DAVAO CITY – More than 1,000 indigenous people gathered in Samal Multi-purpose Gym, Barangay Peñapalata, Samal District to celebrate the culmination of the 25th Pangapog Festival on Saturday.
The Pangapog Festival is the thanksgiving of the Sama tribe for the bountiful harvest and celebration of their cultural heritage usually every month of August.
A Pangapog ritual opens the celebration with a “Panawagtawag”, performed by babaylan Teresita Lugam in Sama dialect. The ritual is performed in front of an altar with palm (bunga) and shrub leaves with offered fruits, food, drinks, farming tools and other Sama household materials. All the Datu (tribal chieftains) and Sama tribe members gathered around the mounted altar with the babaylan.
After the ritual, the Sama tribal members and few Kagan Muslim from different barangays paraded around Pobalacion Peñaplata and converged inside Samal Gym for the cultural presentations of barangays.
City Mayor Aniano P. Antalan assured the tribal leaders and members of his support as he urges them to unite “for it is only in Samal Island that the IP Mandatory Representative in the City Council down to the barangay level materialized”. (davaotoday.com)
