When we were young, we used to present the “Barter of Panay Reenactment”
during our Boy Scouts’ gathering or camping. We were told then that “Kalibo
Ati-Atihan” started when in 1200 A.D., ten Bornean Datus led by Datu Puti were
allowed to settle in Panay Island by the Ati tribe, in exchange for a golden
salakot, brass basins, bales of cloth and a long necklace. A celebration
followed thereafter the exchange. Because of this story of “Barter of Panay”,
it is said that the celebration was originally a pagan festival. It was only
during the Spanish Period that the Catholic Church placed a Christian meaning
on it and celebrated it as a religious festival through what is called
inculturation.
However, on May 9, 2013, it was written in Madyaas Pen, a local
newspaper, by Mr. Odon S. Bandiola, that there was no Barter of Panay that ever
happened between the Bornean Datus and the Aeta natives, not so in any province
in Panay Island, neither in Aklan. This statement was stressed by Professor
Jose Eleazar Bersales and in so far as the National Historical Commission of the
Philippines and the National Commission on the Culture and the Arts were
concerned, the Barter of Panay is a hoax. It was also said that Ati-Atihan all over Aklan have no historical
basis. It could never be associated with an event which never happened.
With this contention, there is no good reason to celebrate an event when
the event that gives us reason to celebrate does not exist at all. We have to
settle then with this knowledge that the origin of our celebration here in
Kalibo can never be farther from the celebration of the feast of the Sto. Niño
in Cebu. It is written in history that the statue of the Sto. Niño was found in
1565 by Spanish explorers led by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. This Sto. Niño was
given by Magellan to the wife of Rajah Humabon as a gift after the latter’s
baptism to Christianity. The devotion to the Sr. Sto. Niño is neither a legend nor
a fiction but factual and real. This is why the former Bishop of Kalibo, Msgr.
Gabriel V. Reyes exhorted the local government of Kalibo then to call this
celebration as Kalibo Sto. Niño Ati-Atihan and not only Kalibo Ati-Atihan. This
is why we celebrate this feast in honor of our dear Sto. Niño because Sr. Sto. Niño
is real and historical to us. This is why we shout out loud: Viva kay Sr. Sto. Niño
and not Viva Datu Puti. The origin of this celebration is our devotion to Sr. Sto.
Niño, and the reason why we celebrate this feast is Sr. Sto. Niño Himself who works
in our personal story and even in our history.
I remember when I was assigned at St. Jude Parish, a woman was carrying
her 5 year old son and she asked me to bless the dress which her son would wear. Some minutes
after the blessing, I was surprised to see the boy dressed up as a Sr. Sto. Niño.
But I was even surprised to learn that the woman was not a Catholic. She said
she must have dressed her son in a Sr. Sto. Niño costume to express her
gratitude to God. She said she gave birth to a dying son and someone told him to pray to Sr.
Sto. Niño to save his life. She made then a promise to provide her son a dress like that of the Sr.
Sto. Niño if her prayer for her son would be granted. The rest of her story is
now a religious history.
This is why my dear friends, do not forget the religious or spiritual
reason for this celebration –i.e., to foster our devotion to Sr. Sto. Niño. But
this is more complicated nowadays. The government’s main thrust in celebrating
the feast is to promote tourism and not to foster our devotion to Sr. Sto. Niño.
This was the reason why the former President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared
our celebration of the feast of Sr. Sto. Niño as the “Mother of all Philippine
Native Festivals” to promote Kalibo as a premier tourism destination in Aklan aside
from Boracay. She even “sadsad” after giving this statement to Aklanons in
2006. With her declaration, it boosts tourism in Kalibo. This sounds good for
our local economy but not so good for the Church. Let us compare the former
president’s declaration with the Holy See’s declaration that the Minor Basilica
of the Holy Child or Sr. Sto. Niño in Cebu is the Mother and Head of all Churches
in the Philippines. After the Sinulog Festival, people still go there to the church
because of their devotion to Sr. Sto. Niño. Even without the festival, guests
and tourists enter the church as pilgrims. How about us in Kalibo? After the Kalibo
Sto. Niño Ati-Atihan, can we still see devotees and pilgrims in our Cathedral
praying before our dear Sto. Niño? Hopefully, we Kalibonhons, do not forget, we
have the duty to foster our devotion to Sr. Sto. Niño and be proud to cry
aloud, “Viva kay Sto. Niño!”
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