{"id":4761,"date":"2025-03-15T21:37:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T13:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/?p=4761"},"modified":"2025-10-27T08:58:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T08:58:24","slug":"march-4-balayong-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/festival-and-special-events\/march-4-balayong-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"March 4 \u2014 Balayong Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/balayong.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4762\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The City of Puerto Princesa&rsquo;s immense developments in the last ten years have left the light pink blossoms of the &ldquo;Balayong&rdquo; in the sidelights.&nbsp; The term is the local Cuyuno name for Palawan Cherry, a small-medium sized tree that is the symbol of feminine dominance, female beauty, and love in the language of herbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through the concept of First Lady Ellen M. Hagedorn, she has put back the Balayong tree in the limelight to further improve the image of the City.&nbsp; She imagines that one day it will be a niche of the woody plant&rsquo;s stunning blooms during the months of February and March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To revive the Palawan Cherry&rsquo;s forlorn splendor, the City Government started in 2005 the 1<sup>st<\/sup>&nbsp;Balayong Festival and planted a thousand trees in the nature park.&nbsp; Because of the victory of the first fete, the City Council of Puerto Princesa unanimously passed Ordinance No. 288 on October 28, 2005, declaring the 4<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;day of March as Balayong Festival. This is in celebration of the founding anniversary of the City of Puerto Princesa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On March 4, 1872, Spanish colonizers scanned the province&rsquo;s shorelines to look for a place where a capital could be established, they came upon a hill and discovered out an extensive plateau that was ideal for a settlement.&nbsp; A portion of that hill was where the first mass in Puerto Princesa was held and where the Eualia Park now stands.&nbsp; This year, the 6<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Balayong Festival commemorates the 139<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;year when Spaniards first set foot in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The town was converted into a city on January 1, 1970 under Republic Act 5906 as amended by Presidential Decree No. 437.&nbsp; On February 23, 1994, Republic Act 7684 was approved declaring March 4 as a special non-working holiday in the city.&nbsp; The day is celebrated with the popular participation of the residents, meaningfully eliciting community support towards development goals and cultural progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The City of Puerto Princesa&rsquo;s immense developments in the last ten years have left the light pink blossoms of the &ldquo;Balayong&rdquo; in the sidelights.&nbsp; The term is the local Cuyuno name for Palawan Cherry, a small-medium sized tree that is the symbol of feminine dominance, female beauty, and love in the language of herbs. Through&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-festival-and-special-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16302,"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4761\/revisions\/16302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tempmain.puertoprincesa.ph\/xk9waq8jswec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}