• CHERYL G. CRUZ
Bago City remembered and highlighted the role of Al Cinco de Noviembre in the heritage and culture of Bagonhons, with this year’s 125th celebration focused on “Honor, ingenuity and service on with the revolution of progress”.
Mae Ann Furtos, senior tourism operations officer of Bago, said Nov. 5 that the 125th Al Cinco “is an affirmation of how eager everybody is, especially the Negrenses, to celebrate this occasion,” highlighted by the Sigabong sang mga Kanyon competition eagerly watched by Bagonhons and visitors alike, who crowded the streets all the way to Bantayan Park.
Furtos said the cannons are symbolic of the historic bluff, or the Negrenses’ bloodless revolt against the Spanish colonizers in 1898, led by Bago’s hero, General Juan Araneta, in the south.
But while Araneta’s troops had fake cannons as these were mostly rolled sawali mats painted black, the cannon of Cluster 8 won P10,000 in cash prize after it was declared to have roared the loudest during the competition Sunday morning.
The cluster, composed of barangays Ma-ao, Mailum, and Binubuhan, was also the champion of the 25th “Sigabong sang mga Kanyon” competition, with a cash prize of P45,000.
Barangays Poblacion, Lag-asan, and Tabunan with the Bago City Eagles Club, comprising Cluster 6, bagged the first runner-up cash prize of P40,000, the city said.
Cluster 5, composed of barangays Bagroy, Pacol and Sagasa, won P35,000 as second runner-up while barangays Ilijan, Don Jorge L. Araneta, and Bacong, under Cluster 1, was third runner-up and took home P30,000.
Sigabong was conceptualized to add to the merrymaking, and joyful ambience of the celebration of Al Cinco, Furtos said, adding the roars of the cannons reflect the boom of Bago as a city.
She said the success of this year’s Al Cinco, the second in-person celebration since the COVID-19 pandemic, was due to the coordination, cooperation, and participation of all, especially the barangays.
Meanwhile, the city said the Enriqueta Montilla de Esteban Memorial High School from Pulupandan town was declared the champion in the 12th Bago City Invitational Fancy Drill competition, held at the Manuel Y. Torres Memorial Coliseum and Cultural Center Sunday afternoon.
The fancy drill made a comeback this year, after several years of hiatus likewise due to the coronavirus disease pandemic, and was also participated in by the Lopez Jaena National High School and Minoyan National High School in Murcia, as well as the M.G. Medalla Integrated School and STI-West Negros University from Bacolod City.
Mayor Nicholas Yulo and Vice Mayor Ramon Torres led the wreath-laying ceremony at the General Juan Araneta Monument, followed by the civic military parade.
The city is also staging the 25th Sigabong sang mga Kanyon where revelers can witness the parade of cannons at the major streets going to the Bantayan Park.
Yulo earlier said Bagonhons commemorate and celebrate anew the heroism that General Araneta and his troops showed, standing up against the tyranny of colonizers, who ruled the Philippines for over 300 years.
“May we all remember the history that transpired centuries ago,” the mayor said as he stressed that the valor and lesson of Al Cinco de Noviembre should still be learned and applied, even nowadays. | CGC
