NOT THE FIRST TIME

THE SHOCKING DEFEAT of Dinagyang 2024 crowd favorite Tribu Silak for not adhering to the contest rule governing the size of props was not the first for the festival.

In the 2016 edition of Dinagyang, the riser that Tribu Panayanon used caused its downfall.

The riser – a theater platform used to provide varying levels to make a show more visually interesting – exceeded the maximum dimension set.

For the violation, Tribu Panayanon was deducted with points huge enough for it to fail to land even just runner-up honors despite harvesting six special and minor awards – Best in Music, Best in Costume, Best in Street-Dancing, Best Costume Designer, Best Headdress and Best Musical Director. Pwerte!

In the case of Tribu Silak this year, the cause of its downfall was its massive uwak (crow) props. It copped three awards – Best in Choreography, Best in Performance, and the People’s Choice Award. Despite these honors, however, Tribu Silak was weighed down by huge point deductions. Ahay…

Ayon sa aming bubuwit, the props size violation was not deliberate. Malas lang gid. Nalipatan gid nila ang props size limitations perhaps due to their too much focus on their dancers’ performances.

Actually, ayon sa aming bubuwit, may team man kuno ang Dinagyang organizers tasked to check the props of the tribes during rehearsals. How frequent was the checking? Te, wala gid nila na- notice ang size sang props? Or “see no evil, hear no evil” sila? The Tribu Silak debacle could have been prevented. Tarso!

But rules are rules and they must be enforced. Otherwise, ano pulos nila sini? Say mo, Sir Ramil?

Sir Eric “dies-dies” laughing!