PERFORMING ORAGON IN BIKOL SONG FESTIVALS
PERFORMING ORAGON IN BIKOL SONG FESTIVALS
“Magliwanag ka sa Kadikloman (Be a light )
Mag-ilaw Ka sa Katahawan (In the midst of darkness)
Ipahiling mo an karahayan (Show your good deeds)
Sa mga tawo kan Kinaban” (to the whole world)
The Bikol Song entitled “Magliwanag Ka” was the third prize winner masterpiece that I had written at the 2nd Bikol Song Adaptation Festival, one of the activities of Kaogma Festival dubbed as the “Hottest Festival in the World. ” The song was adapted from the Christian song “Go light your world” by Kathy Troccoli to inspire the youth and be brave while the Philippine nation fighting against terrorism in the year 2000. It exhorted,
“Sarong Pamilya kita sa Dios (We are a family in the Lord)
Na may puso, may pagtubod (with a heart and faith)
Ipamibi ta sa kagurangnan (Let us pray to God)
An paglakaw sa katanosan (as we walk in righteousness)
The song was performed by a cousin, National Music Competition for Young Artist (NAMCYA) Contender, and ABS-CBN Bikol TV Host/Newscaster Shiela Denina-Herras who received the “Best Interpreter Award.” Renowned singing priest and composer Father Lorenzo “Louan” Jarcia was the chairman of the board of judges. The said song writing competition was held at the Plaza Rizal, Naga City last May 22, 2000.
Despite of the threat of terrorism, the Bikolano artists were “Oragon”, a Bikol virtue for the perseverance and spirituality in the midst of adversities. “Orag” is the root word of Oragon and can be used as a noun or adjective. After receiving the awards, being the only teenager in the finalist, and left the stage, great crowds were aloud expressing:
Maorag ka talaga! (You are good.)
Maoragon ka talaga! (You are the best.)
Nowadays, “Oragon” had been understood and used in a positive sense but needs to be redeemed beforehand in the contemporary world after being altered during the Spanish colonization. 2008 Philippine National Book, Premio Tomas Arejola, and 2009 Madrigal-Gonzales Best First Book Awardee Victor Dennis T. Nierva wrote, “In Sawikaan 2007, I presented the paper of the foremost Bikol historian (and now probably the world’s leading scholar of the 1521 conquest), Dr. Danilo Madrid Gerona. The title of his paper was ‘Orag as Bikol Virtue’ which elucidated as well as endorsed the resurrection of the original meaning and understanding of the Bikol word orag. Gerona’s paper meant to recover the recognition and acceptance that the word deserves after the Spanish colonizers bastardized its supposed noble definition” . The original meaning of “Orag” is “exceptional, valiant, fearless…and emerged unscathed and triumphant in sagas and adventure.” But the Spaniards made some changes, especially the friars who transformed it into “a spiteful, undesirable word, and eventually became no less than a signification for sin” . The term Oragon was reduced in Fray Marcos de Lisboa’s lexicon “into a person who is deshonesto o libidinoso—he could no longer be trusted, he was the thief, the covetous, the pervert, the master of immorality. The devil, perhaps, in Christian sense, was the most oragon of all.Gerona concluded his paper by sharing contemporary manifestations of recovery of orag‘s old meanings. He ended by articulating the evident resurging usage of the word orag, may it be deliberate or not, as an exemplary character and virtue of the Bikolanos… In Bikol literature, according to Santos, the brilliant writer is described or labeled as someone who is oragon. A person who masterfully performs tigsik is also an oragon because despite intoxication, he is able to maintain his way with sophisticated and heightened language on many things, he can still succeed in arguing using poetry, he can still roast or toast anyone, he can still censure even those who are in power.” The Bikol artists can empathize (nakikisama) in the suffering but have a courage (orag) in the midst of adversities- not just performing oragon in music and the arts but implanting the virtue as their identity. This song festival “enable people to leave their everyday lives for a short period of time and reflect at a distance upon the [Oragon] virtue, norms and constraints to which they are bound, or at the extreme, overstep the restraints and forge their own identity” .
Festival as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary refers to “a feast, befitting a feast-day,” “a time of festive celebration,” and “merry-making.” Festivals in the Philippines are inspired or motivated by religion, music, food, culture, and income. Religious festivals are usually “tied to the feast days of the Catholic Saints and they are celebrated with great fervor, not only through religious masses and prayer, but also in the preparation of food, parties, parades, and other activities.”
The festivals blended the sacred and the profane, and composed of secular and religious songs, live bands, and dances that “which gave Filipinos an outlet for what Phelan described as their natural gregariousness. ” Adiova(2014) wrote, “The blending of the sacred and profane can be found in the idea of the ‘carnivalesque,’ one of the most influential theories used to frame festivals by Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin. In his work Rabelais and His World (1984), Bakhtin coins the term ‘carnivalesque, referring to a literary mode that subverts the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos. Bakhtin traces the origins of the carnivalesque to the concept of carnival, a time of feasting when normally dominant constraints and hierarchies are temporarily lifted. The festival, therefore, can serve as a break from reality and the everyday… Philippine festivals incorporate carnivalesque elements as well. In his study of Philippine fiestas and their impact on the development of a colonial culture, Reinhard Wendt (1998) recognizes that festivals can be viewed as instruments to reinforce and legitimize existing conditions, or as ways to criticize and break down the ruling order” .
