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Last week, UP Visayas celebrated its 61st year of presence in Iloilo and since it was also the Centennial of the University of the Philippines, everyone tried to make the events extra special. While I tried to attend (and photograph) as many of the events as I can, this also took a lot of extra effort shuttling between my work in Tigbauan and the events held in both the Miagao and Iloilo City campuses of UPV.

Tuesday – Opening program, exhibits, and fireworks

I was impressed with the Opening Program which was heavily inspired by Western Visayas Traditions. The prayer was led by Federico Caballero a.k.a. Nong Pedring, a Panay-Bukidnon is considered to be a National Living Treasure by the NCCA. I didn’t understand a word from the chant-like prayer though. A traditional dance followed, performed by the companions of Nong Pedring. I also did not understand what it was all about but it’s just nice to know that due attention is being given to local traditions. Even when the program ended, more than enough puto, kutchinta, turon, bananas, and other native food was served for everyone.

Of all the messages given during the Opening Program, I like remembering what Joefer Tacardon said in behalf of the students: “It was in UP where I learned how to brush my teeth, change my clothes, and study for an exam, all at the same time.”

Exhibits and a living exhibit

An opening of a Nostalgia exhibit followed after the program. I really enjoyed looking at the photos of the UPV that was before, especially the buildings. It is indeed nostalgic seeing how much history UPV has been through.

Wandering off to the poster exhibit by different alumni groups, I noticed a couple of strikingly familiar photos on the Chemistry Society (Chemsoc) poster.

Compare them to this and this. Whoever did the layout for this poster, please be aware that it’s always polite to credit the copyright owners for their works.

A little later, I passed by the Little Theater grounds and got hooked at the Interactive Museum of West Visayan Traditional Arts and Crafts. Again, I’m happy to see that local traditions are promoted where the urban youth can experience them. Among the exhibits were Bandi and Butong-butong making (from Guimbal and San Joaquin); Bibingka making (Molo); Panara, Pancit Molo, and Fresh Lumpia making (Molo); and Pottery. However my favorites were the Barquillos making (Molo), and Bolo making (Badiangan).

How to make Barquillos

I have more photos posted of the Living Exhibit at the UPV online forum.

Fireworks

I returned to work in Tigbauan that afternoon but rushed back to the City to witness the fireworks display. It was raining that night so we were dreading what seemed to be the start of a serious delay. It wasn’t the rain. The moment a couple of firetrucks arrived in the campus, the fireworks started exploding. While it wasn’t the best fireworks I’ve seen, it was worth the bother to watch. I was only disappointed the Main Building’s facade wasn’t illuminated. I could have taken more dramatic pictures.

Wednesday – Rain, games, and kites

The rain dampened the plans for the second day. I was looking forward to the street painting at the dorm area but it was moved to the covered walk near the College Union Building (CUB). Nevertheless, I enjoyed watching the Larong Pinoy events and it was worth being absent from work that morning.

I think the students really enjoyed playing games with the Chancellor Glenn Aguilar and the CAS Dean Ebonia Seraspe. I frankly do not understand how piko and patintero are played. They did.

I remember kadang-kadang in elementary was played with coconut shells, but here they use bamboo stilts. I wanted to try one of these, but didn’t have the guts. Loser.

I have many great photos of the various facial expressions of the palo sebo players, but for their sake I won’t be posting them here. The poles were very, very slipper all teams invested time and shirts to first wipe the grease off.

My greatest frustration for this week was during the lagsanay baboy. It was a dramatic sight to see all the players getting ready to sprint towards the two innocent pigs at the middle of the field.

Despite the drizzle, I positioned myself near the pigs to take a video of the stampede and the rumble that was to follow.

“Three.. two… one… GO!” A great thundering sound, muffled only by the moist earth, grew louder and louder as the players galloped towards the still unsuspecting pigs. It was something to die for. The lucky teams who can grab the pigs will be given the rightful ownership of the poor animals – or whatever is left of them. It was only at the last moment that the pigs felt the ground shaking that they started to run – but alas! It was too late! Before anyone could blink, the rainy atmosphere was broken by loud squealing, of both the pigs and the players. The unknowing pigs, crushed by the enormous weight of the humans snowballing around them, and agonizingly stretched by a thousand fingers fighting for a tight grasp, were crying for survival, and freedom. The humans too, were crying, out of the determination to own the cute and yummy, pink blobs of meat. Victory will be sweet, and defeat a muddy loss.

So why don’t I just post the amazing video that will place the slightly-exagerrated paragraph above into visual reality? That’s because I forgot to press the record button! All the while I was behind the lens, carefully framing the event as it unfolded, thinking every detail was being preserved in my camera’s memory. Sigh.

After minimal ramblings, a guy from the Ugyon team and another from the Scions each took a piggy home.

The kite-flying competition that was to follow was also disappointing. There was no wind. The teams ran the length of the football field to launch their kites but the kites promptly took a dive as soon as the running stopped. Well, look at the bright side, some of the kites looked great – at least for the first ever kite-flying competition in UPV.

That day, the University Student Council volunteers were very persistent in convincing me to shell out eight pesos for the privilege of making a hand-print on their Centennial Hand-Print Banner of some sort. Since this did cost me eight pesos, I think it’s worth posting here. You could choose from either red or blue paint and for many students in UP, this is a not-so-apolitical decision. Did I go for blue or red?

Thursday – Pasundayag 2008

That night, I again rushed from work to the City Campus to watch Pasundayag 2008, which is a competition between groups of faculty, staff. I was surprised when I learned the grand prize was 20 thousand pesos, but I guess this accounts for the overall impressive and sometimes daring performance of the groups.

Speaking of daring. One of the highlights of that night’s presentation was when UPV Chancellor Glenn Aguilar (I don’t know how they convinced him) came onstage with nothing but cycling shorts and a leaf – he was their group’s Oblation. Lucky for him I was far from the stage at that time so the photo you see on the right isn’t very crisp.

The night was rightfully awarded to the group from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). Their plot, if I understood it right, revolved around the struggle between the tamawos and the college when the CAS building was built in the supposed enchanted forests of Miagao. All went well when tamawo expert, Dr. Alicia Magos, came to the scene and mediated between the two. So today, they claim, the tamawos are already able to peacefully coexist with the students in the CAS building.

It was a great night. It didn’t rain and there was a lot of audience.  I simply love it when they use the former Iloilo City Hall’s facade as the backdrop.

More photos of Pasundayag 2008 at the UPV Forums

Friday – Hinugyaw 2008

I awoke with a strange feeling which later materialized into a fever. Still, I was already determined to watch Hinugyaw. Not that I am a fan of fashion shows, but I have taken hundreds of photos of the same event for the past two years and I was itching to do the same this year. Hinugyaw is also the highlight of the student activities for the Foundation Week and the various academic organizations literally spend tens of thousands of pesos and hundreds of man-hours to snatch the coveted titles.

Sadly, due to my fever and my fear of worsening it, I wasn’t able to stay at the best vantage points to take good photos. Pardon the quality.

The winner for the mascot competition was the Clovers. Their mascot was supposed to be the wolf in the local TV series Lobo.

The modelling competition saw the intense competition among some academic groups.

And this year’s best modelling group comes from the Skimmers! More photos of the modelling competition at the UPV Forums.

Towards the end of the program, one of the judges also performed a fire dance which the audience loved. I enjoyed taking photos of his performance too.

See a video of his performance here.

After the multitude of side-performances and multimedia presentations, I was exhausted at the end of the program. We trooped back to the dorm and I was just too happy to sleep.

It’s been a long week and a long entry. I’ll be missing the Alumni Homecoming the next day.

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