By U.S. News Agency / Asian

There will be no parallel activity to be done in Dagupan City during the coming month-long Bangus Festival which will fire off April 8 this year.

This was stressed by Dagupan City Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez as she emphatically denied malicious insinuations she will put up a parallel activity at about the same time the Bangus Festival is going on.

“Those who are saying that I will put up a parallel activity may be out of their mind or just affected by their own paranoia,” said Fernandez, who chaired the Bangus Festival for three consecutive years from 2008 to 2010, during the administration of then Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr.

Mayor Benjamin Lim has tapped his Executive Assistant III, Maximo Alexis Tan, as chair of this year’s Bangus Festival.

This year, the vice mayor said, she will be watching the festival in the sideline as one of the spectators.

Fernandez said she is already contented with what she has done when the 2009 Bangus Street Party was adjudged by the Department of Tourism as the biggest street party in the whole country, with the crowd in attendance estimated at almost one million.

“I’m proud with what we have done for the Bangus Festival,” Fernandez said, recalling that under her stewardship, there were many activities that were introduced to the delight of tourists and visitors.

She said she could not have accomplished the feat had it not been for the full trust and confidence given her by then Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr.

At the same time, she said that lest the people forget, the ‘Gilon-Gilon’ street dance in the Bangus Festival was a dance step that first emerged in the city when Dagupan celebrated its 50th Golden Year’ on June 20, 1997. She chaired the Golden Anniversary celebration.

Vice Mayor Fernandez said if there is any other activity at all, it is the ‘Gulayan at Luntian sa Barangay’ of the different public schools in the city, which she is actively promoting and supporting.

She also mentioned that her family-owned City Supermarket Incorporated is slated to celebrate its silver anniversary on May 16 this year to mark its 25th year of founding.

Although this is also a month-long celebration, this will be confined at the CSI the City Mall and CSI branches throughout Pangasinan and in San Fernando City, La Union and Candon City, Ilocos Sur.

The CSI silver anniversary, she said, will compose of trade and arts exhibits, demonstrations and trade and educational symposiums that are open top the public to be held at CSI Stadia in Dagupan.