GAMABA AWARDEES

• Ginaw Bilog is a Hanunoo Mangyan poet from Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, regarded as a master of Ambahan poetry, which uses metaphors and images to express messages ranging from asking for a place to stay, courtship, giving advice to the young, and saying goodbye to a dear friend.
• Ambahan is a 7-syllable line poem that is common among indigenous cultural groups and exists today primarily because it is engraved on bamboo tubes using ancient Southeast Asian, pre-colonial script called surat Mangyan.
• Ginaw Bilog believed that the Ambahan is key to understanding the Mangyans and during his time, he has continuously recorded Ambahan poetry, not only on bamboo tubes but on old, dogeared notebooks passed on to him by family members and friends.
• Masino Intaray was awarded as Manlilikha ng Bayan for Traditional Performing Arts and Oral Literature from Palawan, regarded as an outstanding master of the basal (gong), kulial (lyrical poem) and bagit (vocal music).
• Fu Yabing used wild abaca in her ikat-dyed fabrics and was recognized as an expert in making fine warp ikat textiles.
• Like any other recognized traditional artist, Fu Yabing taught the craft to her only daughter Lamina Dulo Gulili, and the women in her community.
• Masino Intaray was also a skilled and proficient player of aroding (mouth harp), and babarak (ring flute) and most of all, an exceptional epic chanter and storyteller from Brookes Point in Palawan.
• Samaon Sulaiman was a Mamasapano from Maguindanao, regarded as the Master of Kutyapi, a two-stringed plucked lute that is difficult to master among the Filipino traditional instruments.
• Sulaiman was also skilled in kulintang, agong (suspended bossed gong with wide rim), gandingan (bossed gong with narrow rim), palendag (lip-valley flute), and tambul.
• Lang Dulay was recognized as a T'boli artist from Lake Sebu in South Cotabato, where she learned to weave when she was 12.
• Lang Dulay was considered as a traditional weaver of textile called "t'nalak" or "tinalak" cloth.
• Her art is considered first-rate because of the way she used abaca fibers in her works.
• Her woven cloth was described as fine as hair considering the tedious process of this traditional art.
• Salinta Monon was a Tagabawa Bagobo textile weaver from Bansalan, Davao del Sur, who learned to weave at 12.
• Salinta Monon was able to learn very quickly and could very well identify both the design and the artist of a woven piece just by a simple glimpse.
• Saclag’s ardent desire to nurture and uphold the Kalinga culture pushed him to ask the provincial government to turn the abandoned Capitol Building into a museum for the preservation of their artifacts and archaeological sites.
• Alonzo Saclag was cited as Kalinga Master of Dance and the Performing Arts, who made it his mission to create and nurture a greater consciousness and appreciation of the Kalinga culture.
• Saclag lobbied to broadcast the traditional Kalinga music together with contemporary music in the local radio station.
• Saclag bought a piece of land in the hope of building a Kalinga village that will house the art and the artifacts of his people.
• Federico Caballero said 10 epics are rendered in a language that is no longer spoken, but he worked hard to learn these encyclopedic folklores and other forms of oral literature to preserve their culture.
• Federico Caballero, a Sulod-Bukidnon epic chanter from Central Panay, works constantly for the documentation of the oral literature of his people, particularly the epics.
• Darhata Sawabi is a weaver of pis syabit, the traditional cloth tapestry worn as a head covering by the Tausug of Jolo, from Barangay Parang, in the island of Jolo, Sulu.
• Eduardo Mutuc realized his talents in sculpture and metal work when he was 29 as a novice to carvers of household furniture in Pampanga.
• Saclag, with no formal education in performing arts, mastered the Kalinga musical instruments, including the dance patterns and movements related to his people’s rituals.
• Music became Uwang Ahadas’ constant companion when he discovered his near-blindness.
• Darhata Sawabi’s designs on native attire, bags, and other accessories were extraordinary.
• Uwang Ahadas, a Yakan of Lamitan, Basilan, believes that instrumental music plays an important role in the agricultural cycle and the social realm.
• Saclag also put up skills and other creative presentations in various schools to celebrate indigenous values.
• Eduardo Mutuc, a local of Apalit, Pampanga, devoted his life to creating religious and secular art using bronze, silver, and wood.
• Saclag founded the Kalinga Budong Dance Troupe so that he could teach young men and women about the music and dance of their ancestors.
• Eduardo Mutuc believed that craftsmanship begins by respecting one’s tools and medium, which is why the first thing that he teaches his students is the proper handling of the chisel and the hammer.
• Magdalena Gamayo is a Filipino master weaver who makes “abel”, an Ilokano handwoven cloth.
• Weaving is extremely an important craft in the Yakan community and Ambalang was fortunate to have learned from her mother, who was also regarded as the best weaver of her time.
• Teofilo Garcia is a hat weaver from San Quintin, Abra, known for tabungaw, a functional and elegant headpiece that resists the weather due to its finely woven rattan matting and subtle bamboo weave for accent.
• The whole process of the art of mat weaving in the Sama culture is long and tedious and is exclusive to women, and despite the lack of mathematical formula needed for the geometric patterns, Haja Amina Appi still demonstrated an eye for detail and a faultless color instinct to execute her masterpiece.
• She has mastered all designs in all textile categories known to the Yakan, and can execute various techniques of the entire weaving process while placing cultural significance in each design through the animal and plant motifs that are realistically represented in the textiles.
• She learned to design, on her own, the challenging traditional patterns of binakol, inuritan (geometric design), kusikos (spiral forms) and sinan-sabong (flowers).
• Her dedication to B’laan weaving tradition is so extraordinary that she even gave up her domestic and farming responsibilities to finish some of the biggest, most delicate and most beautiful mats in Southeast Asia today.
• “Fu” is an honorific title given to a Blaan elder.
• Using only simple hand tools that he designed himself, Garcia is involved in each stage of production - from planting and harvesting the upo (which he transforms into tabungaw) to refining the uway (rattan) that make up the lining of the hat, weaving the puser (bamboo) that serves as the accent, and finishing the work.