BELEN FESTIVAL 2011 (PASKUHAN SA SARIAYA) ACTIVITY REPORT (Part 2) By Eric J. Dedace THE OPENING CEREMONIES Soon, it was the afternoon of December 15th and all the beautiful Belens were ready for the opening ceremonies. The STC members led by Mrs. Wena Masilang gathered at their office to get their respective T shirts and wear them for the occasion. People started coming to the park and gathering around the venue and marveling at the indigenous creations displayed all over, attracted by the blaring of music from the hired sound system. As always, the very articulate STC BOD member Mr. Ruben “JR” de Gracia Jr. served as emcee for the occasion and in no time at all, he was calling out to everyone to get ready for the start of the program. All the Belen – making contestants were likewise in there , getting excited about the whole thing, particularly that the Lutucan National High School Dum and Bugle Corps was on hand to give the park venue a truly festive atmosphere. The indefatigable Danny de Luna of the STC was already rendered busy with his self – appointed task of photo documenting every aspect of the undertaking which he readily uploaded on the different Sariayahin Face Book groups that he was able to put up for the benefit of all Sariayahins, particularly those residing abroad who are so hungry to learn and to be updated about all the happenings in their home town! Also seen milling around and weaving in and out of the huddled groups of people was Arnel “Batute” Dimayuga, who served as the official care taker of the Belen Festival ever since its humble beginnings in December of 2005. At past 3PM, the program started with a prayer led by Danny de Luna, followed by the singing of the National Anthem. Thereafter, the cutting of the ceremonial ribbon was commenced by STC President Mrs. Rowena Masilang and Sangguniang Bayan member Gerardo Q. Abril, together with the rest of the STC that formally opened the Belen Festival “Paskuhan sa Sariaya” 2011. Then Mr. JR de Gracia called on Mrs. Masilang to deliver the welcome remarks, which was followed by the introduction of the Municipal Administrator Cenon Allan V. Loria representing the Municipal Mayor Rosauro V. Masilang who was then on another important commitment, for the inspirational message. Mr.de Gracia then read the criteria for the Belen – making contest, and thereafter asked the Municipal Solid Waste Management staff Erwin Dimaano to read the criteria on the Parol – making contest. With that, Mr. de Gracia started with the introduction of all the contestants who were made to pose beside their respective Belen entries for the necessary photo documentation. Thereafter, Erwin Dimaano was made to announce the contestants for the recycled Parol - making contest namely Mr. Rolando Lacuarin, Mr. Manny del Rosario, Mr. Hilario Reynaldo, Mr. Deonato Alcance, Ms. Marivic Macaraig and the Sariaya PNP. Each of them were asked to parade their respective Parols around the park center ringed by the Belen entries rather than having them paraded along the streets surrounding the park as was first planned. Thereafter, each parol was bought to the Municipio compound where they were hanged on the hooks specially provided for them. At one point, Ms. Mella Vendiola of the ABS CBN Lucena Office arrived and had a short conversation with Mrs. Masilang. She missed having the Belen Festival featured for television last year. All throughout the proceedings , the Lutucan National High School Drum and Bugle Corps was made to play lively music to add festive fanfare. Then, the center of the park was vacated for a lively intermission number by the Drum and Bugle Corps, with their majorettes gamely throwing their respective batons while doing their special choreography for the purpose of entertainment. With that, the opening ceremonies came to an end and Mr. de Gracia invited all Sariayahins to come, see and feel for themselves the lively Christmas spirit emanating from the spruced up venue alongside the beautiful well lit Belens, that has become a byword for the locals and visitors alike. Refreshments were then served at the STC office for all who took part in the undertaking. To further drum up promotion for the festival, the Lutucan National High School Drum and Bugle Corps was made to roam around a few streets of the town accompanied by some members of the Bantay ng Bayan, two of whom where made to hold the streamer up front for the benefit of the people. And as such, the people came in droves, most especially after every 7 PM nine-day “Simbang Gabi” starting on December 15th and the “Misa de Gallo” 4 AM pre dawn mass that commenced the following day December 16th. Eventually, small