BENCHWARMER

Ramon S. Dacawi
Scruples over the g-string

The Igorot in me – a Tuwali-Ifugao by blood and sometimes by mind and outlook despite Baguio by birth and upbringing – was unsure whether to seethe and boil or to grin and take in stride that reported attempt to prevent our young Baguio dancers from performing in their g-string the other Friday for the so-called “North Luzon travel and tourism exposition” in SM City Clark, Pampanga.

The Philippine Star story on the incident said tourism officials in Central Luzon “accused mall personnel of describing the Cordillera male attire as ‘obscene’, ‘scandalous’, and fit to be shown only in the uplands and never in the central plains of Luzon.”

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported CL tourism director Ronaldo Tiotuico confirmed that tourism councils participating in the exposition agreed to boycott the mall as future venue in protest over the attempt to stop the dancers from doing what they were tapped for – promote travel and tourism. The news dispatch said SM City Clark, in a statement, apologized for the incident.

Part of the story read: “In the statement, Tiotuico said the (mall executives) tried to stop the performance…because the performers wore ‘skimpy attire and therefore are bound to scandalize the children watching the show.”

What the news reports failed to say, Francis Penaflor, director of the Teatro Pino of the Pines City National High School, filled me in. Our young Yeatro boys (and girls) did perform on the stage and later around the mall. As they did last year - in the same place for the same occasion -, without any word of protest.

Francis said a co-director of the troupe overheard some SM personnel expressing apprehension when they noticed our young boys had no briefs under their wrap-arounds. Makulog (truly), this is my first time to read about people getting scandalized by our traditional attire being worn by our boys. All those Igorot cultural performances I’ve witnessed over the years turned to be instant crowd-drawers, fully appreciated by audiences of all kinds and ages.

Kalyok man ki dakyo (I tell you), the only ones scandalized are our culture-bound elders who mumble in disgust whenever they see some dancers with their briefs on. I’ve seen and heard them swear the modern underwear, even if it’s branded or new, only dents the authenticity of performance, as does the gleam of a watch on the writs of a female dancer.

No one ever gets scandalized when villagers in Hungduan, my parents’ remote hometown, parade the evolution of the Ifugao costume during their “Tungoh” cultural festival in April. Not my colleagues in media who had covered the annual event, even while they admit they sometimes get discomfited by a fashion show on television promoting all kinds,shapes and colors of underwear.

No one, I guess, found it disconcerting for Mayor Rosario Camma of Nagtipunan town, Quirino to enter the august hall of Congress in his Bugkalot g-string for the “State of the Nation Address of President Arroyo late last July.

I guess, too, that the g-string used to be in fashion in the Central Plain before these islands got colonized by Spain. Because of their fierce resistance to colonization, the Igorots took longer to get used to trousers and briefs, even when they could already speak English better than visitors without g-strings. Now and then, our old men still wrap on the traditional loincloth, especially during cultural festivals now being revived so the young ones would know their heritage.

The mall incident recalls that time Baguio Rep. Mauricio Domogan donned his g-string for a speaking engagement in a hotel in Metro-Manila. When the hotel personnel said they couldn’t have him inside the five-star in that outfit, he offered to remove what wasn’t allowed. “So they could see the Cordillera size,” he later said, chuckling as he narrated the cultural clash over what fits. Whatever, the hotel personnel relented and he delivered his piece in his full, formal Igorot wear.

Personnel at SM Megamall in Mndaluyong were more circumspect when I asked Bryan Aliping to wear his own traditional outfit in belting out his OIM (original Igorot music) compositions to open an environmental exhibit mounted by the Philippine Watershed Coalition. He did draw a lot of attention – and smile - with his elegant walk on the long hallway to the exhibit area, from a far rest room where he made sure he was doing justice to his Bauko identity.

The cultural dance numbers at the mall in Clark brings to mind the turning upside down of the hierarchy of things that our Igorot forebears knew and respected for generations. Environment came first and indigenous culture evolved out of respect for the natural surroundings.

This is evident in the way our ancestors carved out the rice terraces, the extent of which was guided by the contour of the mountains, the direction of the sun and the need to preserve the integrity of the forest watersheds that sustain life.

That’s why the dances and rituals marking the stages in the traditional rice cycle served to preserve this hierarchy, harmony and relationship between environment and indigenous culture.

No longer. Nature and culture are powerful tourism come-ons, sometimes at their own expense.
Nature’s beauty, such as that of a newly discovered cave, is immediately equated to its potential to draw tourists, paving the way for its destruction. The time-honored dances and rituals are now and then performed out-of-season, and therefore contrived, in the service of tourism.

Perhaps it’s time to reduce the Department of Tourism into a bureau under a Department of Culture that enhances cultural education and sensitivity. Tribals or not, we need such department, specially those among us who deny their Igorot blood simply because many out there still swear - out of their ignorance - that we have tails hidden by our Levi’s jeans – or g-strings. (e-mail: rdacawi@yahoo.com for comments.)