LETTERS FROM THE AGNO
March Fianza
It is the month for celebrations – fiestas, weddings,
baptisms, clan reunions, school closing ceremonies and graduations. Basically,
it is for me the happiest month of the year. It is a month of gathering clan
members together in one single venue. Most of all, it is a time to set aside
differences of clans and quarrels of friends as many will be meeting each other
on any date within the month.
On the first Sunday of March,
Onjon ni Ivadoi officers and members expect to meet each other again at the
Ibaloy Heritage Park to finish any performance that was delayed due to kinks in
the month-long Ibaloy festival. It is also a good time to assess the successful
Ibaloy fest. And by the way, I think the Ibaloy festival was definitely not the
first as stated in the program because certainly there were Ibaloy festivals
that were held in the past, especially in Ibaloy nations such as Kabayan,
Bokod, Tuba, Itogon, La Trinidad and Tublay that were open to all Ibaloys.
The Adivay, for example, was first
staged in 1994 at the Baguio Athletic Bowl with the presence of then Sec.
Raffy Alunan and then Sen. Nikki Coseteng who graced the Ibaloy gathering among
many prominent Ibaloy elders. So that the Ibaloy festival held from February 2
to February 23 last month should have been appropriately dubbed as “First Onjon
Ni Ivadoy Festival”.
***
Last week, the country celebrated the
28th anniversary of the Edsa Revolution, a peaceful revolt that toppled the
Marcos administration. Friends pressed me to travel with them to Manila and
join hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters march along Edsa and come
face to face with the arsenal government soldiers but I refused to join them.
Not that I was afraid but two days prior, I was preparing for a climb to Mt.
Pulag with Bobby Carantes and the late Bong Baskinas.
And so on February 26, 1986; there were
three guys freely gallivanting on the peak of Mt. Pulag. While many of our
friends trooped to Manila to witness the noisy confrontation of government
soldiers and unarmed civilians, Bobby, Bong and I were enjoying real freedom on
Mt. Pulag and appreciating the beauty of the environment and the mountains that
Kabunyan has carved in the tri-boundary of Viscaya, Benguet and Ifugao. At
night, we built a fire to warm the spirits that roam on the mountain deemed as
sacred by Ibaloys.
In the morning, while we were viewing a
river in the Ifugao side that reflected the golden rising sun, three US
F-Phantom jets swiftly flew very close over our scared heads. There were
reports then that the Edsa Revolt was partly instigated by the CIA, so that it
was natural for us to speculate that maybe the sophisticated cameras of the jet
planes were trained on us. Maybe they took pictures of three guys unusually
sitting on top of the country’s second highest peak when everybody else were
holding street rallies at Edsa. Or maybe they suspected us as “nice people
around”.
***
It now appears clear to many that the
so-called Session Road in Bloom that was conceptualized as a show of flowers is
not what it is supposed to be. The road has turned into a commercial strip for
businessmen who are selling all sorts of handicrafts, food, shoes, cell phones,
communication gadgets and pasalubong. There are more of these than flowers.
Maybe good for generating additional income for the city but better yet to
change the name of the event. Maybe “Session Road Shoes” or “Session Road Food”
are more appropriate names.
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