Pigumpungan Festival highlights unity of Lumads, Christians

By Alma L. Tingcang

SAN MIGUEL, Zamboanga del Sur - “Pigumpungan Festival,” celebrated for the first time in this peaceful town of Zamboanga del  Sur in keeping with the 53^rd Araw ng San Miguel.

“It is the first time that we celebrated this festival. Pigumpungan is a Subanen word which means unity as we have seen through the cooperation and support of the people during the previous and the present administration,” says San Miguel Mayor Angelito L. Martinez II.

Mayor Martinez said plans have long been prepared to come up with the celebration of the Pigumpungan Festival. “It is only during my administration that those plans were materialized and I am deeply grateful to the people of San Miguel,” he pointed out.

“We will make this a yearly activity since the launching was very successful. One of the highlights of this four-day festival  which runs from Aug. 29-Sept. 1 is the school-based dance extravaganza participated in by 18 elementary schools and four national high schools,” he explained.

The folk dance competition, ethnic and team ballroom competition wowed the audience showcasing the myriad talents of the students in the elementary and high school.

The 18 barangay Indigenous Peoples (IPS) representatives also elected their officers with Timuay Priscilla Buay Marquiala as president,  to comprise the San Miguel Tribal Council of Elders.

Although the Subanen people comprise only 5-10 percent of local folks, and a minority, the good mayor who was born and bred in this town never forgot that they were the first settlers of San Miguel. “Later, Christians have come to settle in this peaceful town but let us never forget that it was the Subanens who first tilled our soils and made them productive.”

“I would say that the people’s support was so amazing, even during the opening, I never expected that the response would be so overwhelming. I was thinking only the highway barangays would participate but to my surprise, even the far-flung barangays joined. In fact, many of them cried, and I was one of them. I practically had goose bumps,” the mayor said in the vernacular.

Mayor Martinez expressed his gratitude to his lovely and ever-supportive first lady, Ms. Vida Belle Althea T. Martinez, Tourism Officer and chairperson of Ms. Teen San Miguel 2013 and the cultural extravaganza, to Vice Mayor Celso T. Otero, Sangguniang Bayan members and barangay officials.

Mayor Martinez reiterated his wholehearted thanks to all the people of San Miguel, the working committees and everyone else who contributed to the success of the 53^rd Araw ng San Miguel. He then encouraged everyone to sustain the momentum to achieve the municipality’s long cherished dream of progress and development. (PIA9)