Laro fest revives Philippine folk games
Bambi Mañosa-Tanjutco turns to art and games to help build a playground for resettlment kids
LONG before there was Dota and Candy Crush, there was patintero, a Filipino street game where members of a team pass through marked areas without stepping on or beyond the area’s lines or being touched by a member of the opposing team. While the game is rarely played today and only mentioned in text books or during Palarong Pinoy festivals in school, it certainly hasn’t lost its appeal on kids of all ages.
This Isabel “Bambi” Mañosa-Tanjutco and her husband Vince discovered when they gathered a group of youngsters in a quiet part of the Ayala Alabang subdivision to reenact patintero for a photo shoot. Once the game began, the kids got so into it, they couldn’t contain their squeals and laughter. “Suddenly, neighbors started coming out of their homes to watch,” recounts Bambi. “Next thing I know, I’m getting texts from these neighbors asking us when the next game is going to be held. I said, ‘You can play it any time!’”
That’s the message of “Laro,” a month-long series of activities celebrating Filipino games through art, crafts, design and play. Held for the entire month of May at Alabang Town Center, Muntinlupa City, this advocacy campaign includes “Paint It Forward” (May 1126), an exhibit and sale of artworks by students from Creative Kids Studio; “Tara, Laro!” (May 16-17), where participants join traditional games like patintero, agawanbase, tumbang-preso and piko; “Interactive
Story-Telling” (May 23-24), which encourages audiences to get involved in a story; “Community Art” (May 12-31), another activity that promotes crowd participation through the making of a mural; and “Laro Fashion Show” (May 30), a colorful display of contemporary Filipino clothing by Ito Curata, Rajo Laurel, Rhett Eala, Len Cabili, Ann Ong, and Elsie Standen.
Laro’s goal is to raise funds for Unicef Philippines and the construction of a playground in Southville 7, a National Housing Authority resettlement area in Calauan, Laguna, where more than 7,500 families, mostly survivors of Typhoons “Ondoy” and “Yolanda,” have been relocated.
The construction of the playground will be supported by Tukod Foundation, Inc., charity arm of the Mañosa Group of Companies, and designed by trustee and Bambi’s brother, architect Miguel Angelo S. Mañosa.
Catering to as many as 2,000 children at any given time, the one-hectare playground will feature an amphitheater, fruit-bear- ing trees, and sensorial play areas designed for kids ages 0-3, 48 and 8-12 years old.
Environment-friendly
This child-friendly playground is an environment-friendly one, too. Endemic and recycled materials will be used in its construction to ensure the continued lowcost maintenance of its facilities. Restrooms will run on biological filters, and solar powered lights allow kids to squeeze in a bit of play just before bedtime.
For children traumatized by the ravages of killer storms and floods, then displaced from their homes to an area where there is no running water, electricity, or jobs for their parents, a playground serves as a beacon of hope.
“We wanted to give them the space where they can forget the ordeals they went through and be children again,” says Bambi, founder of Creative Kids Studio and corporate secretary of Tukod Foundation, Inc. “With the playground, we hope they can discover the joys of being a child again—to be free to run, to have the chance to let their imaginations fly, to simply forget the harsh realities of life, and find enjoyment in simple things.”
The daughter of internationally acclaimed architect Francisco “Bobby” Mañosa, Bambi describes her childhood as “very magical.” In addition to being a successful and celebrated architect, her dad designed children’s toys and furniture, which she saw him develop through hours of sketching.
In the ’70s, she and her brothers Dino and Gelo helped out in the family’s toy store Dimples, which carried many of their father’s Filipino-themed toys. On weekends, they visited the factory and experimented with the little toys and gadgets their dad designed for the famous Kinder Chocolate eggs.
“My dad was always very playful. When he would come home early from work, he’d turn off all the lights and play with us using flashlights,” recalls Bambi with fondness. “He made our child-
hood fun.”
Studio for kids
Years later, Bambi would do the same, not just for her daughters Natasha and Isabella, but for the hundreds of kids who attended her Creative Kids Studio, an art workshop she founded in 1995 for children ages 2-12.
A playful and welcoming haven for creativity, the workshop evolved from something for youngsters to do in the summer to a year-round venue for self-expression.
“My studio is a place for kids to get crazy and messy,” she says with a laugh.
For Bobby and his wife, civic leader Denise Mañosa, being of service to others was just as important as play, so when Bambi wasn’t overseeing activities in Creative Kids Studio or working as an interior designer in her father’s firm, she was giving back.
Since the 1980s, she has faciliated art workshops for numerous organizations—Muntinlupa Development Foundation, Marillac Center, Community & Family Ser- vices International, Zonta Club of Alabang, and the Consuelo Algiers Foundation, to name a few.
It was while helping refurbish three housing units in the resettlement area in Calauan, Laguna, that she met Fr. Salvador “Boy” Pablo, a Salesian priest assigned to look after the community’s families and children.
As survivors of the worst weather conditions to hit the country, this community’s morale was at an all-time low; a suicide was reported every month. Hope, sighed Fr. Boy, is a rare commodity in this area.
News of a playground in the works seemed like a sign from God for Fr. Boy, “since playing is the spirituality of the Salesian order,” says Bambi. With inputs from her daughters, she came up with the fun fundraiser “Laro.”