Baguio goes folk-country with reunion concert

By Ramon Dacawi

BAGUIO CITY -- With the political hustings over, Baguio turns to folk and country music as home-bred musicians the likes of Conrad Marzan, Mhia Tibunsay and lawyer Bubut Olarte reunite in a concert-for-a-cause this Monday evening at the Cobalt Building of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.

Igorot song writer and balladeer Bryan Aliping, soloists Alma Angiwan and Liza Noble, journalists March Fianza and Alfred Dizon, farmer-turned-preacher Dick Oakes and other musicians with a heart will join them in the pro bono performance.  So will the folk and country band of the Philippine National Police based at Camp Dangwa.

After all, the proceeds will be for three seriously ill patients, including 10-year old Chelsea Benito, an Ibaloy farmer’s  daughter who became blind last year due to complications from her heart and kidney ailment. She is now the youngest  among 179 patients undergoing life-time hemodialysis treatment for kidney failure at the BGHMC.

Dubbed “Baguio Reunion”, the concert is also dedicated to Jun Willy of the technical staff of People’s Television 4 who is also undergoing hemodialysis and Linda Fines of the Department of Tourism regional office here who is fighting cancer.

Conrad flew in recently from his base in Northern California while Mhia arrived last week from Singapore where she works as event organizer for a hotel. Each time the two expat-singers come home, they ask colleagues to organize what they all do best – sing for the sick and needy.

This Monday’s concert will open at 6:30 p.m., according to Dr. Manuel Quirino, president of the Association of Government Information Officers-Cordillera which mounted the post-elections musical treat.

It is being supported by the Cordillera Association of Regional Executives (CARE) headed by regional executive director Clarence Baguilat of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Philippine Information Agency under regional director Helen Reyes-Tibaldo. 

The BGHMC led by medical center chief, Dr. Jimmy Cabfit, offered for free the venue while PNP-Cordillera director, Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong will bring in the command band, including the musical instruments.

These and other forms of support, including refreshments for the performers, are designed to cut on costs to ensure that the proceeds would go to the beneficiaries. In the name of transparency, the proceeds will be handed to the beneficiaries or through their relatives during the concert itself.

This celebration of folk and country is thematic of the lyrics of “The River” (I Will Sail My Vessel): “Ioo many times we stand aside/And let the waters slip away/’Til what we put off ‘til tomorrow/Has now become today./ So don’t you sit off on the shore line/ And say you’re satisfied/Choose to chance the rapids/ And dare to dance the tide.”

It’s also a celebration of years of pro bono concerts that  Baguio-Cordillera musicians have been offering since the ‘70s for those in dire need of support for medical afflictions.

That’s why Conrad will belt out “If It Hadn’t Been You”, Billy Dean’s song of gratitude.  Nino Joshua Molintas, a Baguio boy who was born with a hole in the heart, offered a copy of the piece to the late Philippine Star columnist Art Borjal who arranged his surgery at the Philippine Heart Center.

Monday’s concert is also dedicated to the memory of Mike Santos, lead singer of the Foggy Mountain Band who, four years back,  reported to the great country music hall in the sky.