Actors re-enact the fight between the Christians and the Muslims in one of the stagings of “Baybayanting” in Lupao, Nueva Ecija. Residents want the festival to be better known than the “1987 Lupao Massacre”.
LUPAO, Nueva Ecija – Whenever the name of this town is mentioned, many outsiders either make two quick retorts.
“Ah, in Pampanga?” mistaking it for “Lubao.” Or, “Lupao massacre.” “Of course, residents here want to know that they have something else to be talked about. We have here the “Baybayanting Festival,” said Enrique Valenton, Master Teacher I of a public high school here. “It’s colourful and meaningful.
The festival, or ritual, is held here every July 25. Lupao, at first blush, sounds “Lubao” which is a popular town in Pampanga. On the other hand, the so called “Lupao Massacre” took place in Barangay Namulandayan on February 10, 1987.
The incident, which was claimed by the military as an encounter between the army and the New People’s Army (NPA), left 18 people dead, that included an army lieutenant, four women one of whom was 80 years old, three children between 4-6, two teen-agers, and eight adults between 21 to 82 in ages, eight wounded, and several houses burned to the ground.
(The military men charged before a military court were later acquitted.) In the “Baybayanting,” nine pairs of participants in their colourful attire join the procession which is held in the morning of July 25. They stage the ritual during the procession and in front of the Philippine Independent (Aglipayan) church.
Some of the “actors” and other elderly give accounts of what happened centuries ago. Tomas Mateo, 86, one of the actors since the early 40’s in the yearly festival , said his participation in the pageantry was passed on to him by his grandfather who inherited it from his great, great grandfathers.
He was told about that story of the residents of a quaint village of “Lupa” who rose to defend their faith against the Muslims or Moros who wanted to propagate Islam in their place. “Lupa” or “Lupang Kalabaw,” from which this town’s name originated, is a tree whose fruits and leaves are very “itchy.” The place was then part of Umingan, Pangasinan, then San Jose, Nueva Ecija until it became a regular town in 1913.
Teodora Sapigao-Fabro, 90, mother in law of Fr. Nestor Fernandez, the former priest of the Lupao Independent Church here who for many years led in the holding of “Baybayanting,” said in the account of that fierce fight, the “Lupa” residents used bolos, and bow and arrows.
Lacking skills in fighting, they were overpowered “but then suddenly a ’magical man’ came. Dressed in white, was riding on a white horse and with a double-bladed sword, he helped the villagers drive away the Moros. Later, they realized and believed that the man was ‘Señor Santiago de Apostol’ (St. James the Apostle) whom the villagers chose later to be their patron saint.”
In another account, Romulo Geroza, also one of the actors of the ritual, said that during that fight, there was a woman carrying a child who came and shouted to stop the fighting. She let her child to be kissed by all of them to appease their anger. Later, the Moros retreated with some of them converting into Christianity, he said quoting the account.
Fr. Victor Aquino, current parish priest of the Independent church here, continued the account saying the child was believed to be an angel so the villagers and the Moros stopped the fighting. The “Christians” in the ritual are garbed in blue undergarments and sash with white upper garment and native hat made of “silag” (palm fiber).
The “Muslims” wear red undergarments and sash with white upper garments and a colorful headdress. The attires are in accordance with the colors bannered by the Independent Church which are blue, red and white.
“We use real bladed bolos and wooden shields, bows and arrows,” said one of the pageant’s actors. “We march on the street and using the rhythm of drums, we fight with each other through a choreographed dance,” he said.
“The bolos spark as they hit the other’s bolos,” one of those who had joined the procession in the past said. At the tail-end of the two lines of the “debosyado” and “debosyada” in the procession, is the image of “Señor Santiago”.
The procession stops midway in a spot called “ubbog” or spring well. The local folk believe that the “ubbog” was where “Señor Santiago” had his horse “drink and shower”. “But until now, the origin of the word Baybayanting is unknown,” Valenton said.
“But whenever the word is spoken, the folk here understood it to mean as the battle between the Moros/Muslims and the Christians in this town a long, long time ago,” he added.
