MikeLigalig.com

TANAUAN, Leyte -- Nearly four years after super typhoon "Yolanda" flattened this town, residents here depicted their stories of resilience through "Pasaka Festival", an annual ritual dance competition.

Thousands of residents here gathered at the plaza Monday afternoon to be entertained by the performances of dancers in colorful costumes moved to the rhythm of festival beats.  

The local government held the main event at the town plaza, the same place where about 900 out of 1,252 typhoon casualties were buried after the November 8, 2013 catastrophe. Just a stone's throw away is a memorial wall carved with names of typhoon victims.

Rehabilitation of the town plaza was recently completed. It was primarily funded through a PHP30-million donation from Injap Group of Companies headed by Ferdinand J. Sia, founder of Mang Inasal.

“By restoring the plaza and making it better, people will start to forget sad memories. If the plaza is okay, it will snowball other development projects,” Sia said in an earlier interview.

"Pasaka Festival" is part of the town’s fiesta. "Pasaka" is a local term for "to call progress, good health, and a bounty of fortune in the coming years.”

The highlight of this year’s "Pasaka Festival" is the ritual dance competition of different stories interpreted by the participating schools in town.

Each contingent performed their dances, telling stories on how locals worked together to rebuild their lives shattered by killer winds and giant waves that flattened coastal communities.

Tanauan Mayor Pelagio Tecson said the local government had been preparing for the festival in the past three months, involving council members, department heads, school officials, and local businessmen.

"We celebrate this year's 'Pasaka Festival' because it represents the unity of the people of Tanauan, our collaboration, and resiliency. It's a story of the values of Tanauan that has been the driving force in our recovery since the destruction of super typhoon Yolanda," Tecson said.

Picked as this year’s grand champion was the Tanauan National High School, the biggest secondary school in town.

Their dancers portrayed as Tribu “Karasikas” a combination of local term which means bamboo sounds. The group bagged six other major awards.

"It is a story about the process of how to make bamboo crafts like furniture sets, lamp shades, and others," said Dieldon Casilan,  the group’s chreographer .

Processing bamboos into marketable products is one of the first livelihood programs revived after the 2013 disaster.

The town is one of the badly hit areas by the monster typhoon, leaving a trail of destruction worth PHP91.41 billion. At least 1,207 people were killed by big waves and 45 by killer winds.

The second class town, located 18 kilometers north of Tacloban, has been tagged as model of post-disaster recovery in central Philippines for being the first to get back on its feet. (With reports by Patricia Salvo, Madelene Perez & Reynadel Costillas, OJTs/PNA)



* Stay at Home and START YOUR OWN blog site, business or personal website, or e-commerce store at www.wirenine.com



Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=105153.0