NAGA CITY --- Corporate sponsorship of events in the weeklong celebration of the regional fiesta of Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia next month appears to have declined by 37.5 percent compared to top grossing year in 2006, according to the chair of the Penafrancia committee on sponsorship the other day.

       Florencio ‘Jun’ Mongoso, chair of the sponsorship committee who is also the head of the Public Employment Service Office of the Naga City government, projected that they could only expect a total revenue of P2.5 million this year compared to its peak in 2006 which grossed P4 million and P3 million in 2007.

       He said the declining number of companies sponsoring fiesta events would proportionately scale down the activities traditionally lined up for the weeklong celebration which include the drum and lyre competition, military parade, Voyadores festival and Ms. Bicolandia Beauty Pageant.

       “Generally, we are facing a downtrend in the number of applicants coming to my office who are seeking sponsorship of fiesta activities which include a 50 percent decline on the willingness of private companies to sponsor activities; in worse cases some companies would opt to shoulder only the regulatory fees for their streamers and buntings,” Mongoso revealed.

       He added that the number of sponsors and their fund pledges also reflected the kind of sales these companies made the previous year which he said is directly proportional to their preparedness to sponsor fiesta activities.

       Mangoso said the companies rely on the sales record wherein they base their capacity to sponsor activities; they spend more for promotions and advertisements only when sales go up which he said is obviously not the case this time due to the persisting economic crunch.

       He said that with Penafrancia being a regional fiesta, companies are drawn to participate or make their presence felt in the celebration to pay back their clients according to the sales volume they achieved the previous year.

       Mongoso said the number of entities applying for mayor’s permit for activities and events has likewise declined which he described as “not as much as last year’s where there was continuous flow of people seeking permission to hold privately-initiated activities during the Peñafrancia fiesta celebration.”

       He said they are not expecting the trend would reverse as this Friday’s deadline nears regarding submission of planned activities and events that would formally be integrated in the official calendar of fiesta activities.

       Mongoso noted that even church-sponsored activities and events were scaled down to respond to the present economic slowdown.