PALADONG: CULTURAL SHOWCASE OF HINATUAN

While the town’s rich and bountiful aquatic reputation has spanned the country, its equally colorful and often haunting culture has yet to be recognized nationwide. Paladong is a yearly tribute to Hinatuan’s rich and long ethnic tradition. As the highlight of the Patronal Feast every August 28 through the initiative of Local Government Unit, this celebration condenses a hundred years of native tradition. It is a cultural festival showcasing the identities and rich customs and traditions of four ethnic tribes of the municipality. The best of Manobos, Mansakas, Subanons and Mandayas are showcased in the most frolicsome street-dancing and the final showdown in the grandest display of tribal costumes imaginable. Paladong is coined from the kamayo word “ladong” which means a ritual conducted by a Ladongan calling on the abian or spirit to grant him the power to cure. Paladong, therefore, is a reminiscent of that spiritual invocation for the power of healing. Since the festival is an inter-school competition, it is an opportunity for the secondary students to gather and showcase the cultural heritage of the place. The fascinating cultural display learned from the folks could remind the new generations of the original pioneers of the municipality. To the Hinatuanons, Paladong heralds the symbolic breakthrough of the long quest for meaning and identity. In more ways than one, Paladong continues to beckon to all that Hinatuan astounds with some unraveled cultural legacies. Unlike other popular festivals, Paladong doesn’t attract hordes of tourists or add tourism revenues to the municipal coffers but it certainly left a good taste in the mouth of the Hinatuanons. As the present Chief Executive Hon. Candelario J. Viola, Jr. put it in an interview after the staging of 2008 Paladong Festival, “It was not just the merry-making that left litters in the streets and unsightful promotional materials but it was living up to a higher plane of cultural awareness”. (CDIC - Hinatuan)