Fireworks lit up skies with radiant sparks and brightly colored animal lanterns paraded down Bacolod City 's streets last night to usher in the year of the rat and kick off the annual BacoLaodiat Festival.

The Negros Tsinoy, together with officials of Negros Occidental and Bacolod City , also lighted incense as a symbol of unity during the program at 6 th Street in Bacolod City that opened the 2008 BacoLaodiat.

Present were Negros Occidental Vice Gov. Isidro Zayco, Board Members Melvin Ibañez and Gary Acuña, Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella, Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, Councilors Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, Catalino Alisbo, Homer Bais, and Roberto Rojas, Bacolod Tourism Council chairman John Orola, U.S. Embassy vice consul Sarah Peck, and members of the Negros Tsinoy led by William Ong, among others.

The program followed the grand evening parade from the Bacolod City Hall to 6 th Street that included giant lanterns featuring the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac calendar. It was participated in by the city officials and employees, the public and private schools, Filipino-Chinese organizations, and some establishments.

Ong, chairman of the BacoLaodiat Inc. and Negros Tsinoy, said the objective of BacoLaodiat is to generate trade to pump-prime the local economy, to promote tourism by attracting local and foreign tourists to the city and the province, and to promote Bacolod City as the friendliest city in the Philippines .

He said this year's theme is “Strength in Unity.” The affinity between the Filipino and Chinese cultures will bridge the gap and will propel us towards a progressive nation, he said.

He thanked Leonardia and Bais for institutionalizing BacoLaodiat through an ordinance passed in 2007.

Leonardia said there is a projection that in ten years time there will be more than a hundred million Chinese who will be traveling out of their country. “So we are preparing ourselves for the time when this happens. We know that the tourism industry is expected to become the number one industry in the world, so we are going to be ready when the time comes,” he said.

If there are other cities or municipalities that are celebrating the Chinese New Year, he said he believes the celebration of the Chinese Festival in Bacolod is one of the best, if not the best in the country today.

Leonardia recalled that the BacoLaodiat came about after he, and some city officials and members of the Chinese community observed the Chinese New Year festival in Iloilo . “Since then there was no stopping this BacoLaodiat and it is to the credit of our Filipino-Chinese community leaders and members of the community that the festival was born,” he said.

The first BacoLaodiat festival in 2006, which was chaired then by Fred Barcelona, was a very big success and so with the second one chaired by Luis Chan, Leonardia said. The second year was inspired by the first year, he said, and from the looks of it, it is getting bigger and bigger.

Leonardia attributed this to the cooperation and enthusiasm of the people. He said the festival is another permanent fixture in the calendar of the City of Bacolod .

“Now we have gotten national attention and we believe this is now one of the major tourist attractions of the city,” he added.*CGS

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