By Zaldy Comanda
BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Benjamin Magalong expressed his gratitude to the members of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association (PMAAA) board for understanding the prevailing situation in the city that prompted the city government to come out with the difficult decision of suspending some of the major crowd-drawing events scheduled in the city in the next three weeks.
Philippine Military Academy (PMA / MANILA BULLETIN)
This as the PMAAA board agreed to reschedule the major activities of its annual alumni homecoming scheduled next week to a later date as a gesture of respect to the earlier decision of the city government to postpone the conduct of major crowd drawing events at the height of the 2019 Novel Corona virus (nCoV) scare in the country.
“I left to the discretion of the PMAAA board the decision on whether or not to push through with its scheduled alumni homecoming activities next week considering that it is a privately organized event,” Magalong said.
Initially, the agreed date for the PMA alumni homecoming was February 22, but the same remains tentative while experts are still assessing the prevailing situation in the country on the developments on the nCoV scare.2019.
Magalong, a PMA alumnus himself, attended the PMAAA board meeting Wednesday afternoon where he presented to the members the factors that guided him in deciding to temporarily suspend the various crowd-drawing events organized by the government while leaving the matter to the discretion of the private organizers for events booked and scheduled by private event organizers.
The PMAAA scheduled its annual alumni homecoming events this year on February 14 to 16, which are traditionally part of the roster of events for the annual Panagbenga Festival, which was to have its 25th edition this year.
Magalong noted that thousands of military and police officers, including the members of their families, were expected to flock to the city during the scheduled alumni homecoming, which was why the board opted to suspend the main events while the different classes will still be allowed to push through with their class activities considering that the number of people who will be attending these will be manageable.