Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama yesterday said the city government would take care of the hospital bills of Cebu’s oldest sinulog dancer, Estelita “Nang Titang” Diola.
She may be hobbled by a hip fracture and can no longer dance the “sin’ug” but the mayor said she is assured of a good seat in the grandstand of the Cebu City Sports Center grandstand if she can watch the parade on Sunday.
Diola was due for discharge yesterday, but had to wait a day longer to make arrangements for a wheelchair, which her family was requesting.
The mayor promised to provide one even as the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. through Dr. Joy Gerra confirmed that one has already been prepared for the 87-year-old “heritage keeper”.
Diola learned the original “sinu’g” dance and drum beat at the age of 7 from her father and taught organizers the moves and rhythm when Director David Odilao of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development mounted the first Sinulog parade in Cebu City on 1980.
“We won’t give her a hard time when she’s discharged,” said the mayor yesterday.
Diola, 87, suffered a recurring hip fracture after she slipped on the floor of her residence in sitio Sto. Niño in barangay Mabolo on December 31, 2012.
Under the care of a niece, the elderly “icon” of the Sinulog, has difficulty sitting up or walking. Her family said Nang Titang , who is unmarried and has no children, badly wants to participate in the Feast of the Sto. Niño, as she’s done every year.
The religious feast which features church processions and novena masses is different from the revelry of the tourism-oriented Sinulog parade.
She was supposed to have an operation, but relatives said they could not afford the cost of surgery and would rather take her home.
Nang Titang organizes neighborhood children in barangay Mabolo and teaches them the movements of the “sin’ug” in a dance drama that portrays Spanish soldiers and natives in mock battle, later uniting for prayer to the Sto. Niño.
She is invited every January by RAFI to offer the prayer dance in the garden of Casa Gorordo a day after the feast day of the Sto. Niño, which coincides with the Sinulog grand parade.
CCMC director Gloria Duterte said the elderly woman “has nothing to worry about because she is qualified” to avail of the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program (Champ) for indigent patients. /Correspondent Edison A. delos Angeles and Joy Cherry Quito