Bohol celebrates 2013 Sandugo Festival

Welcome to Bohol and welcome to Sandugo Festival!

Photo grabbed from Soc Garcia

Sandugo (Blood Compact) Festival is a commemoration of the friendship between chieftain Sikatuna of Bohol and conquistador Miguel Lopes de Legazpi of Spain. Both agreed to shed blood on a cup of wine and drank them to forge that friendship. This historic event made Tagbilaran City the City of Friendship.

To commemorate that event, the province celebrated Sandugo Festival, a month-long festivities of culture, heritage and arts. Sandugo started on July 1, also the Charter Day of Tagbilaran City. Main events, however, are celebrated after the Charter Day celebrations of the province of Bohol on the 22nd of July.

If you are interested to come and join in the celebrations, here are the program of activities for the 2013 Sandugo Festival.

July 1

47th Tagbilaran City Charter Day. Expect parades and musical events on this day.

July 1-31

Nightly activities at the City port with different nightly sponsors. Usually bands and cultural presentations.

July 13

Miss Bohol Sandugo 2013 Swimsuit Competition

July 17

Miss Bohol Sandugo 2013 Talent Competition

July 20

Miss Bohol Sandugo Pageant and Coronation Night

July 22

Bohol Day Celebrations (159th Charter Day of the province)

July 24-28

Sandugo Trade Expo 2013 at ICM's The Block. This year's them is Go Green, Buy Local. The Sandugo Trade Expo will feature locally made products focusing on heritage, culture and environment protection by using eco-friendly and indigenous materials. Surely, you will love to go shopping for furnishings, fashion accessories as well as fresh and processed food. 

July 26

Sandugo 2013 Street Party at Tagbilaran's main street CPG Avenue. This is going to be the fun part of the Sandugo Festival. The Bohol Sounddugo Street Party boasts of the biggest, baddest and loudest sound system, perhaps, a first in Bohol party scenes. I am sure you won't want to be left out.

July 28

Sandugo 2013 Streetdancing Competition. I hope there's going to be a big bunch of competitors this year. Last year was quite a disappointment among photo enthusiasts who came in to join the street dancing photo competition.

Don't forget to wear a smile. Boholanos are known to be hospitable and may welcome you to their homes. But be careful and be wary of scammers and other bad elements. Tagbilaran is recently experiencing major crimes done even in broad daylight and the police seems not able to solve them.

"Pilipinas Kay Ganda"

I wish I was able to open the website being launched by our very own Department of Tourism as its re-branding of the Philippines. But it was taken down due to heavy criticisms not just from anti-Noynoy groups but also by the tourism sector itself.

Some said it was a complete disaster not just because of grammar and plagiarism but the site rhymes with a porno website with various "Filipinas" fornicating. Kay ganda! (So beautiful!) Indeed. I even heard from DOT insiders that in every activity they conduct, gyrating half-naked women would greet you at the entrance. Even the launching of Pilipinas Kay Ganda was not spared, prompting attendees to confirm that the Philippines is actually selling Filipinas on its tourism campaigns.

I've read somewhere that this was their description of Cebu (hold your breath, Pilipinas!)-

"You will also see cliffs that tower above crashing surfs, virgin forests, clear rivers, mossy jungles, and cool mountain ridges.”

This was the tallest tale ever written about Cebu. Cebuanos would be lost if they would be put on that place. Any idea what have they written about Bohol and its night life?

The Philippines is getting funnier each time.

You too can make your own logo like the one above by following this link. Don't worry, you will not spend millions of pesos nor be accused of plagiarism on this one.

And by the way, contrary to what Secretary Lim of DOT told the public that not a single centavo was spent on the scrapped re-branding activities of DOT for its tourism campaign, insiders squealed that almost 5 million pesos were already spent. Part of that expense is shown below-

Scanned DV from this site.

More readings here-

• Tourism Usec. Vicente Romano III's resignation, was it really delicadeza or iwas pusoy? 
• Tourism Congress answers President Aquino's call for bright ideas