By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD CITY – Mayor Alfredo “Albee” Benitez of Bacolod City said there will be no signal jamming in this year’s MassKara celebration.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Benitez said during a press conference at his office on Monday.
He said there will be no signal jamming like in the last two years of the MassKara festivities when it was implemented.
“It doesn’t seem to make sense. Why would we implement signal jamming when there are so many other ways to remotely detonate explosives?” Benitez stressed.
He added, “It doesn’t follow because if the purpose is just to prevent them from remotely detonating their explosives, there are other ways to do it. So, it’s not a solution.”
Earlier, City Councilor Jason Villarosa confirmed that last year, a miscommunication occurred between First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos and Mayor Benitez due to the signal interruption.
It resulted in the mayor missing a scheduled MassKara Festival event with the First Lady.
On the possible road closure at the Bacolod City Government Center, where most of the MassKara events are held, the mayor said he is studying traffic flow because “I noticed that events at the BCGC are causing traffic.”
He added that there is a need to find ways to reduce the bottlenecks caused by these activities.
“Remember, at one point, we considered enclosing a certain area and then using buses or jeeps to ferry our visitors. We’ll bring up those ideas again and see if they could work,” Benitez said.
He added that he called the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to ask if the new circumferential road can be used already.
The DPWH has confirmed the use of the road, but the mayor told the agency to formalize its utilization in writing.
“I asked them to formalize that in writing so we can use it. This could help with the trucks, and one suggestion that makes sense is to impose a truck ban during festivities,” he said.
Benitez said that regarding the truck ban, “we could schedule it and divert them somewhere else, so they don’t pass through areas where we have activities. As of now, there’s no truck ban, but that’s a solution we’re considering to mitigate traffic.”
As far as the MassKara Festival is concerned, the mayor said, “I think MassKara Festival has already made its mark.”
He added, “What we are now trying is to promote it for more foreign visitors to come, like what we did in Italy.”
Officials of the Slow Food Movement in Italy were invited to the MassKara Festival, Benitez said.
He said the effort now is to create more global awareness. “Locally, as evidenced during the weekend, we have already seen the participation of the locals, both visitors and travelers, and we are now trying to create global awareness so that more foreign tourists will come.”
“And I see more foreigners coming in, so it’s a good sign,” Benitez said.
He said he was told that all hotels are fully booked, adding, “They are fully booked daw. Mahal na gid sila subong.”
Benitez also confirmed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Araneta will not attend this year’s MassKara festivities.
However, he said, “There are a lot of inquiries from senatoriables who want to come to our MassKara Festival. It is also a sign that it is the festival of choice.”
“So, it’s looking good,” Benitez said.
