Fili-festivals: Filipinos Know How to Celebrate

A Photo Journey by Arlene Donaire

 The Filipinos surely know how to celebrate no matter what the adversities are! Throughout history, Pinoys have demonstrated a unique sense of unity through their shared optimism and love for life, an admirable trait that is depicted in all the festivals and fiestas that are celebrated across the country year-round. The diversity that divides the Philippines into its many geo-political, ethnic, and religious communities is the same thread that unites the Filipinos in their shared yearning to celebrate. There is always a reason or basis to celebrate.

[caption id="attachment_3272" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sinulog in Cebu, the biggest of festivals in the Philippines.[/caption]

Philippine festivals and fiestas, as numerous as they are, offer a unique source of pride and joy, for the folks in each locality where they are held. They are a welcome respite from the humdrum of daily life but more importantly a collective mark of a nation whose communal psyche is boosted by its strong faith, resilience, and aspiration to rise from the adversities that beset the country year in, year out. The festivities can range from simple to grandiose, solemn to frenzied, and sometimes even elevated to an official holiday category, depending on whether it coincides with a government proclamation like the “chartering” or creation of a city or honoring a person who figured significantly in the country’s history.  Festivals are made more attractive in that they naturally set off a chain of benefits for the locales where they occur as they trigger the local economies into action, even months ahead of the actual event, spurring commercial investments, engendering government support for public infrastructure, and enhancing tourism. 

[caption id="attachment_3273" align="alignright" width="300"] Aliwan in Manila[/caption]

For the year 2014, as in past years, the Filipinos continue to enliven the country with a celebration of long-held traditional festivals that are religious and ethno-cultural in nature and those that have been promoted in recent years in keeping with the country’s tourism and economic programs. For the many Filipinos who live and work abroad and foreign tourists that plan to visit the country this year, here is just a sampling of the more popular festivals with their tentative dates and venues. There usually is a dedicated website for these events, so make sure to check online for final details.

It’s more fun in the Philippines; celebrate at least one Fili-festival this year!

January        

·         Feast of the Black Nazarene (Quiapo, Manila; 9^th)

·         Sinulog Festival (Cebu City; 13^th to 19^th)

·         Ati-Atihan Festival (Kalibo, Aklan; 19^th to 26^th)

·         Dinagyang Festival (Iloilo, 26^th)

February

·         Philippine Hot Air Balloon Festival (Clark; 13^th to 16^th)

·         Panagbenga Festival (Baguio City; 26^th)

[caption id="attachment_3278" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Maskara Festival in Bacolod City[/caption]

March

Paraw Regatta (Iloilo; 2^nd)

Sandugo Festival (Tagbilaran, Bohol; 15^th)

April

Moriones Festival (Marinduque; 14^th)

May

Pahiyas Festival (Lucban; 15^th)

June

Mudpack Festival (Murcia, Negro Occ; 14^th)

Parada ng Lechon (Balayan, Batangas; 29^th)

Pintado/Kasadyaan Festival (Tacloban City; 29^th)

July

Bocaue River Festival (Bocaue, Bulacan; 1^st Sunday)

August

Kadayawan Festival (Davao City; 23^rd to 24^th)

September

Penafrancia Viva La Virgen (Naga City; 20^th)

October

Talulot Festival (St Therese of Cjild Jesus Parish, Pasay City; Oct 6^th)

Lanzones Festival (Camiguin; 18^th)

Masskara Festival (Bacolod City; 18^th to 19^th)

November

Higantes Festival (Angono, Rizal; 23^rd)

Grand Cordillera Festival (Baguio City; 23^rd)

December

Immaculate Conception (Intramuros, Manila; 8^th)

Giant Lantern Festival (San Fernando, Pampanga; 20^th)

[caption id="attachment_3274" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Panagbenga in Baguio[/caption]

(Originally published in FilJap Magazine January 2014. Visit Arlene’s Facebook page Foto Zubuano for more of her photos.)

Kirby Asunto: Singing Her Way Back Home in NYC and to the Opera!

