Shots fired: An event organizer has taken to social media to post about the Marikina city government allegedly stealing their idea of a local food and art fest.
According to Marisse Mañalac, she and her team conceptualized a food and art festival at Lilac Street in Marikina, known as one of the up-and-coming food and art hubs in the area. The plan was to inform the local government about it, ask for assistance in execution, and informing the restaurant owners about it. She wrote in her post that they presented it to the tourism department and eventually with the city administrator, who answered that the city government would like to do the execution themselves. Marisse’s team replied that they are disheartened with this move and if the local government wanted to execute what was their team’s idea, they would want to meet halfway by getting paid for their production ideas and concepts, but they never heard back from the local government since.
Below is the text of the full post:
Please give this post a few minutes of your time and feel free to share it. DO NOT PATRONIZE THIS EVENT.
February of this year, our team finished conceptualizing a FOOD AND ART FESTIVAL for LILAC STREET in MARIKINA CITY in the hopes of helping the local entrepreneurs and artists be more exposed and show the new generation the beauty of Marikina. In short, this is one of our goal-oriented, art-inclined projects. Thought of and cooked to perfection.
At this point, please take note that they ARE NOT our clients. We came to them. This project is our OWN production and we are merely informing the city, asking for permission and assistance to execute, and inform the restaurant owners about it.
Also take note that though we are purpose-driven, we are doing business. Producing events is our business.
So we proceeded with presenting it to the city’s tourism department and eventually with the city administrator. After several meetings and even revisions, they ended up saying that they will be the ones to execute our concept. We replied to them saying that if that’s what they want to do, we are disheartened and would like to meet halfway by getting paid for our concepts and production ideas. No response ever since.
Now, without buying the rights to the idea, it is now being executed by the local government of Marikina City.
Ninakaw po ito sa amin. Walang paalam, walang bayad, walang abiso. From collateral to program segments, sa amin po ang ideas. Alam yan ng mga malalapit sa akin, sa amin.
I don’t usually do this but PLEASE DO NOT PATRONIZE THIS EVENT. We will not tolerate circumstances like this. Nakakawalang gana magtiwala sa local government.
What do you think of this? Got anything to add?
