HEADLINE NEWS JANUARY WEEK 3

Braun wins 2011 Mutya it Kalibo Ati-Atihan
by: Boy Ryan B. Zabal

KALIBO, Aklan - Caren Retamar Braun of New Washington, Aklan won the 2011 Mutya it Kalibo Ati-Atihan on Wednesday evening held at the jampacked Gov. Augusto B. Legaspi Sports Complex here.
The first runner-up was Mae Ann Mariano Manipud of Nabas, Aklan while Charmaine Ling Palomata Chua of Kalibo, Aklan was second runner-up.
Organized by Kalibo Sto. Nino Ati-Atihan Foundation, Inc. (Kasafi) and the local government of Kalibo, 12 dazzling ladies competed in the pageant where Braun took home the “Ambassadress of Goodwill and Tourism” title after the long gown, swimwear and interview portions of the competition.
Following in the footsteps of her sister 2009 Miss Earth Philippines Air Michelle Martha Braun, the 17-year old five foot and six inches beauty was declared Best in Swimwear, Best in Talent and corporate awards for Miss Maxi Peel and Miss Ever Belena aside from the prestigious title of Mutya it Kalibo Ati-Atihan this year.
Manipud was awarded Best in Long Gown. Chua was conferred the corporate awards for Miss Ponds, Miss Skin White, Miss Personality and Miss Globe.
Braun received the crown from Aklan Governor Carlito Marquez, Vice Governor Gabrielle Calizo-Quimpo, Kalibo mayor William Lachica and Kalibo vice mayor Madeline Regalado.
Other winners of special awards were Janine Magbiro Ilio for Best in Production Number, Frendisol Catherine Villanueva Yco for Miss Photogenic, Sheen Mae Bagnate Zafra for Miss Friendship and Jecca Rosales Tenaja for Best in Interview.

Newly crowned Mutya it Kalibo Ati-Atihan Caren Retamar Braun (center) is flanked by first runner-up Mae Ann Manipud (left) and second runner-up Charmaine Ling Chue (right) during the pageant and coronation night at the Gov. Augusto B. Legaspi Sports Complex / Photo By Boy Ryan B. Zabal

The winners of corporate awards were :
* Miss Sunsilk Jecca Tenaja
* Miss Diet Coke Sheen Mae Zafra
* Miss LBC (Hari ng Padala) Mary Vhic Baltazar Mandal
* Miss E-Looks Frendisol Catherine Yco
* Miss Close-Up Jona Ili Sweett
* Miss Perfect 5 Beauty Frendisol Catherine Yco
* Miss KHM Camille Alyssa de Leon
* Miss Careline Mary Vhic Mandal

HEADLINE NEWS JANUARY WEEK 2

Ati-atihan Candidates 2011

L-R: Frendisol Catherine Villanueva, Sheen Mae Bagnate Zafra, Hanna Mae Renacido Torre, Mae Anne Mariano Manipud, Jona Ili Sweett, Camille Alysa Buyoc de Leon, Caren Retamar Braun, Jecca Rosales Tenaja, Maryvhic Baltazar Mandal, Janine Magbiro Ilio, Charmaine Ling Palomata Chua and Celeste Melgar Nepomuceno

NEWS JANUARY WEEK 1

  Mutya it Kalibo Ati-atihan contestants 2011

Here are the twelve contestants who are going to compete for the title of Mutya ng Ati-atihan, Kalibo 2011 on January 5. The contestants are all between the ages of 14 and 21, and all are hoping to win the title. Only one will be fortunate enough to win and become an ambassador for the promotion of tourism for Kalibo.

Kalibo is known not only for the hospitality of its people, but also for the hidden beauty of the local girls. This competition is to determine the one  who will set an example to our own young people, by encouraging them  to emerge from their shells, and  to learn how to ‘think outside the box’  without losing  respect for their elders or their pride for their heritage.  (All of the photographs of beauty contestants in this issue are by the courtesy of Ramel Buncalan/Aklan from the Photographic Society}./ TE

The Kalibo Sto. Niño Ati-Atihan Foundation, Inc. (KASAFI) Profile

This foundation was formed in partnership with the Municipality of Kalibo and the Diocese of Kalibo.

KASAFI’s beginning was made possible when the Municipality of Kalibo headed by Hon. William S. Lachica gave the authority to the said foundation to manage the operation of the festival in the response to the clamor for more transparent and efficient administration. Trusting in the integrity of the private sector – businessmen, educators, bankers, professionals and other individuals that comprise the foundation, the Mayor gave the management of the festival to KASAFI.

