BEHIND THE SCENES

Of musicians and indigenous groups
Alfred P. Dizon

My friend George Tamaray, my fellow bandmember of a group called the Strings in the early 90s has just flown to Vietnam for a singing contract. Before he left, he was doing solo at Le Fondue where I still maintain my Thursday night set. I tell people it’s a stress-reliever but actually an excuse to drink.

Lawyer Bubut Olarte, who also sings in the place Sundays said during George’s despedida that the latter and I should form a duet called the “d B(v)okals.” (Bubut now has a group who sings during concerts for a cause – prosecutor Rolly Vergara, lawyer Angie Cabrera and law student Sarah.) The humor was lost on me until I saw George’s wide gleaming forehead. He gave a high five and that was the last I saw him until he called up last week. He was with Roland Ekid. It so happened that both were singing in the same hotel. Roland of Bontoc used to sing in the capital town where I also did some gigs in the eighties.
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Going abroad is now the trend among local musicians who want to earn more than what they get per night for a three-hour set in this Banana Republic. A lot of my musician friends have migrated to the US or Canada and now working as musicians or doing other jobs – Richard Arandia, Hector Cruz, Allan del Rosario, Bryan Aliping and lately, Conrad Marzan. Tom Castro is now in Aruba while Mannix is in Australia. March Fianza and I, we are still stuck in this rut.

All were either playing folk, country, jazz, blues or rock music in Baguio. At times when they came home from abroad, we always had a good laugh recalling the late seventies and early eighties. Those were the times when people would gawk at you like you were a superstar if you lugged a leather guitar case along Session Road.
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That is all gone now. When one holds a guitar along Baguio’s main thoroughfare nowadays, one is perceived a beggar or a trying hard KSP (kulang sa pansin) musician. With nightspots everywhere and lots of young musicians, being a singer these days in Baguio, I guess is ordinary.

There are now a lot of young kids who could do a razzmatazz of a scale as taught by music schools. Those days, there were no such schools and we learned to enhance our skills the hard way through “wido (learning by doing)” while listening to cassette tapes or records. There were no DVDs or VCDs then but we had to master our craft or be the butt of jokes of our peers. Porky Feria (whose band recently disbanded) said one drawback of these young musicians is they don’t have the “feel” and the “heart” when playing guitar. They could play scales fast, he said, but these are just mechanical. I agree with him. It doesn’t take a lightning scale to elicit a tear from a listener but a soft riff could do. Take it from Slowhand Eric Clapton.
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Porky used to sing in Olongapo at the height of the “American occupation” in the 70s where, he says, “the girls never noticed us until we went onstage.” Now, Porky is back in Olongapo while his bandmates are still in Baguio – the indefatigable and ageless Mike Santos, Thor and Arsen -- Conrad’s brother (since way back as Conrad would joke) the only guy I know who could play slide guitar like a harp.
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Call this a filler column but when one is stuck in a rut, I always tell journalism students during our lectures, one should find a related subtopic to talk about.

There are now many musicians from ethno-linguistic groups in the Cordillera unlike in the past when most musicians in Baguio were either home-grown kids of Ilocano or Tagalog parentage. Looking at George and Roland for example, one wouldn’t know they are members of ethno-linguistic tribes. Both are tall and have the looks – at night when the lights are down – I used to joke them. George is Gaddang while Roland is Ifontok – or rather Itokukan. There are a lot of ethno-linguistic tribes members who have gone on to shine in their separate fields aside from being musicians. The little known Gaddang ethno-linguistic tribe of the Cagayan Valley has a number of sons and daughters highly placed and prominent in government and academe and successful in business and other professions.
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A group of scholars from the University of the Philippines who recently held a cultural dialogue among Gaddangs coming from various professional postings here and abroad found this out. National Artist Edith Lopez-Tiempo, former senator and Cabinet secretary Heherzon Alvarez, the Lumauig brothers of Ifugao, the Maddelas, Panganibans and, Lantions of Nueva Vizcaya to include Gov. Corazon Espino and the Lumicaos and Guiabs, have been cited as among the more prominent Gaddangs in the country today.
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Former Rep. Gualberto Lumauig I hear, is now a gentleman farmer in Ifugao. I guess, he got tired of politics and wanted to retire from it all. He often treated us every time we were in Manila when he was then residing in the big city. Maybe, we will pay him a visit one of these days when we will go to Ifugao.

