President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the country is ready to return to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic "normal" of holding large events.

Marcos said the culmination of the Masskara Festival 2022 in Negros Occidental, which he attended last Sunday, was proof these can be held.

The festival was suspended in 2020.

"We now know how to manage COVID and we are happy we're all here," Marcos said in Filipino during his speech at the event.

Marcos said the return of the Masskara festival was timely since it was conceptualized in 1980 to help Negros Occidental, a sugar-producing province, to cope with low world prices.

"The Masskara Festival was originally conceptualized because of poverty and sadness. The return of the Masskara Festival now shows we already left poverty and sadness as shown by the Bacolodians in bringing back our smiles," Marcos said.

Marcos earlier said that tourism will be among the industries, which will help the country recover from the economic effects of the pandemic.

Last Friday, the Department of Health (DOH) said half of Omicron subvariants XBB and XBC cases were local. Sixty-one out of 81 XBB cases and 71 out of the 193 XBC cases were found to be local cases of COVID-19.

Out of the recorded XBB cases, 80 were from Western Visayas, which includes Negros Occidental. DMS