Sagada dads tell foreign firm: Stop show of mock death rite

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province - For “violating” the practice of a death ritual among indigenous people here,  the  Sangguniang Bayan ordered London-based Me and You  Productions, a travel documentary company  to  refrain from showing any part of the film they  shot  in  this culturally-knit tourist town.

The trailer of the film The Moaning of Life is shown now in You Tube including some of the re-enacted death rituals shot in Sagada sometime July this year. 

Earlier,  Me and You Productions through its  Philippine coordinator  Inky Santiago Nakpil wrote a letter to the Sagada  Tourism Information Office  and received by the municipal secretary, informing  them of their  schedule to film  “a  new documentary”  late July.

The filming of a mock death ritual of bringing the dead in a coffin to the rocky slopes of Sitio Baw-eng proceeded without the company paying required fees to the municipal treasury among other complaints the SB received.

A local tourist guide  assisted the film crew including conduct of the death ritual by an elder.

Investigation by the legislative body here revealed that  municipal secretary Robert Pangod  allowed  the  filming with the mock procession of  locals carrying a coffin to sitio Baw-eng   with no dead body in it and the film crew shooting the hauling of the coffin amongst  other “hanging coffins” at the rocky slopes of Baw-eng.

The legislative officers  in their special  session invited  Pangod, tourist guide Bangyay and elder Polat Bosaing  to explain why the  company did not pay the required fees and why Me and You Productions was allowed to  film despite an ordinance requiring a review committee to examine an application to film or document before permit is issued.

A municipal ordinance exacting fees on film making and other related activities, provides that a review  committee  composed of  two representatives from the  tourism council, chairman of the Sangguniang Bayan  committee chairman on tourism,  municipal mayor, and SB committee chairman on culture are tasked to  review  an application to film or document before  the filming is allowed to proceed.

Municipal ordinance  02-2010 requires the payment of  4,000 to 50,000 pesos for filming and documentation for commercial purposes.

In said SB inquiry, Bangyay said they would pay P2,500 fine plus P10,000 filming fee.    

Indigenous Peoples Representative to the Sangguniang Bayan Jaime Dugao said the act was a clear disrespect of customary death and burial practices -- that of making  a coffin  and carrying the dead to burial grounds only when someone dies.

Dugao said the  SB condemned the  act being contrary to  customary  practices and  reprimanded Pangod, Bosaing and  Bangyay saying  their acts remain a subject talked about to serve as reminder that it shall not happen again.