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By Kristelle Joy Festin and Maria Espie Vidal,
Special to The Manila Times
Powerful. Influential. Everywhere.
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The
Pahiyas festival has felt the
onslaught of commercialization |
Imagine life without advertisements. No one
knows what’s hot and what’s not. They are three-minute skits in
our everyday entertainment life, but these small breaks are becoming
uncontrollably viral, even our cultural heritages are being
infected.
Issues of commercialization flood as different
festivals are held in every part of the country. Not an exception to
this is the famous Pahiyas festival of Lucban, Quezon.
With their colorful festival held on May 15,
society critics raise eyebrows as banners of different advertisers
bombard the streets of Lucban. From lampposts to banderitas, there
will never be a hard time distinguishing the names of the sponsors
with all the streamers and posters.
Despite the claims that Pahiyas is still
anchored with religious, cultural, and local tradition, the
bombardment of streamers and posters as well as the promotional
activities of the advertisers bring confusion to the public. It is
worsened as stations of some advertisers are placed right beside the
church, making the religious center hard to find for tourists, and
the transformation of the once-spacious city park into a visually
noisy square dedicated to advertisers.
Lacking flavor
The Pahiyas festival is just one of the many
infamous festivals in our country, but does not alone faces this
issue of commercialization. According to Department of Tourism (DOT)
Secretary Joseph Ace Durano, several festivals which he recently
attended are starting to become “pop-ish” in terms of music and
dance, theme and even costumes. “Every time I attend a festival,
it seems like they’re all the same and look the same. It’s
commercialized. It lacks the local flavor,” said Durano.
And so to prevent the further spread of the pop
trend, Tourism Department launched Operation: Tunay na Kulturang
Pinoy (TKP), a two-day workshop for local events and/or festival
organizers on how to maintain the integrity of their traditional
arts. This is a nationwide program that aims to bring back the local
and cultural aspect of the festivities particularly street
performances like dances and parades.
This workshop tutors communities the traditional
and historical methods of holding festivities of their respective
regions, with special programs based on indigenous dance techniques,
festival management and planning, stage design and musical
composition.
“It is important for tourists to see something
unique; something related to the Filipino culture. And so we started
this program, and train festival organizers for them to introduce
what is locally unique whether it’s historical or nature-wise,”
claims Durano.
Since festivals are the “easiest” way to
catch the attention of tourists, Durano says this project would
hopefully spread the benefit of tourism throughout the country
especially those not-so-popular destinations. This will inspire
travelers to see and crave more of our country’s rich culture and
not that everyday scene of pop culture.
Durano adds that it is through festivals that
tourists get to experience the Filipino heritage and culture, and so
it is important to highlight its nativeness and distinctiveness, not
only from the world but also from other Filipino festivals.
Otherwise, they might lose interest in seeing other events because
of their similarity.
The project head, DOT Cultural Director Rene
Romulo de los Reyes, works hand in hand with cultural experts from
the Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Historical
Institute, and National Commission on Culture and Arts in hosting
the seminars from one region to another nationwide.
Operation: TKP is organized by DOT, in
cooperation with the Philippine Theater Association, National
Commission on Culture and Arts, Philippine Normal University and
University of the Philippines.
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