ANGEL THOUGHTS

Welcome the first of the “ber” months! Countdown to Christmas! Only here in our beloved country do we celebrate the birth of Christ for months on end!

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Have you been vaccinated? I have and happy to have been “jabbed” twice, thanks to the program of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno. If you and members of your family haven’t received your vaccine shots, please sign up now! The life you save may be that of a relative’s or a good friend.

Let’s all be in the “Bakuna Bubble” in our communities, if this alternative proposed by Joey Concepcion of Go Negosyo and his group to lockdowns pushes through!

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The mission to promote Filipino indigenous culture and heritage goes on for the award-winning documentary series “Dayaw” with the launch of its 11th season on ANC, the ABS-CBN News Channel, last month. We must commend those behind the show, which documents hitherto taken for granted life-ways, traditions, and practices of the country’s indigenous peoples (IPs).

This is the passion and brainchild of Deputy House Speaker Loren Legarda and the production team of ANC and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), “Dayaw” has been documenting the life-ways, traditions, practices, and culture of the different Indigenous Peoples groups since 2015.

It hasn’t always been easy, admits the group behind the series, but their efforts have paid off and the show has gained many followers here and abroad.

Leading the way for “Dayaw” is its host, three-term senator and Antique congresswoman Loren Legarda, along with her chief writer Floy Quintos.

“It has always been ‘Dayaw’s’ mission to document as many aspects of Filipino culture and knowledge systems as possible. We can only save these from extinction by continuing to instill their importance in the younger generation, and let them practice and learn these treasures. With the new theme ‘Kakaibang Sigla,’ ‘Dayaw’ Season 11 allows us to look at the different ways our energy, competitiveness, and sportsmanship are mainstreamed in the traditional societies and knowledge systems,” Loren explained.

After featuring traditional Filipino children’s games such as patintero, sipa, and luksong tinik in the first episode, followed by a two-part special on the Punnuk, a show of physical strength that ends the Ifugao’s harvest season, Dayaw will focus on Filipino martial arts such as arnis, silat, and eskrima in its next two episodes, which started on last week on ANC and the ANC Facebook.

The season wrapped up on Sept. 3 2021 with “Sayawang Pinoy,” an episode highlighting how grace and the fluidity of movement of Filipinos express our energy, discipline, and joy as a people.

Despite the pandemic, “Dayaw” has been able to launch new seasons, with Season 12 already in the works. Titled “Kaka-ibang Sigla: Our Vital Energy Part 2,” it will explore love, courtship, marriage, and the cycles of life featuring the Gaddang, Tboli, and Sama Dilaut.

NCCA chair Nick Lizaso expressed his gratitude to Legarda and ANC for their initiative in bringing the IP’s knowledge and heritage closer to Filipino and foreign viewers.

“I would like to commend Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda for her vision and commitment to preserve, promote, and enrich our culture and heritage, and to ANC for translating that vision into an exemplary body of work,” he said.

The show has featured three icons, all Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA) Awardees, before they passed away.

One was Lang Dulay from Kae Sebu, who was cited for her preservation of T'boli culture and her fine craftsmanship of the delicate abaca ikat cloth. Then there’s Fu Yabing Masalon Dulo, also a textile weaver and dyer, who was credited with preserving the Blaan traditional manual weaving and dyeing. At her death she was only one of two surviving master designers of the mabal tabith of the indigenous Btaan people of Southern Mindanao. The third to be featured was Rosita Caballero, one of the last known kept maidens or binukot in the country. She belonged to the Panay Bukidnon indigenous community. True to her princess status, the binukot received only the best of things. She was taught the tribe’s traditions like memorizing Sugidanon, a long verbal narrative containing epics of Panay through chanting. She was also a master of folk dances like Binanog.

The historians consulted by Dayaw were Dr. Bimbo Sta. Ana of Biñan, Des Bautista from Bulacan, and Ramon Villegas, art historian. Cong. Loren has also passed laws to help the IPs we should treasure and learn from.

Thank you Cong. Loren for persevering in your passion to keep our indigenous cultures intact for our future generations. “Dayaw” Season 11 airs every Thursday at 6 p.m. on ANC on cable and the ANC Facebook page.