BACOLOD CITY – The provincial government of Negros Occidental earned P20,030,904.50 from the Panaad sa Negros Festival from April 17 to 23. Local government unit (LGU) booths had the highest sales during the week-long event with 14,074,566.50. Kiosks generated P5,611,528 while trade fairs earned P344,810. The festival earned P2,049,379 during the opening. The festival had the highest sales reaching more than P4 million each on April 21 and 22, a holiday and weekend. During the closing ceremony at the Panaad Park and Stadium in Barangay Mansilingan here on Sunday, April 23, Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said that generating sales amounting to more than P20 million is a good jumpstart for the province’s micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Lacson had earlier acknowledged the substantial contributions of the province’s MSMEs to the local economy and nation-building and the severity of the economic blow of the pandemic in their sector. Thus, he encouraged the public to shift their buying patterns toward the consumption and purchase of locally manufactured goods that are abundant at the Panaad Park and Stadium. “This year’s Panaad is indeed a feat. After three years of hiatus, Panaad sa Negros truly came back with all the Negrenses might and main,” Lacson said. Lacson said that this year’s festivity is indeed a renewed promise to the Negrenses that they will not only regain what they have lost but are going to be better. “We are going to do better, and we will go after our full potential,” he added.