KASAFI selects members of the executive committee and the working committees, solicit funds, markets and promotes the festival, and submits a financial statement to the Sangguniang Bayan. All events during the month of January get permits and approval from KASAFI.

The LGUs provide financial assistance, support services like the police, health and sanitation requirements. National government agencies like the Department of Tourism and the Department of Trade and Industry help regulate activities under the supervision. Whatever resources one partner needs, and other partner provides.

This festival intends to showcase the culture and traditions of Aklan and each will conform with the theme as well. The celebration will always present the story of local practices and culture.

There will be efforts to raise funds to meet the expenses that will be incurred for the celebration. All efforts will be coordinated to make the celebration a success.

Whatever money is left after the festival is used as seed money for the next celebration. But the operation of KASAFI is not limited to the January event alone. It has to become an all year round operation considering participation in national events to promote our Sto. Niño Ati-Atihan Festival. With this, Kalibo and our province will gain focus and mileage. New businesses will develop in our town, investors will consider branching out in Kalibo. This can be another effective to promote our town.

The Foundation envisions that the Kalibo Sto. Niño Ati-atihan Festival will develop and maintain as a premier destination of the country and the success of the celebration will depend so much in all sectors, private and public, working hand in hand to honor the Holy Child Jesus.

KE Signs Deal with PCGA

by: Cherry Anne D. Casalmer
 

KALIBO - It was unusual to see so many SEALs on dry land for this auspicious occasion. On Tuesday 21st of December some  60 member delegates including Commodore Mike Labatiao, PCGA,  SEALS assembled at ABL Sports Complex in Capitol Site in Kalibo, Aklan,   for their joint Christmas party, the  second  anniversary celebrations of the 611th Coast Guard Auxillary Squadron,  SEALS (Rescue)  Aklan’s  12th year anniversary,  and also to offer their support to the environmental   work of Kool Earth.

Their enthusiasm coupled with a most commendable turn out left a lasting impression on all.

The 611th PCGA Squadron and Seals (Rescue) Aklan are Gawad Kalasag Awardees for two consecutive years (2009-2010) for Humanitarian Services.

During the delivery of her message, the President of Kool Earth, Mrs. Chita Heap, encouraged the   SEALS women and men to help KE to educate their families, especially the fathers, whom the children do not see often,  to encourage their families to continue applying the 4R’s in their homes and their surrounding areas.

They were also informed that one of the ongoing projects of KE is the establishment of the Material Recovery Facility, that is now mandatory to all the villages in order to lessen the accumulation of garbage around the town  which  clogs the canals and the sewage system when the rain pours down.

Mrs. De la Cruz-Heap Heap also said that the people of this planet are precious and are all special and deserve the best, but it is up to every human being to deliver what is best for them.

Mrs.  De la Cruz-Heap mentioned that one organization once said that  Environmental Security is the highest form of National Security. She encouraged  the group to work hand in hand with KE not just for their personal safety but also for the safety of our nation.

The message she left with the SEALS was, “It is not what we gather, but what we scatter that tells what kind of life we have lived!”/TE

Whence Came Kalibo Ati-Atihan

by: Benny O. Tirazona

Ati-Atihan is making one’s self like the Ati or Aeta or pretending to be one. Kalibo’s “frenzied and raucous” historical and religious festivity observed every second week and culminating on the 3rd Sunday of January came from that intent. Citizens, tourist and pilgrims in this town smear themselves with soot or any blackening substance to look like an Aeta-queer, but true.

Ati-Atihan is believed to have started in the year 1212 when Borneans led by the ten Datus packed themselves in several boats or “baeangays,” (barangay) and crossed the seas to escape the unpopular regime of Sultan Makatunaw, Then landed in Panay Island and established the first community of the brown race in this country and the first union of states in Southeast Asia - the Confederation of Madyaas.

Few have the knowledge that the first Ati-Atihan was celebrated to seal a peace pact that united two races and peoples - the Aetas and the Malays with totally different cultures and spiritual creeds to embrace each other and give way to an enduring legacy of reconciliation that gave birth to the Philippine Nation. The commemoration of the Ati-Atihan Festivals in essence has become significant at this point in time when the entire nation is being swept with social, economic and political crises.

The saga od this great migration told and related for generation started in the Court of Brunei under the regime of Sultan Makatunaw whose insecurity and greed for power transformed him into tyrant after the collapse of the Sri-Visayan Empire and the remnants of its vast territory were at the mercy of the conquering hordes of Madjapahit warriors. The widespread discontent under Makatunaw’s rule reached the point of a popular uprising and Datu Puti, his chief minister, together with his followers decided to leave and seek for peace in a new land.

