Despite the rains,  organizers said about 87,700 elementary, high school and college students in Bacolod City danced non-stop for 30-minutes at the old Bacolod Airport site  yesterday to vie for a new Guinness World Record as the largest aerobic-dance exercise class in the world.

The whole stretch of the 1.8-kilometer runway of the old Bacolod City airport served as the dance floor for the record-breaking Jam Step 2-12-12 event organized by the Ang Batang Pinoy Movement led by Jewel May Lobaton-Pimentel, former Bb. Pilipinas-Universe and Bacolod Rep. Anthony Golez Jr.

Golez said he expects that many more will join the Jam Step Philippines in July.

Earlier, the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod  had passed a resolution inquiring from Education Secretary Armin Luistro, who and what office sanctioned the “Jam Step,” compulsorily conducted and performed by all public school students, pupils and teachers in Bacolod City.

In his letter dated February 8, Luistro said that while they support the objectives of Jam Step, the Central Office neither issued nor endorsed any memorandum, circular, or order, requiring students to participate in the February 12 activity.

He said the activity is an initiative of the Division Office and based on the information provided by Bacolod School Division Superintendent Gemma Ledesma, participation of the students is purely voluntary and wavers from the parents of students who wish to voluntarily participate is required, he said.

Councilor Homer Bais, chair of the SP Committee on Education, said it is for them to prove that indeed the total participants of the Jam Step reached 87,700.

He said if the participants are from Grades 4 up to 4th year high school, the total enrollment could not reach 80,000. There is also a huge number of school dropouts in Western Visayas,  based on the records for February of the DepEd, he added.

Bais, however, said he is just glad that no untoward incident occurred. His major concern is that someone should take full responsibility for them, he said. As for the organizers, he said, “I hope they would also take into consideration the problems of the education sector which are the lack of teachers, lack of classrooms and malnutrition,” he added.

Pimentel said Jam Step is an initiative that encourages children to adopt an active and healthy lifestyle through simple, aerobic dance steps which was choreographed by the pep squad of the De La Salle University-Bacolod City.

Jam Step 2-12-12 easily trumps the current record held by China at 13,000 people. Adjudicators of the Guinness World Records are set to validate the number of participants counted by local auditors, a press release from the organizers said. 

Golez said the proceeds of the event will go to the construction of the Bacolod Disaster Preparedness Center and the production of Disaster Kits and Survival Manuals to be distributed to the people of Bacolod City.

He said the Jam Step participants have decided to donate the bottled water they were provided to the children in Guihulngan City who were affected by the magnitude 6.9 earthquake.

Golez said the Department of Health has already committed to adopting Jam Step as a national health event to be launched in the second half of the year with no less than President Noynoy Aquino expected to lead the initial dance activity.

 Health undersecretary Dave Lozada and regional undersecretary Ariel Valencia were  among the government officials who joined the early morning event.*CGS

back to top