Cebu’s Lumad Basakanon wins gold at Korean festival

CEBU, Philippines —  Tribu Lumad Basakanon’s last-minute changes its execution in the finals caught Team Mongolia by surprise to win the gold in the Powerful Daegu Festival in South Korea over the weekend.

Before then, Cebu City-based squad ranked second to Mongolia during the eliminations and semifinals.

Interestingly, the Lumad Basakanon was the only international entry that was requested for a repeat performance before the finals for the sake of the mayor of Daegu City who had missed several performances.

Lumad Basakanon was outnumbered and outdone in their props against Mongolia, but the change of venue for the finals gave the Cebuanos a chance to outshine the latter.

Lumad Basakanon only had a total of 23 performers, including a performer depicting as a priest, Magellan, and Queen Juana while Mongolia, according to the chairman of the board of judges, Ricky Ballesteros, had more performers plus five real horses along with fire dancers and archers as part of their production.

The unpredictable weather condition almost canceled the final performances but, luckily, Sto. Niño must have been on the Cebuanos’ side, allowing them to adjust and do some last-minute changes to fit to the new venue.

Some changes in the choreography were noted, plus the synchronicity of movements and projection gave them the seal of final approval from the judges against most performers who were mostly upbeat and more modern.

Besides the gold, the Tribu Lumad Basakanon pocketed 8 million Korean won for winning the international category.

Mongolia settled second while Indonesia was given a special award.

This is the second time for Tribu Lumad Basakanon to be in South Korea, the first being in 2017 via the World Wonju Dynamic Dancing Carnival where it captured a bronze.

Prior to the revival of the said festival this year, the Philippines, represented by the Masskara Festival of Bacolod, also reigned supreme back in 2019

The Tribu Lumad Basakanon got their tickets back to Korea for the Daegu Festival after topping the virtual battle last year.

Before showcasing their wares in this year’s comeback festival, a surprise test for Covid-19 was done on all participants.

Some international entries were not allowed to perform during the first day pending results of their re-tests while one performer of another Cebu-based squad, Angel Fire, who was a guest performer together with the Juans, got positive in the first test, but later on was found to be false positive.

Luckily, all of Tribu Lumad Basakanon performers were cleared to perform and ended up victorious in their latest trip to Korea.

The victory came in very timely with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama eyeing for a grand Sinulog come back next year, after being held virtually for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cebu City South District Rep. Edu Rama, together with the City government, extended warmest congratulations to the Tribu.

“Isip usa ka lumad nga taga Basak San Nicolas, usa ka Sugbuanon, ug usa ka Pilipinos, dako kaayo atong garbo ug kalipay sa kadungganan nga gidala pag usab sa Lumad Basakanon kanato for winning GOLD in the International category in the Daugu Festival in South Korea. Congratulations!We are all very proud of you!” Edu Rama said on Facebook. – JMD (FREEMAN)