One night the rebels under the leadership of Datu Puti, stealthily their “baeangays” and faced the seas for distant unknown destiny. Guided by the stars and favored by tropical winds, they reached the islands of Sugbu (Cebu). Parawan (Palawan) and Buglas (Negros), but the topography and the nearness of this islands to the island where they came from, discouraged their settling down. They were already bound in their direction of the islands of Romren (Romblon) when they were attracted by a silhouette of a mountain summit shaped like a salakot (“mangkusarok”) in the horizon. The group that was already plagued by big waves, strong current, diseases, hunger and thirst in the high seas and whose most valued treasure in their possession they brought in their ecape was a “saruk nga bug-os nga bueawan” (golden salakot), interpreted the sighting as a good omen. They changed course and headed towards the beacon of the mountain and landed at the sunrise of the first “Tigueak” in 1212 A.D. in the island of Panay then called Aninipay - (named after a plant that abound in the place and whose fine unwashable bristles causes skin eruption and irritation which could not be easily cured). They named the Island Madyaas or paradise in contrast to the land they left behind.

With the party of Datu Puti and wife Pinangpangan were Datus Sumakwel with wife Kapinangan, Lubay, Balkasua, Bangkaya with wife Katurung, Paiburong, Dumagsol, Dumalugdug and Paduhinog with wife Ribungsapaw and their selected loyal subjects.

After the landing, they sought audience with Ati Chieftain Marikudo and offered to buy the entire island. After several weeks of negotiation, the plains of Panay was offered for peaceful settling of the Malays in exchange for a golden salakot, brass basins, bales of cloth along with a trinket for Maniwangtiwang (wife of Marikudo) the link of which reached her feet and a harvest for one summer of the produce of the sea, while the hinterlands remained for the Aetas.

A glorious celebration to seal the negotiation followed. The unending flow of native wine (tuba) and the sumptuous meal motivated the start of merry-making. The Malays in their effort to show appreciation and sincerity and to further befriend their host smeared themselves with soot from their cooking utensils to look like Aetas. The uninhibited spontaneous dancing of the two races lasted till the wee hours of the morning to the bet and music of native songs, “bagtoes” and drums of the Aetas and the Malays.

Thus started the first Ati-Atihan which was commemorated by Datu Bangkaya when he first established Madyanos or little paradise (later renamed Aclan which was also changed to Kalibo) at the bank of the Aklan River on the second Tagbueukad (Saturday) of Dagangkahoy (February).

When the ten datus founded their own settlements, Datu Bangkaya, the intellectual among the ten and the chief advisor of Datu Puti, established the town of Madyanos (little paradise) i the west bank of the Aklan river and there he commemorated the purchase of every harvest.

On how the Ati-Atihan became a religious feast, Aklanon historian Beato dela Cruz recounts:

“In 1750, one Fray Andres de Aguirre, a Basque companion priest of Fray Andres Urdaneta and explorer Miguel Lopez de Legaspi baptized in one day 1,000 inhabitants of the town and surrounding settlements in the place. To celebrate the eventful day, the drums of Aklan were sounded for this beneficial event and coincided with the existing Ati-Atihan feast. Thus, the present Ati-Atihan is tinged with religious fervor is now associated with miracles. Devotees nowadays participate in the street dancing, novena and masses or fall in line at the century-old Kalibo Cathedral just to let their bodies be massaged or rubbed with the image of the Sto. Niño” (de Kalibo).

The young however, has abandoned the old culture and religious significance in their street revelry and has adopted the modern stance of the computer age. They no longer smear their faces and bodies with soot but instead wear grotesque make-ups (or none at all) and outstanding costumes of their age. Other prefer mere t-shirt or poncho rather than the tribal garments of the 12th and the 13th centuries.

But the religious belief, the fervor, warmth, fun and gaiety, the pomp and the fun fare, historically and culturally identified with the Ati-Atihan - an expansion of proud customs and traditions and enduring legacy of peace and reconciliation - have remained untarnished through the passing of time from the celebration of the purchase of Panay in the year 1212 from chief Punuan Datu Bangkaya to Aklan Encomiendero Antonio Flores, from Cabeza Juan Matanga to Mayor William S. Lachica. For culturally, only Kalibonhons throughout the centuries have consistently given significance to this historical legacy as they posses the natural love for festivities. Every Kalibonhon’s soul and soaring spirit “has the gift of rhythm and passion for music.”/TE

Heavy Rain Floods Kalibo

KALIBO -Unprecedented quantities of rainfall recently deluged Kalibo causing chaos to transportation systems, businesses, and local residents. Almost twelve inches of rain fell within two days causing streets and rice paddies to flood and drainage systems to overflow.

