March 28 concert set for 14 slain Cordi SAF heroes

By Ramon Dacawi

BAGUIO CITY -- Cordillera journalists and police officers have taken the cue from  Paul Simon’s “He Was My Brother” song lyrics  to jointly mount a concert-for-a-cause on March 28 at the University of Baguio gym in honor of the 44 members of the Special Action Force who were killed last January 25 in Malasapano, Maguindano.

 
 Newscaster Dhobie de Guzman of  ABS-CBN, as the president of the Baguio Correspondents and Broadcasters Club, and Chief Supt. IsaganiNerez. police regional director, called on the community to support the two-hour folk and country music treat, proceeds of which will be distributed  equally to the orphaned families of the 14 members of the SAF who were slain in the massacre. 

 “Like us, many other Cordillerans feel for the families of the 44 SAF members, especially for the kin of the 14 police officers from the Cordillera, in the same token that our region loves folk and country music,” Nerez said.  

“The rendition of folk and country by our musical talents here will surely help in our healing and at the same time help the closest of kin of our brave soldiers in coping with the tragedy.” 

 De Guzman said the musical was inspired by the culture of sharing that pioneer folk and country musicians here launched in the ‘70s, when they started using their gift to reach out to indigent patients through concerts. 

Senior Supt. Jimmy Catanes, head of the regional Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said the musical show is supported by the Philippine National Police Academy Alumni Association-Cordillera, Baguio-Cordillera Folk and Country Musicians, in partnership with the University of Baguio. 

 “We are supporting this because we are one community, and  more so because many of our present crop of police officers studied at the University of Baguio,”    said former city mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr., a university official and president of Sun-Star Baguio Daily. 

Among those invited to perform are pioneer concert-for-a-cause mainstays the likes of lawyer Jose “Bubut” Olarte, journalists March Fianza and Alfred Dizon, businessman Sammy Comiles, lead guitarist ArsenMarzan, soloists Alma Angiwan, Liza Noble, Kenneth and Zeny, the Seldom Seen Band, Slow Speed Band, Paul Cuyopan, La Trinidad administrative officer  and The Edralins. 

Together with expat soloists Conrad Marzan and Mhia Tibunsay, most of these artists performed last March 1 in “Down Memory Lane”, a reunion concert of the Foggy Mountain Band that raised some P50,000 for Quakelyn Lisayen, a 24-year old girl stricken with kidney failure who is struggling towards an organ transplant. 

 The girl received last Thursday a P10,000 support from the Regional PNP through Chief Supt. Nerez. 

It was the latest contribution towards a fund drive mounted by a committee led by former city prosecutor Gloria Agunos to raise P640,000 for the transplant.  

Earlier, Baguio Rep. NicasioAliping Jr. set aside P200,000 from his Priority Development Assistance Fund to jumpstart the fund drive for the girl. His elder brother, Bob, a retired U.S. Navy officer, also knocked on doors of fellow expats in the
United States. collecting $1,300 he sent for Quakelyn’s fund. 

In return, Bob delivered to them his “Booba Songs,” a collection of his folk and country compositions. 

For the March 28 concert for the fallen SAF heroes, tickets, pegged at P100 each, are available in Baguio media outlets, police stations and at the information division of the city mayor’s office.