By Leilanie Adriano/PNA
LAOAG CITY — About a thousand youths from 150 schools in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Eastern Pangasinan, Abra and Baguio City will participate in one of the largest academic and cultural festival in northern Philippines this weekend here.
Organized by the University of the Philippines (UP) Namnama, a lone Ilocano student organization of UP Diliman, the 37th Sirib Quiz Show and 10th Saririt Cultural Festival Regional Finals aim to increase the consciousness of the Ilocano youth in their culture and develop their intelligence.
Christian Joshua Nalundasan, executive for education of UP Namnama, said the Sirib events will be held at the Robinsons mall activity center in San Nicolas town on Saturday.
The categories include essay writing, short story writing, and impromptu speaking in English, Filipino and Ilocano languages, among others.
The Saririt cultural events will be conducted on the next day, including speech choir, Ilokano folk dance, and choral competition.
“The provincial winners from six provinces will compete in those events,” Nalundasan said.
Regional winners will vie for the Patalasanlahi in the national finals.
Last year, UP Namnama was recognized as most outstanding student organization in UP Diliman and a recipient of 2018 Ignacio B. Gimenez Excellence Award for UP student organizations’ social innovation projects for initiating the Sirib and Saririt program for young students up north.
Meanwhile, the two-day event, to be also held at the San Nicolas Elementary School, is being supported by the Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano (GUMIL) Filipinas or the Ilokano Writers Association of the Philippines, one of the most active group of regional writers in the country.
