The head of SGS Philippines at the time decided to commission a compilation of indigenous Christmas songs performed by unknown barefoot groups in the Philippine hearland and recorded with no other accompaniment than the crude weather-beaten instruments they had with them for years.
The result was an amazingly poignant repertoire of songs that truly identify us as a people, even if three-fourths of all Filipinos today probably never heard most of them, or if they did, never heard them the way it was meant to be sung - by raw talent and love of singing.
Last February 28, former congressman Dodong Gullas, the chairman of this paper, embarked on a similar mission, this time much closer to home. He initiated what will hopefully become a biennial event - the recognition of raw and loving Cebuano musical talent.
The initial awards, posthumously given, went to Ben Zubiri in recognition of his immortal composition "Matud Nila" and the comic "Pasayawa Ko Day, "as well as to Vicente Rubi and Mariano Vestil, composer and lyricist, respectively of "Kasadya Ning Taknaa," a Christmas song.
Interestingly, "Kasadya Ning Taknaa," is in the SGS compilation, sung by a group of old men and women from Negros in a variation of the Cebuano language that is probably in use in their place. The song comes under a different title, adapted probably to suit the local culture.
Sadly, such recognitions skip the attention and notice of the younger generations, whose culture is already too mixed and diversified and sense of identity too diluted to care for things they regard as too sentimental, heavy and "uncool."
Yet what are we but Filipinos at the very core? The birthright by which we identify ourselves without exception as we step on the global stage in whatever capacity or endeavor cannot be deleted by a single keystroke of insensitivity.
To that French (that's right, French) SGS official and to Dodong Gullas should go the gratitude of those who still recognize the unique value of realizing who and what we are, by whatever medium we come to that realization - music, letters, physical strength, even prayer.