Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Festivals
Every community in the Philippines -
from small barangay to crammed
metropolis - has at least a couple of
festivals a year in honour of a patron
saint, to give thanks for a good harvest,
or to pay respects to a biblical character.
It's well worth timing your visit to see
one of the major events: the beer flows,
pigs are roasted, and there's dancing in
the streets for days on end.
The main fiesta months are from January to May,
with exact dates often varying. Major mardi-gras-
style festivals include the Ati-Atihan in January in
Kalibo (see box, p.336), and the Sinulog in January
in Cebu (see box, p.271). One of the biggest nation-
wide festivals is the Flores de Mayo , a religious
parade held across the country throughout May in
honour of the Virgin Mary.
Newspapers
Major English-language daily broadsheet news papers
include the Philippine Daily Inquirer ( W inquirer.net),
the Philippine Star ( W philstar.com), Manila Bulletin
( W mb.com.ph) and the Manila Times ( W manilatimes
.net). There are dozens of tabloids on the market, all
of them lurid and often gruesome. Most of these are
in Tagalog, though People's Tonight ( W journal.com.ph)
is largely in English with Filipino thrown in where
the vernacular better expresses the drama, such as in
quotations from victims of crime and from the police.
Foreign news publications are harder to find. The best
bet is to visit a five-star hotel, where lobby gift shops
sometimes stock the International New York Times , Time
and The Economist .
Some of the most trusted reporting on the
Philippines comes from the Philippine Centre for
Investigative Journalism ( W pcij.org), founded in
1989 by nine Filipino journalists who wanted to
go beyond the day-to-day razzmatazz and inanities
of the mainstream press. Journalists working for
the PCIJ were responsible for the exposé of former
President Joseph Estrada's unexplained wealth,
which led eventually to his downfall.
A festival calendar
Listing all Filipino festivals is impossible. Those
included here are larger ones that you might
consider making a special trip for, at least if you
happen to be in the area.
Television and radio
JANUARY AND FEBRUARY
Feast of the Black Nazarene (Jan 9) Quiapo, Manila
W quiapochurch.com. Devotees gather in the plaza outside Quiapo
Church to touch a miraculous image of Christ. See p.75.
Ati-Atihan (Variable, usually second week of Jan) Kalibo, Aklan.
Street dancing and wild costumes at arguably the biggest festival in the
country, held to celebrate an ancient land pact between settlers and
indigenous Atis. See box, p.336.
Sinulog (Third Sun in Jan) Cebu City, Cebu W sinulog.ph. The
second city's biggest annual event, in honour of the Santo Niño (an image
of Jesus as a child). Huge street parade, live music, plenty of food and
drink. See box, p.271.
Dinagyang (Fourth week of Jan) Iloilo, Panay Island
W dinagyangsailoilo.com. Relatively modern festival modelled after
the Ati-Atihan, which includes a parade on the Iloilo River.
Philippine Hot Air Balloon Fiesta (Feb) Clark, Pampanga
W philballoonfest.net. Balloon rides, microlight flying, skydiving and
aerobatics displays.
Pamulinawen (First two weeks in Feb) Laoag City, Ilocos Norte.
Citywide fiesta in honour of St William the Hermit. Events include street
parties, beauty pageants, concerts and religious parades.
Panagbenga (Baguio Flower Festival) (Third week in Feb)
Baguio City, Benguet W panagbengaflowerfestival.com. The
summer capital's largest annual event includes parades of floats
beautifully decorated with flowers from the Cordillera region. There are
also flower-related lectures and exhibitions.
Terrestrial television networks include GMA
( W gmanetwork.com) and ABS-CBN ( W abs-cbn.com),
offering a diet of histrionic soaps, chat shows and
daytime game shows with sexy dancers. Cable
television is now widely available in the Philippines,
with the exception of some of the most undeveloped
rural areas. Most providers carry BBC World, CNN
and Australian ABC. At weekends during the season
there's American football, baseball and English
Premier League football on Star Sports or ESPN. Movie
channels include HBO, Cinemax and Star Movies.
There are over 350 radio stations in the
Philippines, and between them they present a
mind-boggling mix of news, sport, music and
chitchat. Radio news channels such as DZBB and
RMN News AM tend to broadcast in Filipino, but
there are dozens of FM pop stations that use
English with a smattering of Filipino. The music they
play isn't anything special, mostly mellow jazz and
pop ballads by mainstream artists. Among the most
popular FM stations are Wow FM (103.5MHz) and
Crossover (105.1 MHz). A shortwave radio also gives
access to the BBC World Service ( W bbc.co.uk
/worldservice), Radio Canada ( W rcinet.ca), Voice of
America ( W voa.gov) and Radio Australia ( W abc.net
.au/ra), among other international broadcasters.
 
 
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