Palaweños converge at Baragatan, rain or shine

Puerto Princesa City (BANDILLO NG PALAWAN)—The bad weather did not dampen the Palaweños’ celebration of the Baragatan sa Palawan 2009.

From the start of the trade fairs, the Caraenan sa Baragatan, and the garden show on June 1, the young people came in groups, many in their school uniforms, to check out the trade exhibits or just hang around the Capitol Park Square or at the Don Vicente Park where the Caraenan was located. In the evenings, families, batchmates, groupmates, officemates came to dine at the Caraenan while being entertained by a free concert onstage in front of the Capitol building. Clearly, Palaweños have come to live up the essence of convergence of the Baragatan.

Don’t rain on our parade. It was the common plea as provincial and municipal officials, employees, guests and friends gathered at the Centennial Pavilion, Capitol Complex for the Eucharistic celebration in line with the grand Baragatan opening last June 15. It was raining non-stop on the eve of the grand Baragatan parade and it was still raining cats and dogs in the morning of the parade. Secretary to the Sanggunian Mrs. Norma Valencia, in charge of the preparations for the Eucharistic celebration, offered eggs to Sta. Clara, hoping that through her intercession, the rain would stop. But as she told some employees, “We can only do so much, we just have to abide by God’s will.”

Governor Joel Reyes who relayed his message of thanks to all public officials both of the province and the municipalities and all Palaweños for their continuous support to the Baragatan sa Palawan before the final blessing in the Eucharistic celebration, confirmed that rain or shine the parade would go on as scheduled.

With that leap of faith, the rain did stop sometime after the parade began at 1 p.m. along Rizal Avenue. And Palaweños converging along Rizal Avenue to watch the parade with umbrellas tucked under their arms and children in tow had the chance to enjoy the parade without the rain.

It was indeed a celebration of the Baragatan spirit to see Gov. Reyes with Vice Gov. David Ponce de Leon, members of the Provincial Board and Department heads leading the Capitol employees in the street dancing during the opening parade. Just as well for the municipal officials to swing and sway along Rizal Avenue for the Pantiguan sa Baragatan to the delight of the watching crowd.

Meeting the judges’ standards and declared as winners of the competition were the municipality of Culion, as first prize; Coron, as second prize and El Nido, as third prize winner.

It is only once a year when Palaweños show their artistry and resourcefulness and ingenuity in utilizing local products to decorate their floats for the Best Float competition. This year, Narra won first prize; Taytay came in second place while Balabac got the third place. The float competition also gave the crowd the chance to catch a glimpse of the respective candidates of the different municipalities to the Search for Mutya ng Palawan.

In spite of tropical depressions in other parts of the country, nature cooperated with the festivities in Palawan and most of the evening shows were presented sans the rains. June 16 was dedicated as Cuyonon Day. It started with a basic tipano lesson as part of the effort to preserve and revive interest in tipano, an indigenous Cuyono musical instrument. In the afternoon, Cuyono cooks who are experts in preparing popular Cuyono delicacies such as the bandi, kombo and bibingka were invited to demonstrate the traditional methods of cooking these recipes. In the evening, Cuyonons took the center stage in a cultural presentation of Cuyono songs and dances. Afterwards, the youth performed in the Cuyono Rock competition which gave them the opportunity to express themselves in Cuyonon through the universal language of music. They did not only sing original Cuyono songs rendered in rock genre but also translated a popular Pinoy song (of their choice) into Cuyonon. As Governor Reyes said, “We have to continue exerting efforts to preserve and promote Cuyono culture because this is our identity and our heritage and our way of manifesting our pride and our sense of patriotism.”

Vice Pres. Noli de Castro, who was the guest of honor, at the 107^th founding anniversary celebration of the Palawan civil government on June 23, congratulated Gov. Reyes for initiating efforts to promote and preserve Cuyono culture. He pointed out, “karapat-dapat lamang na pangalagaan ang kultura at salitang Cuyonon dahil kung mawala ito ay mawawala na rin ang Palawan.”

