Baguio folksingers perform Monday for eight patients

By Ramon Dacawi

Artists who have made folk and country the heart and soul of Baguio-Cordillera music will be performing this Monday evening in a Christmas reunion concert to give substance to the message of the yuletide.

Mhia, the former lead singer of the Foggy Mountain Band, lawyer soloist Jose “Bubut” Olarte and composer of Kankana-ey songs Bryan Aliping will lead the cast in “Baguio Reunion 2”, the concert set at 6:30 p.m. at the Cobalt Building of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.

 The musical treat will be for five patients undergoing regular hemodialysis treatment for kidney failure. It will be for a musician who had suffered a stroke, for a broadcast journalist and disc jockey battling cancer and for a young mother of two needing surgery.

 Minus expenses in the printing of the tickets and posters, all proceeds from sales of tickets pegged at P100 and sponsorships will go to the beneficiaries, assured the Association of Government Information Officers-Cordillera (ASGIOCO) which is sponsoring the fund-raiser.

 “We will provide full transparency on collections and turn-over of what will be raised for the beneficiaries,” stressed Dr. Manuel Quirino, ASGIOCO president and  head of the emergency department of the BGHMC.

 “Baguio Reunion II” was issued the first fund-raising permit by mayor Mauricio Domogan after he issued guidelines in the conduct of fund-raisers to protect legitimate efforts from sham concerts, fun-runs and other solicitations masquerading as charity or humanitarian drives.

This Monday’s concert is a sequel to “Baguio Reunion” staged by ASGIOCO in the same venue last May 20 that raised P111,600 for nine patients, including 10-year old dialysis patient Chelsea Benito, PTV 4  technician Jun Willy and Department of Tourism staff member and cancer patient Linda Fines.

The beneficiaries this time will be kidney patients QuakelynLisayen, a 23-year old worker of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council; Agustin Gayao of Irisan; Lennon Cambod of Pinget; and 23-year old Mary Grace Binay-an of Irisan; their fellow patient James Belinan of Kapangan, Benguet who recently died.

Proceeds will also be for 66-year old former broadcast journalist Cesar Marzan of DZWT-WR of is suffering from prostate and colon cancer, folk musician Art Mina who is recuperating from a heart stroke, and Graciel Solano, a young single parent from Loakan, Baguio, who needs to go under the knife for tuberculosis-arthritis.

Also performing are lead singers Alma Angiwan, Liza Noble and Diane,  newsmen Alfred Dizon and March Fianza, country singer-turned choir conductor Dick Oakes, Kenneth and the Red Neck Band, The Foggy Mountain Band Reunited, country bands of the Police Regional Office-Cordillera and the Baguio City Police office, talents from the ASGIOCO and the Cordillera Association of Regional Executives (CARE).

The Christmas offering is supported by the CARE, the Philippine Information Agency, the  city mayor’s office and the BGHMC.