By Marivir R. Montebon

New York City -- The Payag Restaurant on Roosevelt Avenue was packed to watch Kirby Asunto sing her way back home again here in the world's premiere city. Donning a red dress and her hair pulled up, Kirby was at her element, belting American and Filipino pop songs for a crowd that is captivated by her sweet warm voice and child-like giggles.

Seven months earlier, 15-year-old Kirby went home to the Philippines with her family to do a series of shows for the country's giant media networks, ABS-CBN and GMA. She likewise performed for local politicians in their campaign sorties in the recent elections. It was a meaningful time touching base with her Filipino roots, and looks forward to going back to the Philippines in December, in time to escape the snow and to record her first CD album.

But a big project awaits Kirby in October, with the opening of the Noli Mi Tangere Opera at the Kaye Playhouse of Hunter College on the 4th, 5th, and 6th of the month. She plays the 12-year-old Basilio, the older son of Sisa who worked as an abused sacristan together with his younger brother Crispin. Kirby will be performing alongside stalwarts of Philippine Opera, led by Sal Malaki, who will portray the role of Philippine hero Dr. Jose Rizal. She will be under the tutelage of New York City-based stage director May Pamana.

The Noli Me Tangere Opera has Michael Dadap for musical director. Dadap is the Artistic and Music Director of the Children’s Orchestra Society (COS) New York since 1984. A seasoned and versatile conductor, Mr. Dadap has conducted, worked, and collaborated with the world’s legendary soloists and duo ensembles with orchestra, which includes Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, Sharon Robinson, Violinists Christine Kwak, Sheila Reinhold, Soovin Kim, Stephanie Chase, Sarah Chang, and Cho Liang Lin and Jaime Laredo, pianists Emmanuel Ax, Helen Huang, and Cecile Licad among others.

Kirby said she has just finished reading the script of the Noli, and found the role very challenging, aside from realizing the inequities of Philippine society then and now. "This is another major break for me. I look forward to being Basilio," she said giggling. Rehearsals for this young lady would commence next week.

Excerpts of the interview:

1. It was your first time to come home to the Philippines as a performer, wasn't it? How did that feel?

Kirby: It was a nice experience. I made my adlibs with the audience stronger. I had to speak Tagalog before the Filipino audience.

2. Which audience are you more comfortable with, with the all-Filipino or with the Fil-Ams?

Kirby: I am comfortable with both audiences. In fact, I want to go back to the Philippines to perform once again.

3. On your upcoming role as Basilio in the Noli Me Tangere Opera, do you think being a young boy would be so much of a challenge?

Kirby: I think so. Especially because this is my first time to perform on a professional opera. Although I had performed before in school operas, this is going to be very challenging and in Tagalog.

4. Are you going to do a la Anne Hathaway and cut your hair for the role?

Kirby: I think I will just wear a wig.

5. Do you think it is difficult to sing and act like a boy?

Kirby: I think it is challenging. But Basilio is 12 years old, and normally, the voice range of boys and girls are just the same within that age. I will practice hard to really pull it off.

6. I think your voice is really suitable for musicals and opera. Do you think this project with Noli Me Tangere will lead you to be more serious with Opera music than pop?

Kirby: Probably. After this experience, I may be serious with musicals. But I really can't tell, especially that I have an upcoming CD album too. But maybe I will be serious with both opera and pop!

(For tickets to the Noli Me Tangere the Opera, go to www.nolimetangerenyc.org)

Humanity in a Flag, Freedom for a Nation

By Leani M. Auxilio
New York City

College students with Filipino heritage from all over the East Coast gathered together to join this year's Phillipine Independence Day Parade, wearing red, blue, yellow, and white. In the sweltering heat, they gamely marched behind singer-actor Gary Valenciano's float, smiled for the sea of cameras that stretched ten blocks down Madison Avenue, and chanted "We are FIND, we are Pinoy!" To those watching from their apartments and offices above, the Filipino Intercollegiate Networking and Dialogue organization must have looked like a living, breathing human Filipino flag.