Anyway, the Gaddang Tribe is one of three major linguistic groups that populate the Cagayan Valley (Region 2) but are gradually losing their ethnic identity because of cultural integration with migrants from the Ilocos and Central Luzon regions. The two other dominant tribes in the Cagayan Valley are the Ibanags and the Itawis or Ayogads.
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Nueva Vizcaya and the eastern frontiers of Ifugao, Mountain Province and Kalinga are historically known and anthropologically recorded as the ethnic origins of the Gaddangs. (During our high school days in Sagada, Mountain Province, we were taught to play the gongs the Gaddang way – fast and furious.) Portions of Isabela are also populated by Gaddangs such as Tumawini, Echague, Angadanan, Cauayan and Santiago, now a city and earlier known as Carig.
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Retired UP professor Jovito Castillo, former UP dean of Music Maurie Borromeo, Anthropology professor Dolly Lumciao, UP Alumni Association, Vice President Romulo Lumauig, and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Jose Molano were the prime movers in the cultural awareness forum which would be regularly held. Letters of support to the Gaddang Cultural Awareness initiative have been received from professionals here and abroad, especially those engaged in research work in various academic institutions in the United States and Europe.
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I don’t hear much about the Igorot Global Organization nowadays except about a little gossip here and there in their website. The IGO is an offshoot of the BIBAK (Baguio, Ifugao, Bontoc, Apayao, Kalinga) Igorot organization. The latest IGO conference if I’m not mistaken was in Australia last year. I hope some of our rich kababayans would invite us to the next conference as I’m tired doing the grind in this mountain city where parking on air maybe the only remedy to the ever worsening traffic system.
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Indigenous groups have come of age and are now reasserting their ethnicity on the mainstream. This is a welcome development as the trend of governments, non-government groups or humanists nowadays is “unity in diversity.” As to Cordillera autonomy or enhanced sexual prowess, you may consider asking resigned Commission on Elections big boss Benjie Abalos what he has to say for a change. One question could be how to earn millions out from nothing considering that if the Cordillera is to become autonomous, we have to start from scratch and we need all the money in our so-called quest for self-determination.

New Abra peace formula set for testing in barangay, SK electionsChurch leaders and politicians in Abra have agreed to adopt a possible "win-win solution" to attain lasting peace in this conflict-stricken province. The new peace formula was agreed upon by various sectors in the province, including political groups, in 26 out of the 27 municipalities, during the second regular meeting of the provincial peace and order council held here recently.

According to provincial officials, the peace formula would be tested in different barangays in the coming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on Oct. 29. Under the peace strategy, religious leaders and politicians will identify possible contending candidates for the various elected positions in the barangay and SK polls and then evaluate their respective capabilities and capacities to lead in their respective areas.

After the evaluation process, the multi-sectoral groups will conduct caucuses in barangays to get sentiments of the people on who they prefer to be their barangay and SK leaders. Results of the caucuses would reportedly be analyzed before the groups convince other prospective candidates to give way for the choice.All barangays are expected to come out with their common candidates before the expiration of the deadline of filing of candidacies on Oct. 18 so that intense political conflict would be minimized.

One of the reasons for the proliferation of crimes against persons and properties in Abra is intense political rivalry which prompts feuding parties to hire the services of private armed groups to ensure protection and promotion of their political and personal interests. Law enforcers are reportedly gaining the upper hand in the fight against the proliferation of loose firearms and members of the PAGs due to increasing support of the people to peace programs.

Furthermore, civic organizations have reportedly pledged support for peace efforts of the government to remove the tag of the province as the "killing fields" of the north. The success of the new peace formula of the Church and the local officials could speak well of what should be expected from the province in the coming years. Earlier, local officials renewed their commitment to make peace as one of their priorities in their areas of jurisdiction for the sake of the welfare of their constituents who have been longing for lasting peace. The outcome of the program would depend on how officials and the people cooperate.