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The word “kasugiran” is a Cebuano term referring to storytelling particularly folklore (the root word “sugid” means to narrate). “Bangga sa Pagsuwat og Kasugiran” was the appropriate name of the story telling/writing contest launched by Smart Communications and Superbalita last March 2009 and they produced a book containing the ten winning entries beautifully illustrated.
The book, entitled “Matod Pa sa Lola ni Noy Kulas,” was presented with an interesting reading of one of the entries by Budoy and Chai Fonacier during its launching on October 23, befitting the celebration of Children’s Month. My involvement in the project was the verification of the top ten winning entries.
On the part of Smart, the project is their contribution to the preservation of Cebuano tradition, particularly Cebuano language. It is part of their ongoing project “Doon Po sa Amin,” which provides public schools that are part of the Smart Schools Program, an opportunity to write and read through the Internet their stories (www.doonposaamin.ph).
Last May I was invited by Smart to be a resource person on the content making of their Doon Po sa Amin workshop held in Davao City. On the part of Superbalita it was a way of celebrating its 15th anniversary.
The project, which is a work in progress, intends to document traditional beliefs, folklore, language and practices of the people in the different parts of Cebu into one book written in Cebuano. It is also meant to promote the Cebuano language through narration of Cebuano folklore in the language of the ordinary people and easily understood especially by children.
That is why the contest required that the participants be residents of Cebu and familiar with the life and language of Sugboanong Bisaya. It was made into a contest in narrating Cebuano folklore as a means to check or verify the folklore of a certain place (to make sure the narration was not just invented), the use of the Cebuano language, and that the story submitted has not been published.
The criteria set for the stories covered four areas – Language, Style, Freshness of Material, and Theme or Moral Values.
For language, we stressed simplicity, readability, and appropriate choice of words – the fitness of the language to the story – to check the preservation of the language.
Style included the mode of narration and the construction of the story, and the employment of devices, images, symbols. Freshness of material means the fresh variant of a familiar story. Moral values are the dominant features in folktales.
The first deadline of the submission of the entries was set in June and by that time there were 28 entries. The deadline was extended to July and there were 48 entries all in all but only 10 were chosen to be included in the printing of the book
The Board of Judges was composed of Dr. Resil Mojares of the University of San Carlos, Dr. Romola Savellon of Cebu Normal University and Ms. Grace C. Ferreros of Bright Academy.
The entries were written in varied styles (humorous, scary) but these were respected and edited according to the standards of Sun Star Superbalita. Editing was done by Mr. Lamberto Ceballos, who contributed one guest entry, “Ang Kapitan ni Maria Cacao.” The winning stories are also available online.
What is interesting about the 10 entries is that the stories complement the ongoing cultural heritage movement and the town history project of the province. In fact, when I had to verify the entries it was not difficult to contact the town history writers or some contact persons who are residents of the locales in the stories.
Each entry had a different locale and these are barangay Buayahan in Medellin, Kandangas, Caduawan in Tabogon, Badian, Catmondaan in Catmon, Naukban in Pilar, Camotes, Carcar, Guiwang in Alcoy,Barangay Pung-ol in Cebu City, Tuburan, and Ronda.
In terms of content, two were historical and eight were environmental or geographic. With the recent move of DepEd to use the Mother Tongue in the primary level, the book “Matod Pa sa Lola ni Noy Kulas” is a very good resource to achieve that goal. It also encourages children to read in the Mother Tongue.
The stories, when read properly, could be a very wholesome form of entertainment, just like the way Budoy and Chai Fonacier read the story and interacted with the children at the garden of Casa Gorordo Museum on October 23.
I would like to thank and congratulate Atty. Jane C. Paredes of Smart Communications and Michelle So of Sun Star for inviting me to be part of the project and for making possible the production of the book in so short a time.
