Dinagyang winners to join 2011 Aliwan Festival

ILOILO CITY , Philippines  — After dislodging the defending champions in their respective category, the two grand prize winners of the 2011 Dinagyang Festival will represent this city in the Aliwan Festival of Festivals in Metro Manila this April.

Tribu Pan-ay of the Fort San Pedro National High School was this year's champion of the Dinagyang Festival's ati-atihan contest, unseating multi-titlist Tribu Paghidaet that fell to second place.

Pan-ay, consisting of 49 "warriors" with 10 lead dancers and 40 drummers, took home P150,000 cash, a trophy, and P500,000 worth of projects for its school.

Besides taking a slot in the Aliwan, the "tribe" got the chance to represent the country during the commemoration of the 113th Philippine Independence Day in New York City, USA on June 12.

Paghidaet, Dinagyang's ati-atihan winner in 2002, 2003, 2008, 2009, and 2010, settled for 2nd place while Tribu Bola-Bola of the Iloilo NHS, champion from 1996 to 2001 and then in 2004, ended up third this year.

In the Dinagyang's Kasadyahan contest, Tribu Pantat of the Zarraga NHS of Zarraga town in Iloilo upstaged defending champion Tribu Kasag of the Banate NHS for the right also to represent the city in the Aliwan competition.

Pantat, consisting of 70 dancers and 30 instrumentalists, bagged the P125,000 cash prize and a trophy. Kasag fell to 2nd place, followed by Tribu Binanog of Lambunao town at 3rd.

Dinagyang Festival was a thanksgiving celebration to honor the Christianization of the natives and glorify the Holy Child Jesus.

An annual socio-cultural-religious event of this city, the word Dinagyang was coined by an Ilonggo writer and radio broadcaster, the late Pacifico Sumagpao Sudario, who first used it to describe the festival during its launching in 1977.