Sinulog Festival

CEBU CITY, Philippines - Winners of the Sinulog 2009 grand parade on Monday gave encore performances at the Cebu City Sports Center, delighting the audience with their high-spirited dance routines a second time.

For out-of-town contingents, it was a true moment of pride for their local officials to go on stage to receive trophies, cash awards and the recognition of being the stars of Cebu’s biggest festival.

For Tangub City, Misamis Occidental, it was a worthy comeback for the three-time grand prize champion. They brought home again the first prize in the Sinulog-based parade category and award for best in street dancing. The cash prize was P1.3 million

Jojin Pascual, Tangub’s Cebuano choreographer and artistic director, said the presentation of Tribu Sinanduloy’s 97-member cast was a result of discipline and commitment, the financial support of the Tangub city government and the encouragement of their families and friends.

They rehearsed for three months and a half.

Tangub used a floral offering to the Sto. Niño as its theme. It drew inspiration from that period when rivers still flowed and Cebu's upland farmers would cross the river to sell their produce to townsfolk.

During the Spanish times, Pascual said, a dug-out bandong (canoe) was used to transport floral offerings to the Señor Sto. Niño, while the devotees crossed stone bridges to accompany the image as it passed by the river.

Prayers and dancing accompany the floral offering, he said, with each flower petal a symbol of faith and love for the Holy Child.

Pascual said they were challenged to come up with a unique concept after winning last year's event.

Their sequined costumes were sewn by hand by retired teachers in the city, who worked on it eight hours a day since last October.

“Each sequence is a labor of love. That is why we have very colorful and beautiful costume designs," Pascual said.

“Our city government is very supportive. Mayor Jennifer Wee Tan, whose husband chairs the tourism council of Region 10, did not give us any limitations on how much we would spend for the contest.”

Tangub spent P3 million to P4 million for the production, according to Sherfred Cuasito, assistant choreographer.

But overall, Pascual and the Tangub performers said the glory was due to devotion to the Sto. Niño.

Two of the dancers, Rosemarie Carilli and Dolly Dablo said they wouldn’t think twice about joining next year’s competition.

"I consider my dancing a way of praying to Sto. Niño for thanksgiving and also as a way of telling him my pleas and dreams in life that I would want to achieve in the future," she said.

Tangub City has joined the Sinulog annual grand parade for the past 12 years. Its mayor, Jenny Tan finished her college education in Cebu City.

Meanwhile, eight-year-old Phil Efraim of the Tribu Buyuganon contingent of Abuyog town, Leyte province nearly passed out when it was their group's turn to perform at the grandstand.

As the youngest in the group, he was allowed to have a power nap before their final show past 6 p.m. in front of some 20,000 people in the audience.

He joined other kids who donned striped orange and black bee costumes. Their face was covered with glittering gold dust. As part of their dance, they were tossed over like flying bees by dancing bee farmers of the Buyuganon Tribe.

It was their first time to win the championship for the Free Interpretation parade category.

Tribu Buyuganon, which last joined the Sinulog competition in 1996, was a crowd favorite. It garnered the most text votes in the People's Choice Text Poll.

Abuyugan Municipal Mayor Octavio Traya Jr. said they joined the Sinulog to show that their town can compete with the rest of the country.

He said their dancers are entitled to a 25-percent discount in tuition in the Abuyog Community College as well as allowances and a share of the award money along with the production assistants.

Tribu Buyuganon took home P500,000 cash for their victory. Lanao Del Norte's contingent snagged fourth place in the Free Interpretation Category and won the best in Costume award, winning P250,000 in cash.

Other winners include the Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. Memorial National High School which topped the Sinulog sa Kabataan sa Dakbayan contest and won the P300,000 second prize for the Sinulog-based competition.

A physically handicapped Alfredo Bayon-on from Bantayan Island was cheered by almost 20,000 people from the grandstand as he went on stage to receive his P50,000 cash and award for best puppeteer for this year.