I, despite just having had surgery done on my thyroid two weeks prior, was a tiny blue speck in that flag, screaming and laughing myself hoarse just like everyone else.

Though we were celebrating our 115th Independence Day that day, I couldn't help but wonder: Is the Philippines truly free?

Instead of being in the homeland on June 12 to celebrate our Independence Day, we spend it in a foreign land on June 2 because living conditions back home would most certainly turn atrocious, near unbearable and bleak if those of us here were to return home for good. We do not even have the freedom to go back home, yet here we are in New York City, celebrating our hard-won victories over the Castilla, the Kano, and the Hapon.

Under the heavy heat of the sun during the parade, this was the thought that crossed my mind: Freedom remains an illusion for us, this gentle race of people who even up to now, 115 years after fighting for our freedom and winning, continue to name ourselves after the King who trampled upon our culture and stole land from our forebears. Though we have no physical colonizers these days, older Filipinos are still trapped, colonized within their own minds. We of the younger generation fare no better, as we are still searching for a collective identity that would finally, completely define us.

The Philippines is still not our own.

The fight for Independence is not over yet. It is just that instead of pitting our bolos and machetes against their guns, we are now waging war against our ghosts, our insecurities and uncertainties as a people. Our flag isn't just a piece of cloth hung on a pole, waving uselessly in the air like a dead man hanging from the gallows. Our flag isn't just red, blue, yellow, and white.

Our flag is a living, breathing, sentient being. One that not only laughs and screams itself hoarse at times when excited, but also one that cries and becomes outraged when faced with injustice. It stretches farther back than just ten blocks down Madison Avenue, farther back than when it was designed by Aguinaldo and sewn by Doña Marcela Marino de Agoncillo, Lorenza Agoncillo, and Delfina Herbosa de Natividad. The Philippine flag begins with the warriors who first fought to protect their families, lands, heritage and future against Spain, and as of this moment, ends with my generation.

We call ourselves the Filipino Renaissance. We are the Filipino youth, and we will make it so that true Independence for our nation will finally be ours. (Photos by Marivir R. Montebon)

 

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Hope Floats...for Mother Earth

By Easter Canoy
Bukidnon, Philippines

As I step into the big and solid Ministry buildings here in Berlin where the board meeting of the Green Climate Fund takes place, I imagine what it would have felt like if the grand elders and shaman of the mountains of Kitanglad would have joined me. True, in my lobbying for direct access to the Green Climate Fund I will be searching for allies and listeners to our cause. But what would THEY do to make sure that on this meeting, the basic fundamental rights will not be lost in debates and translations?

My good friend Bae Inatlawan told me that ‘there’s got to be something very human and spiritual in this pursuit’. I always keep that in mind whenever we are together in Manila looking for donors and volunteers to sustain our small undertakings to save the last forests of Northern Mindanao. Here, just like back home in the Phillipines, I only have my stories with me, my bullet truths so to speak.

Last Tuesday we met the rest of the climate activists of the Civil Society Organizations from the North and South. In these meetings, I was looking for allies for the indigenous peoples because that’s what my organization in the Kitanglad Integrated NGOs (KIN) is all about. It’s a relief to discover that Indigenous People, just like women (gender) and concerns for the most vulnerable and affected with climate change are at the core of CSO advocacy in GCF.

The presence of CSOs in every GCF meetings serves as a constant reminder of the actual purpose of the Green Climate Fund. That it’s not a development funding, nor a business enterprise, or even a fund raising campaign --waiting for another pledge from the rich countries extending its pity to the disaster torn countries of the South.

The reason for this North and South dialogue and alliance is that over centuries, somewhere along our way to the future, a massive concentration of greenhouse gases has caused the dangerous climate change. A global phenomenon woke us all to remind us that we are Earthlings and no matter if rich and poor we are going to be affected of such massive consequences that harmed the planet. North and South countries have different responsibilities but they must proceed with a common vision of our future.

In the Philippines, down in Mindanao, we’ve been struck by two unusual storms: typhoons Washi in December 2011 and Bopha in December 2012. These incidents have changed our reality: we’ve seen how responses from international donor agencies arrived much faster than how our Government could act. We’ve also seen the rise of local scientists classifying what could be autonomous and planned adaptive measures.

