CLARK FREEPORT – Organizers of the 3rd North Luzon travel and tourism exposition and government tourism officials are demanding a formal apology from personnel of a mall who allegedly discriminated against the culture of Cordillera folk by attempting to bar Cordillera menfolk in loin clothes or “bahag” from performing at the mall venue here over the weekend.
Pura Molintas, director of the Department of Tourism (DOT) for the Cordillera Administrative Region (DAR), demanded yesterday a formal apology from the mall personnel “for committing a moral infraction against the indigenous people of the Cordilleras.”
A statement issued by the DOT in Central Luzon accused mall personnel of describing the Cordillera male attire as “obscene”, “scandalous”, and fit to be shown “only in the uplands and never in the central plains of Luzon”.
In an interview with Punto, Erroba denied making statements attributed to her by Tiotuico, although she admitted having initial reservations about the G-string costume.
She noted that last year, organizers of the exposition which was also held at the mall unexpectedly came out with a fashion show where both male and female models wore “skimpy attire”.
“I just didn’t want that to happen again. But I would like to clarify that I never blocked the Cordillera presentation. I merely asked marketing personnel to see to it that the costumes were decent and I gave the so signal after I was assured about this,” she said.
The controversy stemmed from the alleged attempt of mall manager Lana Erroba to stop indigenously attired students from the Pines City National High School’s Teatro Pino from performing a cultural dance on stage at the SM City Clark mall events center here as part of the travel and tourism exposition held from last Friday to Sunday.
Ronnie Tiotuico, director of the DOT for Central Luzon, noted that the male dancers wore traditional G-strings whose sides, however, were covered with pieces of clothes.
He said that personnel from the mall’s sales department “represented by Erroba arrogantly tried to stop the staging of the indigenous cultural performance of the Pines City National High School Teatro Pino from the Cordilleras saying that the performers are wearing skimpy attire and therefore are bound to scandalize the children watching the show”.
Tiotuico said that citing the mall’s being family-oriented, Erroba allegedly described the presentation of the Cordillera students as “obscene” because of the G-string costume and that “the show can only be shown in the uplands but never in the central plains of Luzon”.
He said the mall management had refused to allow the cultural presentation despite the intervention of Central Luzon Tourism Council chairman Lydia Co, and Philippine Exhibits and Themeparks Corp. (PETCO) vice-president Edith Collado.
“The Cordillera dancers were able to perform only after he threatened them with criminal or civil lawsuit as their act violated certain provisions of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act or IPRA Law,” he added.
“The exposition organizers adhere to their position that it has always been the culture and tradition of the Cordillerans to wear what they call loin-clothes or bahag as a respectable part of their cultural heritage and this tradition should not be any differently whether staged in the mountains or in the flatlands,” Tiotuico said.
The incident, he said, has prompted organizers of the exposition from four regions in Luzon to boycott the mall in their future expositions.
