The Manila Times


OF SAGADA Three seasons


■ The Bomod-ok Falls is a two-hour trek that passes through the terraces. The way to the falls unites tourists with nature, making them more appreciative of its beauty and significance. PHOTO BY JOSE SYLWIN SOLIDUM


NA TIONAL C OMMISSION FOR CUL TURE AND THE ARTS BY ALEXIS LAURA FELICIANO


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SINING GISING FRIDAY July 23, 2010


Situated 5,000 feet above sea level, Sagada is a fifth class municipality located between the Cordillera Ranges and the Ilocos Range where trekking is a common occurrence and a favorite pastime of many of the residents. Caves, hanging coffins and falls are the famous Sagada “sights” that tourists come to see and experience after 15 hours of road travel from Manila.


Culture, life


Early stories say that Sagada was founded by Biyag after the people from Bika in Eastern Abra were driven out of their community by headhunters. When Biyag’s family settled in Candon, they were against the idea of baptism so they decided to relocate further in the mountains and finally settled in Sagada. Today, majority of the Sagada residents are baptized as Episcopal Protestants, comprising 80 percent of its population. As their history says, only a handful of the Spanish missionaries and conquistadors successfully made it to Sagada and resulted in a few Catholic conversions. As it was, the municipality has retained much of its original culture, sharing the same characteristics as those in Baguio and


Recharging cultural nautical highway


CULTURE is a shared way of life. If people go beyond their national territories by understanding and appreciating their common history, identity and connectivity, they can move onward and forward to development. Countries have pledged to


achieve the Millennium Develop- ment Goals which essentially center on “countries developing together.” It is in this light that the Philip- pines, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Laos, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia initiated the forging of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional identity through the operation of an Asean Culture Capital paradigm. Asean recognizes the vital role of


by Director Pancho Lardizabal. The event inaugurated the longest painting


■ Dr. Hubert Gijzen, director of the Unesco


Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific


culture and arts in binding its people to act as one. Recently, the Philippines has been delegated as the first “Asean Culture Capital” for 2010 to 2011. For two years, there will be festivals, conferences, workshops in a focal place each month. As the Asean Culture Capital, the Philippines has the capacity privilege to showcase and promote its wealth of cultural diversity linked to the dynamism of Asean’s cultural heritage and identity, not only among the Asean member nations, but internationally as well. The province of Batangas, headed by Gov.


Vilma Santos-Recto, is the fourth locale in the collective of sites comprising the Asean Culture Capital framework of the Philippines which was conceptualized by Philippine International Theatre Institute (ITI) president, 1972 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez while serving as National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) executive director. The inaugural event was in Angeles City,


Pampanga through an interagency committee led by NCCA Chairman Vilma Labrador with Department of Foreign Affairs through the Asean desk. The Clark Development Corp., the Province of Pampanga, Department of Education, Department of Tourism and Department of Public Works and Highways hosted the Asean Ministerial Meeting and Festival of the Arts. This was followed by Capiz which served as the venue of the “Dance Exchange: 2nd Philippine Interna- tional Dance Festival” hosted by Gov. Victor Tangco and then by Santiago City, Isabela which staged the Patarraday Festival hosted by Mayor Amy Navarro.


Longest painting As the country’s focal culture locale for the month


of June, Batangas hosted twin ecological events on June 25 to 28: the Climate Change Teach-in Day and the World Environment Day. This significant event is convened by Commission on Climate Change Secretary Heherson Alvarez and the NCCA headed by Chairman Labrador, hosted by Batangas Tourism and Culture Office headed


on continuous canvas with a single theme— water and fishes and the impact of climate change on the oceans—organized by the On the Spot Artists’ Association (OTSAA) of the Philippines headed by award- winning scenographer Rollie de Leon, assisted by Lapian ng mga Alagad ng Sining with the support and special participation of the 17 regional offices of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources headed by Director Malcolm Sarmiento. The longest painting is comple-


mented by the Gallery of the Sea, a collection of Sail Painting initiated by Earthsavers Founding chairman, Secretary Heherson Alvarez created


