Mainstreaming Cebu’s heritage

The award given to our SugboTV program called “Kabilin” was a pleasant but most welcome surprise, given that it has just been on air for about 16 months.
The Cebu Archdiocesan Mass Media Award (Camma) given to Kabilin as the Best TV Magazine Show therefore couldn’t have come at a most opportune moment in the province’s 442-year history. It is, as I read it, an affirmation of the mainstreaming of cultural heritage in Cebu. No longer just a mere pastime of the old and the nostalgic, it has now become an important element in tourism and development, for one.

It all began in 2004 when the governor included it in her 12-point agenda of governance. Before then, there were sporadic attempts at mainstreaming heritage which alas fell largely on deaf ears among local governments. Only pockets of academics and tour operators saw the potential for heritage as a weapon to awaken Cebuano pride while bringing in tourists to the countryside. Today, component towns and cities of the province are even competing to put out the best of their heritage resources, most especially in the annual Expanded Green and Wholesome Environment that Nurtures (eGWEN) and Suroy-Suroy Sugbo.

It was against this backdrop that Kabilin debuted in April last year as part of the program features of Sugbo TV, the Cebu provincial government channel aired on Skycable (Channel 14) and other cable stations all over the province and also in Negros and Iloilo. We envisioned Kabilin to tackle aspects of Cebu’s past that have been lost to the present while complementing the different trainings and lectures that members of all the 49 town and city tourism and heritage councils had undergone under the Committee on Sites, Relics and Structures of the Cebu Provincial Tourism and Heritage Council. It was also intended to eventually serve as teaching aids in public and private educational initiatives for courses in history, social studies and Cebuano culture.

Kabilin came out as the cultural mapping, countryside tourism and museum development programs of the province had already trickled down even to the barangay level (hence the provincial heritage awards that recognize not just the top ten municipalities and cities but also the top ten barangays annually).

What was missing was to fill in gaps so palpable especially among the young in the urban centers. The memory of even 50 years ago has apparently been erased in so many of us Cebuanos. I could see this in the level of curiosity say, for example, at visitors of Museo Sugbo, the Cebu Provincial Museum.

Let me therefore thank the jurors and the men and women behind the 15th Camma, especially His Excellency, Jose Palma, for giving us this recognition. At the same time let me also congratulate the two other finalists, ABS-CBN’s “Maayong Buntag Kapamilya” and “MagTV na!” and wish them all the best. My friends at MBK, Rico Lucena and Vilma Andales, have been great supporters of my archaeological pursuits and I personally share with them this victory.

At Sugbo TV, there are so many people to thank but let me just mention some: Gov. Gwendolyn F. Garcia for trusting in me and my team and giving us all the support, together with our station manager Elizabeth Francia and program head Katrina Kay Tabanao, our director Remton Zuasola, our editor Darcy Aguedo, our cameramen John Rey Tanjusay and Philip Patricio and our support crew Jessa Marie Agua, Merrel Besties Tabelon, Dennis Tanoc, Ludette Ruiz, John Lindsay Banaynal and Albert Jurcales. I also thank Minerva Gerodias and Idden delos Reyes for being there at the start of this program.

I am told Kabilin is the first local government program to win the Camma for Best TV Magazine and we are humbled by this recognition. Ipadayon ang pagtipig sa atong kabilin!