Century-old clan reunion fun run to raise aid for school gym, college fund

By Gina P.Dizon

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE- This  century-old clan who traces its sixth  generation since great grandparents were born in the 1800s  shall be  holding a fun-run to raise funds for the completion of a school gym in the occasion of their second grand reunion here.

Ap-on Ganga ya’s Labanet (the grand children of Ganga and Labanet) shall be holding their second grand reunion on January 1-3 at  St Mary’s School gym here. The  clan members numbering nearly a thousand held their first  grand reunion at the same venue January 2-4 last year.    

Said sym is a venue  for school and community activities including conferences and reunions.

The open SMS Gym  is currently being constructed to be enclosed with  bleachers and  the necessary fixtures. The building of the school gym  has been sourced from donations of  SMS alumni and friends including memorial donations to AGL member Norman Longid who died 2014.

Also referred to as Four Sisters Fun Run from SMS to Kiltepan for the sunrise  shall be held  January 2  starting at 4 o’clock in the morning. Open to the public, registration fee is 300 pesos and comes with a t-shirt.

The Baguio-based AGL youth specially  organizes and conducts the fun run.

A  dinner-jam shall be held evening of January 1 featuring AGL  talents  Ely Abad Somebang,  Connie Abad-Tayaotao, Adon Longid Carantes, Wishley  Boclongan, Mark Boclongan, Alfred  Pacyaya  Dizon, Nicole Calabias, Erid Cacay, Jerry Fatiig and this writer.

The dinner-jam raises funds for college assistance for AGL descendants.

    

Education is a treasured and prized  achievement  which AGL values.

AGL descendants- the late Bishop Eduardo Gaudan Longid and educator Alfredo Ganga Pacyaya-are two of the first four  graduates of St Mary’s School in 1932.

Other AGL descendants  followed suit who studied at St Mary’s School and gained their college education in  tertiary schools in Baguio or Manila among them including  three bishops-  the late Bishop Robert Longid, Prime Bishop  Edward Pacyaya Malecdan aside from Bishop Edward Longid the first  Filipino Bishop in the Episcopal Church in the  Philippines.

 Prime Bishop Edward Malecdan  a descendant from the Masinnay-Pacyaya lineage shall be  delivering the homily during the church service  scheduled at 8:30 in the morning of January 2. 

AGL traces its current sixth  generation from spouses Ganga and Labanet who begat  6 children in the  late 1800s. Four remained to  continue the clan generation-Bistanga, Kaluguidan, Kangkangan and Masinnay.

They  cared and nurtured each other at very  young ages, the youngest Masinnay at 8 months and the eldest  Bistanga at pre adolescence when their parents died when they were infected by an epidemic which hit Sagada in the late 1800s.

The four sisters married their respective  husbands and blessed with many children who in turn married and had children- Bistanga married to Longid, Kaluguidan to Abeya, Kangkangan to  Ag-agwa and Masinnay to Pacyaya from Bontoc.

Ganga and Labanet's children and their children’s children  continue to cherish their origins and let the clan flourish  not only for themselves but for the community as well.