by artists from Boracay, Bohol, Manila and Baler coordinated through the Art Association of the Philippines. Conceptualized to become the longest


painting on continuous canvas, the first 100 meters of the painting was launched in Quezon City in February 2005. Since then, hundreds of meters had been added through the years, until it became over 5,000 meters long. About 2,000 artists and students from Batangas and different parts of the country


including Asean youth delegates took part in painting another 2,000-m long canvas to bring the total length of the painting to 7,300m in a bid to clinch the Guinness World Record on longest continuous painting on canvas. Over 6,000 artists have worked on the painting. Gallons of paint were provided by Rotary Club of Lipa, Batangas Welcoat Paint, Delta Construction Center, Rain or Shine and Silver Mold Enterprises. The event also highlighted the Angel Hero


Award to OTSAA artists who had saved the painting when it almost got razed by fire in November 2008. The awardees include Jayson Almazan, Marica Almazan, Jay-ar Azul, John Emmanuel de Leon, Mary Ann de Leon, Joemar Santiago, Rolando Santiago and Marlou Soberano.


First International Dia del Galeón Festival As part of the Asean Culture Capital collective


series, the Philippines is spearheading the commemorative activities under the first International Día del Galeón which will be held from September 15 to October 8 affirming global connectivity and its role as precursor of globalization with the theme “History, Heritage, Habitat, Language and Creative Industry.” At last year’s United Nations Educational,


Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) General Conference in Paris, October 8 of every year was proclaimed as Día del Galeón! (Day of the Galleon) in commemoration of the Galleon Trade


HERE aren’t any beaches in Sagada, but the sun is twice as scorching as the usual summer heat. The mornings, however, spell punishment with the cold creeping up from your toes to the tips of the ears. At night, a heavy downpour keeps the tourists indoors with the mist blanketing everything else out and the visibility reduced to a mere 150 meters. But punishing though the shifting weather may be, the beauty of the place is worth all of it.


Benguet. These provinces grow the same crops such as cabbage, tomatoes, green pepper, potatoes and carrots, among others. Coffee, too, has a relatively successful market in the province with a number of coffee shops selling coffee beans of various kinds.


Stepping on the clouds, spiraling downward


Punishing mornings are not without some sort of a karmic redemption which comes in the form of the sunrise at the Kiltepan Viewpoint. Indisputably, watching the sunrise over at Kiltepan is made infinitely precious by the clouds that blanket over the area which by way of saying is literally “stepping on the clouds.” As the sun reveals its first rays, the clouds part before your feet—uncovering the majestic Kiltepan Rice Terraces that could almost rival the Banaue Rice Terraces. From the top, the next stop is the famous Bomod-ok Falls which can be reached by a two-hour trek down the panoramic terraces. The falls, which is partly hidden by the terraces, requires balancing on rice field dikes and man- made stone bridges.


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The Bomod-ok Falls is indeed a sight to behold, like a hidden playground for fairies. With the trees surrounding the area and boulders that dot the river, the falls is both a wonderful and dangerous place to be.


Cave systems, spelunking The cave systems in Sagada are as complex


as they are many, with at least five caves dotting the municipal map. The most famous of these caves are the Sumaging and the Lumiang systems that boast of marvelous stalagmite formations and a freezing underground river. The Lumiang Cave, known as the Big


Cave, is an arduous six-hour trek from the entrance to the exit. Its entrance is very well guarded by the spirits of the dead, with wooden coffins neatly placed atop each other. According to guide Rodolfo Malidom, these coffins were placed at the mouth of the cave due to the belief that if placed further in the cave, “the spirits won’t be able to find their way out.” The cave systems require twice the energy and willpower average adventures require of tourists as they need to swim in freezing water, crawl through small openings, rapel and be “spiderman-like.” Among the notable features of the Sumaging Cave are the rock formations with royal honorifics for names in reference to both the male and female private parts. Plunging 350-foot deep, the Sumaging Cave is by far the easiest to hurdle—despite the slippery stone steps, the sub-zero temperature, and the bat dung that fall from the ceiling. With the adrenaline still pumping life


into your veins, the caves are but another beautiful part of the adventure. Indeed, Sagada is more of a “walking adventure” and, however tiring these activities may be, from trekking to see the Bomod-ok Falls to spelunking, Sagada will always be a place to go back to. In Sagada, everything is worth the effort for a glimpse of paradise.


