ASKED ABOUT WHAT SHE HAD learned about Filipino culture in the Angat Kabataan Camp 2010, 12-year-old Meryl Guintu smiled and replied: “Experiencing the actual historical sites is quite different from reading our heritage in books at school.”
Guintu took part in the youth camp this month, declared by law as National Heritage Month. It was the first-ever assembly of youth delegates from the 33 churches declared either by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) as World Heritage Sites; or by the National Museum, National Historical Institute and National Commission for Culture and the Arts as National Cultural Treasures.
Other youth leaders from all over the country also joined the event.
The 2010 Heritage Month celebrations carried the theme “Preserving the Gift of Faith.”
“I learned more when I went to the historical sites, and I want the next generation to see [those sites], too,” Guintu, the camp’s youngest delegate, added in Filipino, citing the makeshift dance-floor inside the Hoyop-hoyopan Cave, which had been craftily made by merrymakers to evade arrest during the martial-law era.
She, along with other campers, trekked to Hoyop-hoyopan in Camalig, Albay, as part of the heritage tour of the province. They also visited centuries-old churches.
History has it that Hoyop-hoyopan, which derived its name from the Bicolano term for “blow,” served as a refuge for the early Bicolanos during natural calamities. It also sheltered Katipuneros during the Filipino-Spanish War. More interesting are the marks of Christian culture entrenched in Filipinos, manifested in how the natives see Catholic religious images from the natural rock formations of the cave.
Religious figures
Among the religious figures interpreted from the images were Moses, the Blessed Virgin, a miraculous hand, and the devil. Also, some parts of the cave are considered religious grottos, shrines and altars.
Other heritage sites in Albay that the participants visited were the Parish of Nuestra Señora de la Porteria (Our Lady of the Gate) in Daraga; San Juan Bautista Parish in Tabaco; and Parish of Nuestra Señora de Salvacion (Our Lady of Salvation) in Tiwi, which houses the canonically crowned image of the patroness of Bicol.
Campers also went to the Cagsawa Ruins, the remnants of Cagsawa Church buried by the 1814 eruption of Mayon Volcano.
Notably, the organizers of the camp aimed to reach out to the youth.
Fr. Harold Rentoria, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) commissioner and chair of the stirring committee of the National Heritage Month, said the focus was on the youth because “they could lead the change and be the change” in the country.
“The youth’s role in preserving the gift of faith is vital because they will be the link of the present generation to the future,” Rentoria added.
The camp included a seminar-workshop by Eric Zerrudo, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and a faculty member of the Cultural Heritage Studies master’s program of the University of Santo Tomas (UST).
Inspiring stories
Zerrudo presented two inspiring stories of local initiatives by or involving the youth on cultural conservation.
The first story was about Jefarca, a group of high-school boys from Pulilan, Bulacan, that established what is now the Museo San Ysidro de Pulilan. The group also revived the Punihan festival, or the Carabao Parade; published Kasumuran, the first cultural newsletter of Pulilan; and founded Ugnayang Kalikasan, a civic alliance of environmentalists.
In 1999, the group became a formal organization now known as the Jefarca Arts and Historical Society Inc.
Zerrudo also gave a case study of the Escuella Taller, a Hispanic arts-and-crafts training program for poor but artistically inclined Filipino youth, funded by the Spanish government. Largely a vocational training program, Escuella Taller has recently produced its first batch of graduates, all accredited by Tesda, whose skills at carpentry, masonry, electrical engineering and others make them highly employable here and abroad.
Started in 2009, the first batch of students mainly came from the Baseco compound.
Zerrudo detailed the heartbreaking stories of the poor youth who had seen the Escuela Taller as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break out of their poverty and life of violence in order to make sense of their life and contribute to society.
“I was inspired by the story of Jefarca and realized that, even at this early age, I could make a change. I’ll try to form a group that would follow their footsteps,” Guintu said.
Heritage campers
Rentoria, who belongs to the Augustinians, the first Catholic missionary order in the Philippines and builder of San Agustin Church, the oldest Catholic Church in the Philippines inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List, urged the “heritage campers” to look for ways to conserve their centuries-old churches and the cultural patrimony of the Church.
“Have the initiative and consult with the experts,” he said. “Be the conscience of your communities.”
Angat Kabataan Camp 2010 was organized by the Society of Ecclesiastical Archivists of the Philippines Inc. under the CBCP Committee on Cultural Heritage, through the help of the NCCA; Filipino Heritage Festival Inc.; the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-Committee for Cultural Heritage of the Church; Philippine province of the Augustinians; Diocese of Legazpi; and UST Center for the Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics.
