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Were we wrong to credit Levi Celerio and Pepe Cenizal for the carol? We looked into it and saw that there are a couple of versions to the story. One says that Rubi and Vestil were asked to write a song for a carol competition in Cebu.

The most widely believed version, however, says that Rubi and Vestil created the catchy song for a Cebuano play by Rafael Policarpio. First staged in Opon (now Lapu-Lapu City), the play had a scene where carolers visited the house of a wealthy family to sing Yuletide songs in the traditional Filipino manner—using instruments made out of tansan, of course—including the song “Kasadya Ning Takna-a”.

Here's a modern take on the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=uYfS3S_gMmY&feature=emb_logo

If this YouTube upload is anywhere near the original, it would be undeniable that the melody is exactly the same, give or take a few notes. The title translates to "How Joyous is the Season", and both sets of lyrics are about the joy of celebrating Christmas (but then again, what Christmas carol isn't).

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In 1937, they required him to create a marching song for the movie Pugad ng Agila (1938). The movie was about folk hero Teodoro Asedillo, a Robin Hood figure from Quezon, Laguna, and Batangas, starring Darmo von Fraser Acosta and Lucita Goyena. Cenizal came up with the melody that he would eventually use for "Ang Pasko Ay Sumapit."

In Cenizal’s interview with GMA in 2014, he recalled how he asked the help of his close friend Levi Celerio to pen the lyrics for his music. He said that Celerio even said that he was willing to write for all his compositions. The song was a hit, and Parlatone also grew steadily to become one of the country’s biggest production companies. Cenizal continued to compose for Parlatone’s movies, as well as for other production houses, including San Francisco Del Monte Pictures, for which he wrote the iconic “Hindi Kita Malilimot” in 1940.

While Parlatone’s office and studio, along with all their equipment, were destroyed during the war, Cenizal continued to compose music. He wrote the melodies that would eventually become “Noche Buena,” “Ipagdiwang ang Araw ng Pasko,” and “Paskong Walang Ikaw,” which were originally used as background music for movies. It was only when Celerio volunteered to write lyrics for them that they became about Christmas.

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Ceniza did not give up. In 1979, he filed another case before the Cebu court. Rubi was exempt from paying litigation fees since he couldn’t afford it. The case was resolved nearly two decades later, in 1998, when the court ruled that Mareco owed Rubi P1,884.34, the balance of his full payment from 1966 to 1975. Sadly, Rubi had already died eight years prior, having lost his battle with prostate cancer. Ludivina said that her father never stopped composing and that on his death bed, he requested her to pursue the case in court.

The Question of Right

After his death, Rubi garnered posthumous awards for his contribution in music, and fellow Bisaya never stopped spreading the story of how Rubi was robbed of both merit and money for the melody of this popular Christmas carol. One of these advocates is Ivar Tulfo Gica, the founder-trustee of the Kultura Bisaya Foundation, Inc. In 2014, he wrote a letter to Ricky Lee about “setting the record straight” on the real composer of the favorite holiday song. Lee posted the letter in its entirety in his column in the Philippine Star, repeating what other sources already claim, with a few differences.

For one, the letter stated that it was Villar Records who “bought its rights, recorded, and credited the entire work” to the two Cebuanos in 1950. The letter went on to state that the song was used as background music in “the film that starred Darmo von Frazier Acosta”, though it did not mention the date—perhaps implying that the film was made after 1950, when in fact it was shown in 1938.

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For songs that are supposed to be about generosity and unity during the most festive time of the year, they have ironically become divisive and reflective of our centuries-long rivalries between regions. The Bisayas will always claim that they had the song first and that Imperial Manila had taken advantage of something that was theirs and bastardized it, as go some conversations in social media. The melodies are indeed eerily similar but is this enough evidence that it was plagiarized? Or is this a coincidence?

A similar, more recent case that you may recall involves pop stars Katy Perry and Sara Bareilles. In 2013, Perry released "Roar" as a single, and was accused of ripping off parts of Bareilles's "Brave." Fans even spliced clips from both songs together to demonstrate how similar they were. However, both singers have avoided commenting on the matter.

When it comes to Rubi and Cenizal, the real composer or composers of the song should still be given their due credit—but in the absence of the possibility of certainty, how about we celebrate both, and be happy that we got two incredible, timeless Christmas songs instead of just one?

https://www.esquiremag.ph/

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