Devotion is motivation

CEBU, Philippines - Devotion and recognizing the significance of the Holy Child is the motivation of the two out-of-town contingents that bagged the top prize of this year’s Sinulog Grand Parade.

Lanao del Norte’s contingent bagged the top spot in the Free Interpretation Category for the first time after eight years of joining, while the Kulturang Placereño of Placer, Masbate, got their three-peat grandslam in their fifth year, in the Sinulog-Based Category.

Lanao del Norte Governor Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo acknowledged the blessing they got from the Holy Child. He said joining the grand parade in 2009 made a big change for the province.

“When we joined the Sinulog in 2009, we got Best in Costume, Best in Street Dance tapos third runner-up. We were so happy because 2008 was a very dark year for us. 2009 was a very strong year for us because it started strong with the Sinulog (January 2009),” he said. The year 2008 saw attacks on Lanao by suspected rebels.

That is why, Dimaporo said he will recommend to the next governor of the province to continue participating in the Sinulog.

Last Sunday, the contingent of Lanao del Norte performed the modernized version of Darangen, a Maranao epic story depicting two warring groups that were reconciled and united.

“That is what makes Lanao del Norte unique – our ability to live together, Muslims and Christians, in harmony and a peaceful manner,” he said.

Dimaporo said he wants to espouse that Christians and Muslims peacefully thrived together in their province.

They also won Best in Costume and Best in Musicality.

One of the challenges the group encountered was the composition of the dancers. Every year, Dimaporo said the province sends different dancers to perform. To address this, he said the province is mulling establishing a dance troupe to compete in different festivals.

For the Kulturang Placereño of Placer, Masbate, choreographer Victor Cuenco said they had to embrace all the stress and pressure this year since they had to defend their title.

Cuenco said that one of their challenges this year is addressing dancers who wanted to quit in the middle of practice.

“There were dancers nga nag-quit gyud. You can’t stop them man pud because they are volunteers. Some are students, some are scholars, some are out-of-school youths, maong nag-hire lang mi para makompleto among routine,” he said.

He said they hired some alumni dancers from the University of Cebu to replace those who quit last December.

They also won Best in Costume with P100,000.

For their fifth year, Cuenco said the group is happy for the three consecutive years of bagging the top spot. In their first year in 2012 they got the top spot. In 2013, they got the third place, but stayed on top for 2014, 2015 and 2016.

With this, Cuenco admitted that the biggest challenge for next year is to think of a unique concept that has never been presented in the grand parade.

“Pirmi gyud na fresh atong ipakita sa tao. Mao na among gi-look forward for next year, bisan og naa gyud ang pressure para ma-continue atong kadaogan,” he said. — (FREEMAN)