Guintu took part in the youth camp this month, declared by law as National Heritage Month. It was the first-ever assembly of youth delegates from the 33 churches declared either by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) as World Heritage Sites; or by the National Museum, National Historical Institute and National Commission for Culture and the Arts as National Cultural Treasures.
Other youth leaders from all over the country also joined the event.
The 2010 Heritage Month celebrations carried the theme “Preserving the Gift of Faith.”
“I learned more when I went to the historical sites, and I want the next generation to see [those sites], too,” Guintu, the camp’s youngest delegate, added in Filipino, citing the makeshift dance-floor inside the Hoyop-hoyopan Cave, which had been craftily made by merrymakers to evade arrest during the martial-law era.
She, along with other campers, trekked to Hoyop-hoyopan in Camalig, Albay, as part of the heritage tour of the province. They also visited centuries-old churches.
History has it that Hoyop-hoyopan, which derived its name from the Bicolano term for “blow,” served as a refuge for the early Bicolanos during natural calamities. It also sheltered Katipuneros during the Filipino-Spanish War. More interesting are the marks of Christian culture entrenched in Filipinos, manifested in how the natives see Catholic religious images from the natural rock formations of the cave.
Religious figures
Among the religious figures interpreted from the images were Moses, the Blessed Virgin, a miraculous hand, and the devil. Also, some parts of the cave are considered religious grottos, shrines and altars.
Other heritage sites in Albay that the participants visited were the Parish of Nuestra Señora de la Porteria (Our Lady of the Gate) in Daraga; San Juan Bautista Parish in Tabaco; and Parish of Nuestra Señora de Salvacion (Our Lady of Salvation) in Tiwi, which houses the canonically crowned image of the patroness of Bicol.
Campers also went to the Cagsawa Ruins, the remnants of Cagsawa Church buried by the 1814 eruption of Mayon Volcano.
Notably, the organizers of the camp aimed to reach out to the youth.
Fr. Harold Rentoria, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) commissioner and chair of the stirring committee of the National Heritage Month, said the focus was on the youth because “they could lead the change and be the change” in the country.
“The youth’s role in preserving the gift of faith is vital because they will be the link of the present generation to the future,” Rentoria added.
The camp included a seminar-workshop by Eric Zerrudo, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila and a faculty member of the Cultural Heritage Studies master’s program of the University of Santo Tomas (UST).
Inspiring stories
Zerrudo presented two inspiring stories of local initiatives by or involving the youth on cultural conservation.
The first story was about Jefarca, a group of high-school boys from Pulilan, Bulacan, that established what is now the Museo San Ysidro de Pulilan. The group also revived the Punihan festival, or the Carabao Parade; published Kasumuran, the first cultural newsletter of Pulilan; and founded Ugnayang Kalikasan, a civic alliance of environmentalists.
In 1999, the group became a formal organization now known as the Jefarca Arts and Historical Society Inc.
Zerrudo also gave a case study of the Escuella Taller, a Hispanic arts-and-crafts training program for poor but artistically inclined Filipino youth, funded by the Spanish government. Largely a vocational training program, Escuella Taller has recently produced its first batch of graduates, all accredited by Tesda, whose skills at carpentry, masonry, electrical engineering and others make them highly employable here and abroad.
Started in 2009, the first batch of students mainly came from the Baseco compound.
Zerrudo detailed the heartbreaking stories of the poor youth who had seen the Escuela Taller as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break out of their poverty and life of violence in order to make sense of their life and contribute to society.
“I was inspired by the story of Jefarca and realized that, even at this early age, I could make a change. I’ll try to form a group that would follow their footsteps,” Guintu said.
Heritage campers
Rentoria, who belongs to the Augustinians, the first Catholic missionary order in the Philippines and builder of San Agustin Church, the oldest Catholic Church in the Philippines inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List, urged the “heritage campers” to look for ways to conserve their centuries-old churches and the cultural patrimony of the Church.
“Have the initiative and consult with the experts,” he said. “Be the conscience of your communities.”
Angat Kabataan Camp 2010 was organized by the Society of Ecclesiastical Archivists of the Philippines Inc. under the CBCP Committee on Cultural Heritage, through the help of the NCCA; Filipino Heritage Festival Inc.; the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-Committee for Cultural Heritage of the Church; Philippine province of the Augustinians; Diocese of Legazpi; and UST Center for the Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics.
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Date First Posted 22:05:00 05/24/2010
No comments:
Post a Comment