The Vice President said that the Cuyono culture reflects what is good and beautiful in the Filipino which the future generations can be proud of. But more than the preservation of one’s culture, he reminded everyone gathered at the Capitol Park Square for the Saraotan sa Dalan competition to continue protecting Palawan’s environment.

He said, “Ang kagandahan ng Palawan ay salamin ng ating lahi. ‘Wag nating payagan na lumabo o mabasag ang salaming ito at magkaroon ng pinsala sa tunay na yaman ng Palawan – ang kapaligiran.”

The Vice President, standing as the Cabinet Officer for Regional Development (CORD) for Mimaropa, assured of his support to initiatives of the provincial government towards the protection and conservation of the environment.

The much-awaited events were the Palawan Pop Idol and the Mutya ng Palawan Talent and Coronation Night on June 21 and 22 respectively. Many noticed the fast-paced production and the multi-media backdrop added glamour to the pageant which was graced by former beauty queens as members of the panel of judges with the beauty and wellness guru, Cory Quirino, as chairman.

Jo Ann Peria of Brooke’s Point was crowned 2009 Mutya ng Palawan and her entourage includes Ma. Leonila Laraya of Balabac as first runner-up; Precious Kim Rey of Magsaysay as second runner-up; Dominique Nicole So of Linapacan as third runner-up and Jelena Mai Gicanal of Cuyo as 4^th runner-up.

Since the Baragatan coincides with the founding anniversary of the civil government, the festival gave honor and recognition to outstanding Palaweños whose achievements contributed to Palawan’s development through the prestigious Governor’s Award. For this year, the seven recipients of the award in the individual category are: Marilou Valledor of Barangay Catep, Dumaran in the category of Entrepreneurship; Genaro Carmen of Maasin, Quezon in the category of Agriculture; Courtney Melissa Gray in the category of Sports; Dr. Teresita Salva, president of Palawan State University in the category of Education. In the group category, the awardees are Western Philippines-University-Affiliated Renewable Energy Center in the category of public service and good governance; Rurungan sa Tubod Foundation, Inc. in the category of Women Development and Western Philippines University-Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Inc.’s Sanayan sa Kakayahang Agrikultura (SAKA) sa Palawan program in the category of Education.

The Gawad Parangal under the Provincial Councilors League headed by PCL president Board Member Jim Gerald Pe, on the other hand, gave recognition to outstanding legislators in the municipal, barangay and from the ranks of the Sangguniang Kabataan.

Meanwhile, the Governor also took time out to honor former provincial officials and employees in a dinner.

Another activity that drew a lot of compliments was the Recycling Creation Contest conducted by the Environment and Natural Resources Office-Province and PSFI. The contest encouraged creativity in recycling waste materials into useful or decorative items in line with the advocacy to reduce, reuse and recycle materials to protect and save Mother Earth. Bobby Llamazarez won the first prize with his “gulong set” or furniture made out of recycled rubber tires.

Baragatan also served as venue for various events geared to promote manpower and skills development through the jobs fair, livelihood development through the Technology and Livelihood Development Center trade fair and national conference; the business conference under the Palawan Economic Development Council (PEDCO) and a Business Day sa Baragatan was held with the support of many local business groups.

Baragatan’s culminating event, Saraotan sa Dalan on June 23 was preceded with a parade of municipal and provincial officials with Vice Pres. de Castro walking abreast with Gov. Reyes and Vice Gov. Ponce de Leon and other Board Members along Rizal Avenue up to the Capitol Park Square.

The street dancing showdown unfolded at the park before a huge crowd of spectators. And the verdict was: El Nido won the grand prize with Coron as second prize winner and the town of Rizal as third placer. Other awards won by the participants were: Most Original went to Roxas; Most Indigenous by Barangay Maruyugon of Puerto Princesa City; Best in Parade, Sofronio Española and Audience’s Choice went to El Nido.

Hopefully, a bigger and better Baragatan will be organized next year with greater participation of the local government units, the private and business sectors. By Ofie Rondina