Philippines, Negros Occidental, Bacolod City – Programme Report

1)  Hataw (A Celebration of Life) and Signature Campaign for “Safer Roads, AIM for ZERO ROAD CRASH”

This annual celebration started at 6:00 AM at the Capitol Lagoon & Park where we have dedicated as our Road Safety Memorial & Tree Park since WDR was celebrated in 2006 here in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, Philippines. A crowd of about 500 or more people gathered to do aerobics while also signing the campaign forms.  The program leaders were Ms. Ching Alcala and Ms. Araceli Enriquez of the CHING FITNESS & DANCE STUDIO, our program partners in WDR since 2006.

2)  Memorial Rites for Road Traffic Crash Victims & Survivors (7:00 am)

Rev. Fr. Miguel Perey, MMHC of the Marian Missionaries of the Holy Cross celebrated a Eucharistic Mass dedicated to all road traffic crash victims and survivors worldwide.  A multi-sectoral group from the provincial government, provincial and city police offices, teachers, students, private organizations and families of victims and survivors converged in a solemn hour of remembering — prayers, candle-lighting and floral offering, and tagging of crash statistics in the “Remember Me Wall” by the police from the 32 towns/cities/municipalities in the island of Negros Occidental — at our Road Safety Memorial & Tree Park.

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3)  Peoplecade (Road Safety Advocacy Walk)

To show our solidarity and support for global road safety campaign initiatives and to highlight the importance of every WDR, Negrenses dedicated about 30-minute walk from the Capitol Lagoon & Park up to Robinsons Place Bacolod – under the scorching heat of the early morning sun.

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4)  Road Safety Advocacy Day Program (9:00AM)

As practices for the past 7 consecutive years, WDR ends its morning program of activities at the Robinsons Place with a brief program to campaign for WDR and the adoption of a “road safety and zero crash day”.  Program Partners, volunteers and participants were acknowledged.  Inspirational messages were conveyed by May Altarejos-Cueva (Project CARES Proponent), Mr. Arnold Ardosa (VP, Association of People with Disabilities), and Mr. Jun de los Reyes Maranon (media practitioner).  A “BALLOON POP” – pricking the balloon by the representatives of the Program Partners present were done to symbolize everybody’s commitment and aim for safer roads towards a zero-road crash death city throughout the decade.

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NEW PROGRAM IN THE EVENING (6:00-8:00 PM)

5)  “Remembering” (A Global WDR Celebrations Exhibit on Film)

Various WDR celebrations worldwide — posters that we were able to acquire from FB and the internet were shown on film at the Robinsons Place Bacolod (a big department commercial shopping mall in Bacolod City) — as our creative initiative to show the public what NGOs and governments all over the world do to commemorate WDR.  Note:  We originally wanted to request poster designs from every NGOs of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety to have these on tarpaulin prints as a real exhibit.

“MISSING”, the original composition of Jeannot Mersch was played on violin for about 3 times during the 1.5 hour program thus, attracting a lot of clients in the mall.

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6)  Global Light of Hope Initiative – Project CARES initiated support for this global campaign by having representatives from families of victims and survivors light candles with a wreath to express our sympathy to the victims’ families, understanding how they will spend another Christmas this year and forever without their loved ones anymore…. while “Missing” continues to be played on violin.

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7)  Recognition of Youths for Road Safety Campaign – a group of high school students who entered an amateur road safety advocacy film entirely shot with an i-phone entitled, “License to Drive” which won them a national award in the recent “Metro Manila Film Festival” were presented to the public and their short film shown.

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