghan gihapon kaayong tawo and nindot ang feedback. Dili lang sila ganahan nga once a year, but gusto pod nila nga once a month ni buhaton. This will be a great challenge for us as the organizers,” Orellano said.

They will set a meeting next week to discuss this matter including the submission of the post-event reports.

Karl Hegel Damayo, sales collections and exhibitions officer of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., said that things to consider if ever the event will be done once a month are the preparations, costs and organization.

“We are studying the possibility of having it twice a year. We want the people to anticipate it like a fiesta celebration,” Damayo said.

Damayo said that among the big improvements this year was the provision of a program guide to participants that showed them the different bus routes, location of the participating sites and what programs and exhibits to expect in each site.

Orellano also commended the improvement of the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management as there were no traffic interruptions while the participants enjoyed walking in the streets.

“Na-improve na ang system sa CITOM, and ang mga motorists nato aware na gyud nga naay Gabii sa Kabilin and they were very cooperative,” Orellano said.

CITOM head Rafael Yap said that there was no accident the other night, although there was a heavy traffic due to heavy rain but it subsided around 7:30 p.m.

“We are very happy for the good feedback and we will continue to improve every year,” Yap said.

Yap also said that they failed to use their new Global Positioning System devices to monitor traffic during the event since it did not work in the buses as they were not able to install the GPS power source in those buses.

However, they were able to find remedies as the venues and buses were still able to communicate.  The participants were able to visit different museums in the city and were also entertained by the different performances of Cebu City Children Performing Arts and performers from the University of Cebu and the University of San Carlos.

He believes that having the event more than once a year is worth pushing for and CITOM will support it if it will be realized.

Before the event, Orellano said that they conducted a series of workshops for all the frontliners, barangays included in the routes, tartanilla drivers, bus drivers and CITOM with the help of the Department of Tourism.(FREEMAN)