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[av_heading heading=’MassKara funeral for festival founder’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Sunday, April 9, 2017
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BACOLOD City – The founder of this city’s famous MassKara Festival was laid to rest at the Bacolod Memorial Park in a fitting funeral procession. His urn of cremated remains was accompanied by dancing MassKara performers wearing smiling masks.
The late mayor Jose “Digoy” Montalvo Jr.’s urn left the Bacolod Government Center at 1 p.m. on April 7 for a requiem mass at the St. Jude Thaddeus Parish in Barangay Alijis. The inurnment followed at the Bacolod Memorial Park.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia paid tribute to the late mayor who passed away in his residence at age 92. Executive Order No. 11 enumerated the achievements of the two-term Montalvo administration from March 1, 1980 to April 4, 1986.
“He led Bacolod City to survive the economic slump in Negros Occidental in the 1980s spawned by the near collapse of the sugar industry then, due to a domestic supply glut and all-time low sugar prices,” Leonardia said.
Montalvo taught the people of Bacolod City how to confront tragedy and loss with dignity and courage by founding the MassKara Festival with the assistance of Bacolod artists and civic leaders.
The festival, now 37 years old, was aimed to “uplift the spirit of the Negrenses and Bacolodnons who were then reeling from the twin disasters of the sugar industry crisis and the sinking of the Bacolod-bound M/V Don Juan where hundreds of Negrense lives were lost, including those of Montalvo’s wife, two daughters, and mother-in-law.
Montalvo also rallied the city to welcome St. Pope John Paul II during his historic visit to Bacolod City in 1981.
Moreover, “it was Montalvo’s administration that conceived and established the ‘Manokan Country’ which has become a major tourist attraction and has made the chicken inasal of Bacolod its culinary identity, and placed the city on the food tourism map, added Leonardia. (PNA/PN)
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