Kadayawan Festival is an
annual festival in Davao City held every month of August to commemorate year of
good harvest. During the late 80’s, it
was known then as “ApoDuWaling Festival.”
It was an acronym derived from first few letters of iconic significance
in the city: Mount Apo, Durian, and The Waling-Waling orchid. In 1988, per proclamation of then Mayor
Rodrigo R. Duterte, it was renamed as Kadayawan Festival. Since then, the festival has provided great
fun and entertainment over the years.
Word of the Festival:
HIPON (Shrimp)
However, this year's edition
of the festival did not only provide the usual fare like “Indak Indak Sa
Kadalanan” (street dancing) and Festival of Flowers, this year is famous for generating controversy that reached national level.
Apparently
a Manila based entertainer, Ramon
Bautista, got the ire of Davaoenas for a remark that he made during his show in
one of the famous landmarks in the city. He described
the women of Davao as “Hipon” which is a derogatory that means ugly. The furor was so intense that it even created
animosity for a while between the Mayor and Vice Mayor who are father and son
in real life. The son wanted a “persona
non grata” punishment for the comedian while the father chose to forgive and
forget as Mr. Bautista has already made a public apology. Most netizens thought that the whole of
Davao was just over reacting to a joke.
Job of the Day: Photographers
 |
| from Wikipedia |
Job of the Day: Photographers
For so many years, the
festival owes its generation of interest from photographers who covered the
event; these are a bunch of click masters from amateurs to professionals. This year, a group of professional
photographers finally said “wait a moment.”
Apparently, it is not only during this year but years ago, they were
harassed by field marshals and prevented them from taking good pictures during
street events. Some of them cried foul
and demanded that photographic coverage of the even should be discussed and action
steps should be disseminated to field marshals who were ignorant that
professional photographers were given permission to cover the event and they
were even provided IDs as point of recognition.
As a result of the field marshals’
ignorance, many pictures surfaced on the net where photographers only captured
empty spaces and legs of some spectators.
 |
| Image posted with permission from Jojie Alcantara |
It has been noted that
every Kadayawan festival is full of surprises and controversy. Not too long
ago, before the actual event took place, there were controversies involved
already such as the proposed inclusion of male candidates in the annual “Hiyas ng
Kadayawan,” prompting some local citizens to remark that the annual pageantry
should be changed to “Hiyos” which means a balloon or a bubble that went “pffft.”
Contributed by Alden I. Bula who maintains two blogs: www.aldenbula.wordpress.com and www.denal.wordpress.com.
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