The Anthem Philatelist

In my younger days I detest tatoos. I thought, why would someone desecrate his own body (the temple of the Holy Spirit ) for art's sake . But upon reading the book Bantugang Sugbuanon , Pigafetta mentioned the early Cebuanos had tatooed bodies as an expression of their craft and status. So tattoo artist are technically creatives using the skin as the canvas, thus making the person a walking work of art! But this will be my first and last tatoo. So glad I decided to pursue this daunting trip. Proud of our IP 's, cultural minorities and their traditions❤️ Thank you Whang-od . Thank you Grace and  Sunstar for the feature! Encounter with Apo Whang-Od: The Last Mambabatok The frenzy surrounding the April 2023 cover of Vogue Philippine edition drew my attention to the story of this famous 106-year-old cover girl. As we were already planning a trip to the Rice Terraces in the Cordilleras, I conferred with our tour operator on how to go about visiting Buscalan after Banaue and b...

    My maternal grandparents were from Mainit , Alipao, Alegria, Surigao del Norte .  In the 1930’s, the families of Odtojan , Baluran , Labaso , Senturias , Rubilla and Seroy emerged simultaneously and inhabited the place. Because they were bound by faith and the common vision for a better tomorrow, these families started to cultivate the area of Candiis that had a total land area of not more than 300 hectares.  The first Teniente del Barrio was Alvaro Odtojan Senturias Sr.  who served until the end of the World War II. One of the succeeding Teniente del Barrio was my late aunt Pacensia "Pacing" Odtojan Beniga (Lesoy). Before the war , my grandfather Eugenio Anino Beniga (son of Pantaleon Beniga), a surveyor from Sevilla, Bohol went to Surigao , met and married a pious local beauty, Felina Caerlang Odtojan . They were simple rice farmers who owned and tilled 25 hectares of land in that area.  During my childhood days in the 70's, my fond memor...

Instruments that produce sound from the substance of the instrument itself (wood or metal) are classified as idiophones . They are further divided into those that are struck, scraped, plucked, shaken, or rubbed. In the Philippines, there are metal and wooden (principally bamboo) idiophones. Metal idiophones are of two categories: flat gongs and bossed gongs,. Flat gongs made of bronze, brass, or iron are found principally in the north among the Isneg , Tingguian , Kalinga , Bontok , Ibaloi , Gaddang , Ifugao , and Ilonggot . They are commonly referred to as gangsa . The gongs vary in size, the average are struck with wooden sticks, padded wooden sticks, or slapped with the palm of the hand. Gong playing among the Cordillera highlanders is an integral part of peace pact gatherings, marriages, prestige ceremonies, feasts or rituals. In Southern Philippines, gongs have a central profusion or knot, hence the term bossed gongs . They are of three types: 1) sets of graduated gongs ...

The kutiyapi or kudyapi, is a Philippine two-stringed, fretted boat-lute. It is the only stringed instrument among the Maguindanao people, and one of several among other groups such as the Maranao and Manobo . It is four to six feet long with nine frets made of hardened beeswax . The instrument is carved out of solid soft wood such as from the jackfruit tree.   Common to all kutiyapi instruments, a constant drone is played with one string while the other, an octave above the drone, plays the melody with a kebit or rattan pluck (commonly made from plastic nowadays). This feature, which is also common to other related Southeast Asian "boat lutes", which were influenced by varying degrees by Indian concepts of melody and scale via the Malay archipelago .   Among the T'Boli , Manobo and other Lumad groups, the instrument (known as Hegelung, Kudyapi or Fedlung) is tuned to a major pentatonic scale . Among groups like the Bagobo , the Kutiyapi (Kudlung) is also used as...