Our civic leaders, aware of the potential consequences should the deluge persist, were quick to react. On December 7th Mayor Charito Navarrosa in Libacao called Mayor Lachica in Kalibo to enquire how much rain had fallen in Kalibo that day. He was concerned  that the inordinate amount of rain that had fallen in Libacao would move downstream to further exacerbate the rising levels of water in Kalibo.

Mayor William Lachica immediately mobilized the agencies concerned with flood control including various heads of office of the municipality of Kalibo,  the Kalibo Auxiliary police and Fire Department, together with those trained in rescue operation and others.

That same evening just under one hundred municipal employees spent the night on the third floor of the Municipal Conference Hall in readiness for an emergency response should it be required.

The two days of almost continuous rain caused concern and anxiety to many local residents. Radio stations DYYM and DYRU took it upon themselves to give regular updates on the situation and reassured their listeners that there was no cause for panic.

They explained that water was not flowing down from Libacao as had been originally feared, and that the Aklan River was maintaining it’s normal level.

Some establishments were inevitably affected by local flooding including the Pilot Elementary School in Mabini St., Kalibo Elementary School in XIX Martyrs St., the Aklan College Catholic School, Royal Supermarket, RC supermarket, Gaisano, along with other establishments on Roxas Avenue.

       The front of the Municipal Cemetery was flooded up to the junction of the road to Banga, and also a portion of Osmena Avenue adjacent to he Ceres station. The corner of Conception St. and Veteran’s Avenue extension were flooded as well as asection of Bliss Site where the water was knee deep./TE

MUNICIPALITY OF MALAY The Premier Tourist Destination

BORACAY ISLAND

Boracay is an island of the Philippines located approximately 315 km (200 miles) south of Manila and 2 km off the northwest tip of Panay Island in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. In 1990, it was voted by the BMW Tropical Beach Handbook as one of the best beaches in the world and again in 1996 by British publication TV Quick as the world’s number one tropical beach.

History

The island was originally home to the Ati tribe. Boracay is part of Aklan Province, which became an independent province on April 25, 1956.

Years ago, Boracay Island was an almost possessively guarded secret so that only a few knew of its existence. Tourism only began to develop in the 1970s, when, it is said, a foreign movie crew accidentally “discovered” this island paradise. Others maintain that it was the German traveler, ‘Jens Peters’ book, which included rave reviews of Boracay that changed the island’s pace from that of being a quiet secret to eventually being voted as having the best beach in the world. Whichever story is true, it was around this time that Boracay Island slowly ceased to be a private hangout for travelers.

In the 1980s, the island became popular with backpackers. Since then, Boracay has gradually become more and more a cosmopolitan tourism destination and, in the 21st century has become, one of the major tourist destinations in the Philippines.

Geography

Boracay Island is located off the northwest corner of Panay Island, and belongs to the Western Visayas island-group, or Region VI, of the Philippines. The island is approximately seven kilometers long, dog-bone shaped with the narrowest spot being less than one kilometer wide, and has a total land area of 10.32 square kilometers.

South-facing Cagban Beach is located across a small strait from the jetty port at Caticlan on Panay island, and the Cagban jetty port serves as Boracay’s main entry and exit point during most of the year. When wind and sea conditions dictate, east-facing Tambisaan Beach serves as an alternative entry and exit point.

Boracay’s two primary tourism beaches, White Beach and Bulabog Beach, are located on opposite sides of the island’s narrow central area. White Beach faces westward and Bulabog Beach faces eastward. The island also has several other beaches.

White Beach is the main tourism beach. It is about four kilometers long and is lined with resorts, hotels, lodging houses, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses. In the central portion, for about two kilometers, there is a footpath known as the Beachfront Path separating the beach itself from the establishments located along it. North and south of the Beachfront Path, beachfront establishments do literally front along the beach itself. Several roads and paths connect the Beachfront Path with Boracay’s Main Road, a vehicular road which runs the length of the island. At the extreme northern end of White Beach, a footpath runs around the headland there and connects White Beach with Diniwid Beach.

Bulabog Beach, across the island from White Beach, is a secondary tourism beach and Boracay’s main windsurfing and kiteboarding area.

Boracay is divided, for land use and conservation purposes, into 400 hectares of preserved forestland and 628.96 hectares of agricultural Land./TE