On the Igorot Cordillera European Cultural Night

The cultural night began a little bit late. Instead of starting 5.00 o’clock p.m., it began an hour later with the assembly and registration, which was headed by Barcelona BIBAK members.

Around 7.00 o’clock, the program started with the prayer led by The Rev. Cesar Taguba of The Netherlands. This was followed by the Philippine National Anthem conducted by Ms. Lennie Rose Kitab Ampaguey of BIBAK Barcelona.

The welcome address in a badiw form followed and it was given by some members of BIBAK Barcelona led by Mr. Gil Tiban Catimo, president of BIBAK Barcelona.

            Around 7.00 o’clock and quarter, the presentation of the ICBE delegates and guests was already on-going, which was alphabetically arranged. This part was done by Mr. Manie Mones and yours truly.

Later, the ICBE past and its vision was given by Mrs. Conchita Pooten of Igorot UK, followed up by the message of Mrs. Maria Cristina Antero- president of the Igorot Global Organization given by Dr. Yvonne Belen from The Netherlands. After this, the message of President Serafin Ngohayon of the Ifugao State University was read by Mr. Ric Cuyob of the Cordillera Community in Belgium. (At this time, there was a change of program sequence because guests from Barcelona arrived late since all of them attended the wake of the late Fr. Avelino Sapida, the parish priest of the Filipino Catholic community in Barcelona.)

At about 8.00 o’clock, Ms. Lennie Rose Kitab Ampaguey was already delivering the “Mi Ultimo Adios” of Dr. Jose Rizal. By this time our guests from Barcelona arrived. So, we started with the message of Ms. Maritess Saulog, Vice-President of KALIPI (Kapulongan ng mga Lider Pinoy sa Barcelona), immediately followed up with a short talk by Consul General Catalino Dilem, Consul-General of the Embassy of the Philippines based in Madrid. After this part, Señor Jordi Puig, Honorary Consul for Catalunya and Aragon, delivered his message.

At exactly 9.00 o’clock, Part I of the program was nearly finished and dinner was being prepared. While dinner was being served, the following rendered some intermissions:

          1. Surprise Number – Second-Generation Igorot Cordillerans,

          2. Line Dance - BIBAK Barcelona,

          3. Song - Mr. Jeff Inabiohan - BIBAK Barcelona and

          4. Song - Mr. Giuseppe Forte- Cordillerans in Italy

“Also while having dinner, some of the BIBAK Barcelona gentlemen and Mr. Giuseppe Forte serenaded us with some more songs.”

            At around 10 o’clock, we started the part II of the program. The ICBE Consultation went to the stage and sang the Cordillera Hymn. Taking advantage of everyone’s presence, we rendered a song to Dr. Yvonne Belen as a tribute for being one of the leaders of ICBE.

For the next ICBE Consultation, the turn-over of responsibility was performed by Mr. Gil Catimo to Ms. Leonida Ostermayer-Lunag, president of Igorot Austria-Cordillera. This was followed by the old-style tapey (rice wine) drinking ceremony, which included the guests and conference participants.

Afterwards, there was a presentation of Cordillera costumes and description of the costumes; and performance of dances, songs and chants of the Cordillera Region. This part was headed by Ms. Marjorie Abeya-Soaygan of Igorot Austria-Cordillera and Ms. Sabina Kuenzi of BIBAK Switzerland.

At this point the pattong was done with  audience participation. Included in this part is the line dance pattong style led by Mr. Patrick Bounggick of Igorot Austria-Cordillera. At nearly 11:30, Ms. Annette Chulyao Banya-ao of BIBAK Barcelona delivered the closing remarks.

Then the conference participants had a group picture. Later, we had pictures taken by country including the guests.

More pattong dances followed and then, Mr. Perfect Bolayo and Ms. Cynthia Bolayo led the famous Grand March dance participated by all. At this point, the guests from Belgium had to leave since their flight going back is scheduled on that same night. Many stayed behind and danced until they had to stop because it was already near midnight.

From the looks of faces during the cultural night, everyone was enjoying. There were Cordillera costumes to see and dances to watch; there were dances that many could join in; there were sounds of the gongs to hear; there was the smell and taste of Catalan food to relish; there was a lot of picture-taking, on stage and off the stage. In small ways and big, everyone did their part to make the cultural night a success.