There were other known festivals in the Bicol Region where music spectacle at the front line in the late 1990s and early 2000s such as Goa Songwriting Festival, Sarung Banggi Festival, and the song writing competition at the Magayon Festival. Tigaon Bicol Song Writing Festival, and Bicol Music Festival emerged later.
Sarung Banggi Festival commemorates Potenciano V. Gregorio, a music apprentice of the first Filipino Priest Jorge Barlin and the composer of the ballad song Sarung Banggi(One Night) associated with Bikol identity. The song became popular after the composer joined the world famous Philippine Constabulary band under direction of Colonel Walter H. Loving, The festival was celebrated annually in Santo Domingo, Albay from 18th to the 25th of May . The Fame of Sarong Banggi brought the Bikol Identity on stage. Ballet Philippines’ Sarong Banggi co-presented by the Province of Albay featured six world class Filipino choreographers such as Carissa Adea, Ronelson Yadao, Cyril Aran Fallar, Paul Alexander Morales, Nonoy Froilan, and Carlo Pacis. The influence of Sarong Banggi revived the classic folk songs in the country, arranged and orchestrated by Ryan Cayabyab, the country’s best-loved composer. It is a celebration of Filipino music and dance held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines last October 16-18, 2015.
Goa Songwriting Festival were held every December in Goa, Partido.
The Magayon Festival showcased annually the arts and cultural heritage of the province of Albay that started on the second week of April. There were at least 134 events and one of the events during the festival was a songwriting competition. One of the participants in the 2011 competition stated: “This event develops the talent of amateur Bicolano musicians and it brings us closer to appreciating our own culture through songwriting. It exposes our talents not only here in Albay but also globally…”
Currently, the active song writing festivals are Sarong Banggi Festival, Tigaon Bicol Song Writing Festival, Bicol Music Festival, and song writing competitions of Lagonoy Kadahoman Festival and Magayon Festival.
The music festival event in the Bicol Region is an event performing Oragon talent to share their love and brilliance in music, and to promote Bikol’s timeless culture and Identity—not the Bikolness but the Bikolnesses. Tiatco implicitly stated that the continuous theoretical discourse on theatre and performance studies should not be on the construction or reconstruction of a single identity but rather recognition or affirmation of several identities,in bikol context, not just the naga-ness, but also the partidoness, rinconadaness, and more identities in Bikol .
References
1. PressReader.com – Your Favorite Newspapers and Magazines. Accessed March 22, 2020. https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/manila-times/20100724/283296043862718
2. Nierva,Vic . 2018. “Bansay: in Search of the Filipino ‘Virtue’.” Vic Nierva. December 7, 2018. https://vicnierva.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/bansay/.
3. Adiova, Marilyne Antonette. 2014. “Music, Dance, and Negotiations of Identity in the Religious Festivals of Bicol, Philippines.” Umich. University ofMichigan. 2014. https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/107257/madiova_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
4. Tiatco, Sir Anril Pineda. 2015. Entablado: Theatre and Performances in the Philippines. Quezon City, Ph: The University of the Philippines Press.
5. Pata, Danny. 2015. “LOOK: ‘Sarong Banggi’ Mixes Ballet with Classic Folk Songs.” GMA News Online. GMA News Online. October 18, 2015. https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/artandculture/541122/sarong-banggi-mixes-ballet-with-classic-folk-songs/story/.
Photos courtesy of Ballet Philippines
(The author is dedicating this article to Bicolano Expert on Theatre and Performance Studies Dr Jazmin Llana; to my UP, PNU, and Ateneo Professors: Carlos Palanca Awardee Palanca Awardee Dr. Sir Anril Pineda Tiatco, Prof. Katherine Estevez, Dr. Diego Maranan, Dr Lars Ubaldo, Dr Myla Arcinas, Mam Portia Soriano,Dr. Honey Libertine Achanzar-Labor, Dr. Mabini Dizon, Dr Ana Katrina De Jesus, Professor Gian Carlo de Jesus, and Dr Danilo Gerona, Filipino Historian; and to my Guitar coach Sir Timothy Pacpaco, National Champion)
About the Author
Peter Dadis Breboneria II (Formerly Peter Reganit Breboneria II) is the founder of the International Center for Youth Development (ICYD) and the program author/ developer of the Philippines first internet-based Alternative Learning System and Utak Henyo Program of the Department of Education featured by GMA News & Public Affairs and ABS-CBN and MOA signed by Department of Education, Voice of the Youth Network, Junior Chamber International (JCI), and the Philippine Music and the Arts. You may visit his website at www.peterbreboneria.com