tarpaulins with the names of the designers together with the photo likenesses of the respective entries were hanged in each Belen for identification purposes. THE SECRET DAY OF THE JUDGING On Sunday, December 18th, the day of the judging, a van went to the UP Diliman campus in Quezon City, specifically at the College of Architecture as arranged by STC President Rowena Masilang, Ms. Susan Caballes, Eric J. Dedace and Prof. Rene Luis Mata, in coordination with “Teody”the driver. It left at about 1 PM for Sariaya and upon their arrival, Eric Dedace met up with the three judges at the park. They were given the criteria and judging paraphernalia plus the score sheets neatly enclosed in folders together with pencils, prepared earlier by Grace Aldea, and they lost no time in poring over them. Thereafter, they went over all the Nativity – inspired creations, looking intently at the installations, and took photos courtesy of their cell phone cameras, so they can pore over the details and review them later from time to time, while they judge them according to the contest rules and regulations and the desired specifications being asked in the criteria. Tek Baligod likewise arrived to exchange pleasantries with the three judges who are not strangers to Sariaya, and to render assistance to the proceedings. They were served snacks courtesy of La Saria Restaurant as they did their initial scorings, coming back every now and then to their subjects, closely scrutinizing despite the photos they took for the purpose. They also did initial comparisons and consultations, while waiting for the sky to get dark, for the night judging category. After all the visuals were taken into consideration and the scores have already been plotted, they were served dinner at the ground floor of the Sariaya ancestral house – inspired Agro Tourism Booth near the STC office, which earned for the Sariaya Local Government Unit the third prize at the “Linggo ng Wika” celebrations in Lucena City last August, now part of the attractions at the town park. They then had their deliberations before they were handed a calculator for the final scoring and determination of the awards. Thereafter, the judging results were placed in an envelope which was sealed right away, to be opened only during the awarding of prizes then tentatively scheduled for December 23rd. Prof. Rene Luis Mata was the Chairman of the Board of Judges, and he together with Prof. Emilio Ozaeta and Mr. Jeffrey Cobilla were given their respective honorariums, as well as beautifully packaged tokens consisting of those delicious and well-loved Sariayahin delicacies like Broas, Pastillas, and the like. They were very grateful for being able to return to Sariaya, which served as their adoptive locality when they were still part of the interdisciplinary Sariaya Community – Empowerment Research Team which did a pioneering study in town from December 2006 to December 2010. Before leaving back for Quezon City care of the back-and-forth transportation, they readily thanked Tek Baligod and Eric Dedace for the engaging company and hospitality accorded to them. The early evening of Wednesday, December 21st, a team from the ABS CBN Southern Tagalog based in Batangas City, most likely accompanied by Ms. Mella Vendiola came to Sariaya to have a production shoot of the Belen Festival for the benefit of the viewing public. STC Assistant Secretary Ofelia Arpia and Erwin Dimaano were at hand to assist them while they took feature shoots of the beautiful and well lit Belens at the park. It was a very rainy evening yet that did not stop them from coming up with a very informative, comprehensive, interesting, and well documented feature of Sariaya’s premier Yuletide attraction for their late afternoon “Kapamilya” audience the following day, December 22nd. The five minute or so news feature even had Erwin Dimaano and Belen – making contestant Jimmy “Mao” Atienza being animatedly interviewed onscreen. It was a very successful promotion according to Mao Atienza, judging by the said unusually heavy turn out of people coming to the park right after seeing the late afternoon ABS CBN Southern Tagalog news feature. Accordingly, most of these people, a lot of whom are Sariayahins themselves knew only about the Belen Festival from it, so they arrived that night to see for themselves. In one story, a Sariayahin was said to have been congratulated by somebody from San Pablo City in Laguna for having a beautiful annual Holiday event like the Belen Festival, likewise after seeing the ABS CBN Southern Tagalog news feature on television that day.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 00:58:15 +0000