■ The Philippines’ entry to the Guinness Book of Records’ longest painting on continuous canvas now measures 7,000 meters long. PHOTO BY JOSE SYLWIN SOLIDUM


between the Philippines and Mexico that took place between 1565 and 1815. It was the day the San Pedro Galeon, directed by master navigator Fray Urdaneta, reached Acapulco in 1565. This established the Manila—Acapulco return that linked the people of Asia, America, Europe and Africa and was later on dubbed as the “Tornaviaje”. Dr. Hubert Gijzen, the director of Unesco Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, will be a special guest representing the Unesco Director General Irina Bokova. The Philippines played a significant role in one of the most important trade routes in history and has thus taken to the task of


WiFi Body 5 goes center stage


CONTEMPORARY and independent dances hit various Metro Manila dance venues from June 25 to July 2 via the WiFi Body 5: Independent Contemporary Dance Festival. Spearheaded by the Contemporary Dance Network Philippines, the festival is a gathering of contemporary and independent dance artists. It aims to “strengthen the contemporary dance in the Philippines and serve as a venue for independent artists and groups to showcase their new and innovative dances and collaborate with each other.” With the theme “Body and Memory,” the


festival narrates the idea that “when the body remembers, one proceeds to create; thus, there is dance.” Now on its fifth year, the


festival staged a different approach of celebration by holding previews and mini shows in different venues outside the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). It had its previews a week before the actual festival at Greenbelt 5, Ayala Mall, Lyceum of the Philippines and Dance Forum Space. Formally launched on July 2 at the CCP, WiFi Body Festival 5 was composed of different activities such as IndepenDance,


New Choreographers Competition, Emerging Talent Showcase, Uncensored Bodies Video Art Competition, Photo- exhibit, Dance Workshops and curated dance jams.


IndepenDance, a regular component of the festival, featured new creations of the previous winners of the Young Choreographers Competition. Dance-on- site, another regular component, featured dance pieces at the CCP main theater ramp. One of the major


components of the festival was the contemporary dance workshop


organizing a monumental festival in tribute to the Galleon Trade. It has brought a wide variety of Mexican influence to the Philippines. Not only did the Galleon Trade open the Philippines to new cultures and ideas, the world was intro- duced to Philippines. The Barong Tagalog found its way to Mexico and Cuba and is now called Guayabera in those countries. The trade was not only a carrier of commerce but a transmitter of culture of the peoples of four continents that further intensified the inter-cultural dialogue among civilizations in the hopes of achieving peace and sustainable development ➤CulturalC2


facilitated by the active roster of contemporary dancers who shared their processes and movement vocabulary. Participants for the workshop sessions were practicing dancers, student- dancers and choreographers. For this year, the New Choreographers Com- petition had eight young competitors. Composition of entries was very brave, putting on choreographic narrations of different personal and social issues such as aging, sexual attraction, environment, among others. Alfred Jan Mercado was adjudged the grand winner for his creation “Due date.” Second and third placers were Frederick Fernandez with “Kulambo,” and Joseph de Guzman with “Selda,” respectively. Prof. Steve Villaruz, Nestor Jardin and Ben Suzuki served as judges for the competition. Another breakthrough in the conduct of festival is the video art competition where the potentials of networking through web were capitalized. Video art entries were placed at the web where people can vote for their favorite video art.


Components of this year’s WiFi Body include


IndepenDance which featured leading independent dance companies and choreographers; New Choreographers Competition; Emerging Talent Showcase, Contemporary Dance Workshops.


■ “Due Date,” choreographed by Alfred Jan Mercado, grand winner in the New Choreographers Competition. PHOTO BY JOSE SYLWIN SOLIDUM


Wifi Body was made possible with the help of the CCP, in cooperation with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Greenbelt Ayala Malls, STEPS Dance Studio and Dance Forum MB.


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