Binalog Which Is Imitating How An Eagle Spreads Its Wings and Fly Freely. Also, They Sing Epics or

Ang Huling Prinsesa
(The Last Princess)
The Philippines is a country rich in cultures and traditions. From the biggest islands to the
smallest, people living in these islands have unique stories to be heard, has a culture to share, and
have traditions to be treasured and must pass on to the next generation.
In the documentary of I-witness, in the mountainous area of Capiz in Panay, there existed
a tradition where most of us have never seen or even heard of it, and that tradition is called
Binukot. Binukot is a term referred to a woman who was chosen as the most beautiful among a
village or tribe which is treated like a princess to preserve the woman’s beauty. She is hidden
from the people, not allowed to touch the ground, not allowed to leave the house, in simple
terms, her world runs in the four corners of her house. She cannot be worn-out, she has someone
to cook, brush her hair, and carry her (if needed)—everything that the she needs and just like
how a princess should be treated. A binukot dances in occasions, and their dance is called
binalog which is imitating how an eagle spreads its wings and fly freely. Also, they sing epics or
what is called the sugidanon, where in the history of the binukots and the story of Humadapnon
was being told. This is just what have been taught to them since they cannot do other things aside
from it. The very surprising part of being a binukot is that they never got a chance to pick whom
they are going to marry or even see the man before they will be married, the parents will pick her
husband for him and that love was never the basis of marriage. This tradition has been existing
over the past decades, there have been numerous generations of binukot but as of what Kara
David witnessed, only one remaining binukot was left and her name was lola Ishang.
Lola Ishang was the main focus of the documentary because of the very reason that she
was the only one binukot left. Her life showed what every binukot have gone through in their
lives , but surprisingly even though she could not do a single thing or go out and explore the
world, she still likes being a binukot. The drastic decline of women to be a binukot is a
saddening part, the tradition that have been passed generation to generation has now come to its
end.
The culture and tradition in the mountains of Capiz have been preserved for how many
years due to oral tradition, in which, the epics containing the history of its culture and tradition
was transferred verbally, and to instill in the their minds it was repeatedly done, and this is an
example of indigenous media. This type of media is as essential as to other types of media since
this type of media communicates the way how people communicate with each other in a
community, village or a tribe. This is a way how an indigenous community pass sets of
information. Moreover, indigenous media is also one of the basics or foundation of why various
types of media are popping out right now. The development of communication must have never
been in its position without it. With the little knowledge of man back then, indigenous media had
its way to store information in our minds and now we came up to the point where possibilities of
creating and developing types of media came real.
Having indigenous media played a significant role in passing of essential sets of
information way back then until now, we humans, must preserve it. Only in this way we could
preserve not only the culture and tradition but we can preserve it to make each of the stories in
each places in our country unique. The most significant part of why we need to preserve
indigenous media is because we cannot simply let it die and be forgotten, this represents a part of
who we are as a country, of why there are a lot of myths, legends, and epics surrounding this
country, Philippines.
But even though we have people preserving indigenous media, with the rapid
development of this country and also the influence of people (who are taught with the current
system) to the indigenous people, slowly their community is adapting to the current system, and
this is one of the main reason or one of the difficulties their community (especially the elders)
is/are facing. The children in their community now wants to explore more of the world since they
have been going in their school (a part of the current system). This greatly affects the children’s
minds and perspectives in life, and so there is a huge decline of passing on the information to the
people in their community. While on the other hand, it is quite difficult for their community to
pass information to others due to language barrier, in which only people in their community will
know about it since they have been using their own kind of dialect wherein outsiders would find
it hard to speak or even understand. Another one, the information to be passed must only be
passed within their community. Some information are sacred and must only be known by a few
in their community. The last thing that would be a probable reason is that, you are not one of
them, some of them have a cultures that would not allow any information to be spread with
someone that did not came from their community. This would either disrespect their norms or
completely break one of their built in rules.
With the development and existence of different types of media, we can have easy
dissemination of information and more. With such technology that is fast dominating everywhere
in the world, and with the current system we have now, the people that supposed to be keeping
the indigenous media have adapted to change and wanting more of the world rather than keeping
what they must do. Most of their people now are uninterested because they have been exposed to
world, where they were awaken that they can do a lot of things not just what they currently have
in them. Further, with the difficulties mentioned above about the passing of information to others
through indigenous media, then there is no doubt that this type of media would likely come to an
end and be forgotten by the world. As long as people in their community adapt to change, then
the dying of indigenous media is inevitable.
Wilmarie Hope Aliling

Grade 12-STEM 2

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Ang Huling Prinsesa

(The Last Princess)

Wilmarie Hope Aliling

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