I had meetings with tribal elders narrating how their wildlife sanctuaries, native plant material stocks, and mini-forests (managed by clans) were ravaged by typhoons. We’ve heard stories of Filipina women who need support for their small gardens to install little greenhouse so that their seeds will not dry out with too much sun exposure. There’s still fifty thousand Indigenous Peoples in Compostela Valley, victims of Bopha who still need shelter, food, potable water and medicines.

The GCF Board will not find the above stories unique because such climate crises keep occurring in many parts of the world. I do believe though that here in Berlin, the outcome of todays and tomorrows conclusive meeting can make a difference. In the GCF Board meeting, one can see a global conduct of leaders whose minds and hearts we need to trust. At the end of the day, when all of us will return home and face our local realities, we need to take home something that could spark hope to the voiceless and powerless.

(Easter Canoy is executive director of the Kitanglad Integrated NGOs in Bukidnon. This article first appeared at http://www.bothends.org/en/News/Weblog/weblog/27/weblogmessage/111/Maria-%E2%80%9CChy%E2%80%9D-Santos-Canoy-Taking-home-a-spark-of-hope and is reprinted with permission by the author.)

Can Journalism Ever be Objective?

CAN JOURNALISM EVER BE OBJECTIVE?

It has always been an impassioned discussion among journalists as to whether journalism could ever become objective. Since my university days, objectivity is quite a cut-throat matter which journalists are confronted with.

Objectivity is generally defined as ‘not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts, actual existence, or reality.’

In essence, therefore, objectivity rests on the unbiased account of what has truly happened.  One could easily see this in reportage of natural disasters, fires, bank robberies, and other social circumstances.

In this sense, objective reporting has a degree of applicability.

But society is more complex than just its material truth. With the interplay of politics and culture inherent among reporters, the subject of the news, and the owners of media institutions, objective reporting becomes tricky and problematic.  More often than not, the truth is angled or tweaked to the favor of who owns the information and to what purpose this could have helped him/her.

Today we see highly polarized media institutions in the US especially because it is election year, a classic example where politics plays a conscious part of.

Too polarized such that an ordinary reader or viewer of news, based on his or her own political or cultural orientation, chooses which media institution to listen to or watch.  It is no longer simply about the objective reality.

Politics is so thick in the matters of both relevant and irrelevant issues, that the truth gets too muddled for the public to be able to go down to the bottom of the truth.

Unfortunately, the profession of journalism is not as precise as that of the doctor or the accountant. To save lives, the doctor must be able to correctly diagnose his patients. The accountant has to know the real numbers in the books of accounts in order to understand the precise financial condition of a business. The professional writer or commentator, when he opens his mouth or writes an article or editorial, do not necessarily help cure political or cultural malaise, much more lead the readers to understand how an ailing economy could recover.

It is in here that I express concern. The US is in the crossroad of highly crucial times, and if long-standing social issues are so effectively maneuvered by political machineries, including media institutions, having a common direction for economic and social recovery may all go down the drain.

I go back to the ethics that I had committed myself to since the beginning of my profession. Media practitioners are political and cultural agents, I just hope many would regard the conduct of their work as a matter of public interest as larger than any partisan political persuasion.

Marivir Montebon

Executive Editor

ALPHAY: Create balance in your life!

www.myalphay.com/jeffstern

jeffreystern@gmail.com

TOP NOTCH LADY TAKES BORACAY

When life is too grinding, going to Boracay Island for a break is perhaps the wisest decision to make. That is just what top notch million dollar sales achiever Petite Abella-Maglasang does.

As one of the top tourist destinations of the world, Boracay must be in one’s bucket list.  This western Visayan island in the Philippines is simply heaven, especially for Petite. The greatest challenge for a fulltime financial adviser like her is to be able to sell a bright future to her clients by securing their incomes. “I am selling hopes and dreams, not tangible products. Hence, it is a different kind of marketing pitch which is really challenging.”

