CARMONA, Cavite - The local government unit (LGU) celebrated its 165th founding anniversary and launched its triennial Sorteo Festival at Hon. Marciano Mapanoo Park here on Sunday, Feb. 20.
Sorteo, which means to draw or raffle, started in 1861 during the Spanish colonization as a way to raffle off communal agricultural lands among the locals.
This year, the municipal government is raffling off cash prizes to bona fide residents of Carmona.
Mayor Roy M. Loyola said that despite not being up for grabs during the festival this year, residents will still be able to benefit from the municipality's communal lands.
"Mula sa pagde-develop ng ating lupang komyunal sa ilalim ng joint venture agreement, lahat ng mamamayan ng Carmona ay makikinabang dito, sapagkat ito po ay magbibigay ng daang libong trabaho sa lahat ng mamamayan (From the development of our communical lands under the joint venture agreement, all citizens of Carmona will benefit, because it will provide hundred thousand jobs for everyone)," Loyola said.
In May 2021, the LGU announced the ratification of a joint venture agreement to build a smart city.
Loyola also said that the added revenue from the development means the municipal government will have more funds for healthcare, social, infrastructure, and education projects.
In this year's festival, five winners will get P300,000 each and five more will receive P200,000 each. There will also be 50 winners who will get P100,000 each and 450 winners who will receive P50,000 each.
Historical gets high-tech
The community raffle got a high-tech upgrade on its first run amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Months before the festival, residents were asked to register online to be included in the raffle.
Each registered participant's name is drawn using a computer program built by the LGU's information technology (IT) department especially for the event.
Game masters will then draw a ball from the lottery drum. The ball may either be blank, announced as blangko; or labelled with a cash amount and a bar code, and announced as suwerte (lucky).
Residents who would like to check if their name has already been called can do so in the computer stations and touch-screen kiosk at Hon. Marciano Mapanoo Park.
The 24/7 raffle, held for three days straight, can be monitored through Facebook live stream.
The LGU said the cloud-based Sorteo program was developed to maintain data accuracy and fast data retrieval. The IT department will delete the data in the cloud after the festival, in accordance with the data privacy law.