HILONGOS, Leyte – The people of Eastern Visayas are generally fun-loving and peaceful but once oppressed, would fight back, says a Filipino anthropologist.

The Waray, as people from Eastern Visayas are popularly known, have in fact, through generations, remained deeply rooted in their culture, according to Edilberto Alegre, an anthropologist who had taught for over 20 years at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

Alegre, a culture writer who had traveled for many years to various places in Mindanao and the Visayas, notes that the traditional Waray courtship dance called “kuratsa” is still being performed during weddings, fiestas and other special gatherings.

“Kuratsa is such a beautiful dance…very lively and carefree. It is performed in almost any gathering,” he says.

Living in the Waray region is “not only satisfying but also enjoyable,” says Alegre, referring to the Waray pastime of drinking “tuba” (fermented coconut wine) and eating “kinilaw” (raw fish drenched in spices, vinegar and coconut milk) as “sumsuman” (pulutan in Tagalog), as well as the dancing and singing that usually come with the merriment.

Alegre, who hails from Tarlac but is married to a native of Leyte, has for over a decade now, been studying the culture of the people of the region that is composed of Leyte, Southern Leyte and Biliran on Leyte Island and Samar, Eastern Samar and Northern Samar on Samar, the country’s third largest island.

Ancient towns

During a recent heritage tour, which was one of the highlights of the Heritage Month celebration here, Alegre led a group composed mostly of architecture students to a trip to four ancient towns in Leyte that still have their centuries-old churches.

They first visited Carigara town where they took a close look at the Parish Church of Our Holy Cross’s massive limestone wall and other structures constructed during the Spanish era.

The group also visited a municipal museum in Carigara town that displays ancient farm implements, kitchenware and women’s clothes worn in the 17th and 18th centuries. There was also a cabinet full of Japanese war mementos including a World War II uniform and an array of paintings of the local scene done in the 1920s, among others.

In Baybay City in Leyte, the touring group had a glimpse of the “Heritage Houses” that were constructed in the late 1800s or early 1900 and mostly located along Mabini Street. They also visited the city’s 150-year-old Immaculate Conception Parish Church.

In Tanauan town, they visited the Parish Church of Our Lady of Assumption that has a Spanish terra cotta Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross), a rectory whose brick walls were restored, a restored pulpit, and fortress ruins.

Tanauan Mayor Roque Tiu provided the group with a snack of a local delicacy known as “sarongsong,” a coned rice cake wrapped in banana leaves.

The “sarongsong” in Tanauan is not commercially available so that local officials are now persuading the maker to pass on her knowledge to younger relatives, the mayor said.

Tiu says there are “sarongsong” makers in other towns but “ours is still the most delicious like our “litson” (roasted pig).”

Reaching Hilongos, the group toured the fort ruins that enclose the new church as well as what remains of the old church. The façade of the 17th century church appears to be intact including its belfry, which is still being used by the new church.

The tour was capped by a brief program at the town’s modern municipal hall where the guests were treated, among others, to a video showing of a performance the town’s Alikaraw Festival, which ranked third in the recent national Aliwan Festival held in Manila.

The visitors were likewise treated to a local delicacy called “putosikwate,” a bland gelatinous rice (cooked) topped with hot and sweet liquid chocolate.

Distinct taste

Alegre recalls that when he was still new in the region, he could not understand the taste of the Warays especially since he comes from a place where people prefer their food to be salty, by adding “bagoong” (salted shrimp paste), or bitter like an Ilocano goat dish.

It took a while for him to realize that the Waray has a distinct taste – neither bland nor salty.

It evolved, he says, from the closeness of the region to Bicol, whose people prefer hot dishes, and to Cebu where people like their dishes to be just a little less peppery than the Bicolanos.

“Here (in Eastern Visayas) they don’t like in their food the predominance of any taste. They don’t like anything that is overly sweet, overly sour, overly salty…and that in my travels in the Philippines is what they call gourmet Philippine food because it is difficult to cook and balance the natural ingredients of fish, the natural taste of meat,” he says.

In Waray cooking, “you have to put a little saltiness, you have to put a little bitterness but the result in the food you put on the table should not have any one dominant taste, and yet it is tasty,” says Alegre who co-authored a book on “kinilaw” with the late Doreen Fernandez in the late 1990s.

Alegre says the Warays are also fond of dancing, as shown in their love for “kuratsa” and other traditional dances including the nationally known “tinikling,” which originated in Leyte.

How can you explain the Alikaraw festival of Hilongos and the Buyogan Festival of Abuyog, also a town in Leyte, for being among the top 10 festivals during the recent national Aliwan Festival if the Warays do not love dancing and are good performers as well? he asks.

‘Maisog’

Asked if the Waray are really “maisog” (fierce fighter), Alegre answers: “I think if you oppress the Waray he is maisog.”

He cites the case of Balangiga when the men rose in revolt over the alleged molestation of local women by American soldiers.

In 1901, the men of Balangiga organized themselves and attacked on Sept. 29 the American garrison in that town. They almost wiped out the American troops in the camp.

Alegre believes that what happened in Balangiga was not a military but a cultural problem. There were reports that the Americans had become abusive in that town. Molesting women is “against Philippine culture especially if you do that in public to women,” he says, adding that the people of Balangiga were very much protective of their culture.