Petite’s profession is enough to put anyone up on her toes all the time to meet her target sales.  But she is hard working, charming, disarming, the recipe that is needed to get to the top.

While reaping her achievements as divisional rookie sales agent in 2010 and a million dollar round table awardee, the most prestigious award that the leading Philippine insurance company could give, Petite believes Boracay is the best place where she could reward herself with complete relaxation.

“I deserve this beautiful break in Boracay.  The scenery and food are great here,” she beams.

Nobody can dispute her. All throughout the year, local and foreign guests visit the island like a pilgrimage of sorts.

Its powdery white sand beach which stretches four kilometers, is simply exhilarating. Boracay’s world-famous cool sand is composed of billions of crashed corals that have built up in the shores of the island, hence no matter how fiercely the tropical sun shines, your feet will continue to feel the cool sand.

From Boracay, one can see the magnificent sun rising and setting all throughout the year. It simply is magnificent. Petite feels like she has touched based with her soul when in Boracay, “I will come back here over and over again.”

Kirby Asunto: On the Way to Int'l Stardom!

BY MARIVIR MONTEBON

Maria Kirby Asunto is well-known in the Filipino-American circles in the East Coast. She is a rising star, a promising young voice who needs just a little bit more of promoting and relentless polishing of artistry to reach perfection.

Singing the Philippine national anthem may be her biggest ticket to international status, as the much-awaited fight of international welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao between Timothy Bradley takes place at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas on June 9.  After all, she was personally chosen by the champ Pacquiao himself.

On Facebook, 14-year-old Kirby is your typical teenager who writes just about any thing going on with her daily routine – coming home tired from a long trip, asking for well wishes on her singing auditions, and ah, waiting in excitement for her new braces.

But this young girl, who is enrolled at the McManus Middle School in Linden, New Jersey, has big dreams, and is creating her name as a singer and performer in New York and the neighboring states.                 She has performed in major Filipino-American events in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and the US capital region with her mother, Shirley Asunto, ever supportive of her budding career.
Kirby had won major awards and recognitions, like First Place at the Regional and National Competition at Access Broadway in Groton, Connecticut, Grand Champion at the Philippine American Idol Competition (Philippines Fiesta, Secaucus, NJ) and New Rising Star at the 2010 Kollaboration DC (Washington, DC).
                She was also the featured rising star performer for the 2010 Migrant Heritage Commission’s (MHC) Annual People’s Ball, the biggest Fil-Am Community Gala in Washington DC and Asia Heritage Foundation’s Fiesta Asia, considered the biggest Asian street Festival in the U.S. capital.

Kirby also performed for Philippine President Nonoy Aquino’s 2010 Proclamation Inauguration Ball in Manila and Arnel Pineda’s Atlantic City Concert as the front act.

Kirby performed as Special Guest of the Rising Young Stars Competition at the MHC’s 2010 International Migrant Heritage Festival in Metropolitan Washington D.C.

She trained vocally under Corazon Demaano Samonte in the Philippines. In the US, Kirby goes to Catherine Kuenzel and Bituin D. Escarcha for voice coaching and dance lessons with Miguel Braganza.

In December 2010, she held her first solo Christmas show, dubbed as “Pasko sa Payag” at the Payag Restaurant in Queens, New York.

“I want to be a professional singer and work with some famous people in the Philippines and the US, especially Hollywood. I also want to be like the big stars who are helping people in Haiti and other countries in need,” she quipped.
Kirby started showing her extraordinary singing talent at age two. Upon discovering her singing voice, her parents have since then encouraged her to join in musical plays, special events and competitions.

Mom Shirley (whose roots are from Davao and Leyte) always reminds her to balance her singing with studies.  “I tell her she needs to be educated so that she will not be fooled by ways of the world. I am here to protect her, first and foremost and I want her to be a respected singer someday.”

Like in her previous performances, Kirby’s sweet rendering of the Lupang Hinirang may send in the goose bumps for all those who hear it live at the MGM Grand or on the ‘tube.