Bago City will celebrate the 126th Al Cinco de Noviembre with the staging of the “26th Sigabong sang mga Kanyon”, a parade of cannons through its major streets going to the Bantayan Park at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5.
The Al Cinco de Noviembre activities will start at 7 a.m. with a thanksgiving mass at the St. John the Baptist Church in Bago City.
Bago officials led by Mayor Nicholas Yulo and Vice Mayor Ramon Torres will then lay wreaths at the General Juan Araneta Monument at 7:30 a.m. to be followed by the Civic Military Parade through the city’s streets at 8 a.m, a press release from Bago City said Monday.
The 26th Sigabong sang mga Kanyon (Burst of Cannons) will be held along with the Civic Military Parade.
A Bago City Invitational Fancy Drill Competition will also be held.
Joining the competition are the Enriqueta Montilla De Esteban National High School in Pulupandan; Lopez Jaena National High School, Minoyan National High School and Murcia National High School in Murcia; M.G. Medalla Integrated School and STI-West Negros University in Bacolod City; and Bago City College.
There will be a street performance in the morning and an arena competition at the Manuel Y. Torres Memorial Coliseum and Cultural Center (MYTMCCC) in the afternoon.
Other activities on November 5 include the Clean and Green Awarding Ceremony at 11:30 a.m. and “Party at the Park” at 7 p.m., both at the Bantayan Park.
The theme of this year’s celebration is “126 Years of Heroism and Nationalism: Advancing the Legacy of Ingenuity and Progress.”
Al Cinco de Noviembre, also known as Negros Day, is celebrated every November 5 to commemorate the Negrenses’ revolt against the Spanish colonizers in 1898.
Nov. 5 is a non-working holiday in Negros Occidental by virtue of Republic Act 6709.
The very essence of Al Cinco de Noviembre is the ingenuity and bravery of the valiant hero, General Juan Araneta, and his Bagonhon troops together with the forces from the north led by General Aniceto Lacson, the press release said.
This is also called as a historical bluff as Bagonhon troops used nipa (coconut fronds) as “rifles” and amakan (rolled bamboo mats) as “cannons” that seemed to be believable from a far that led to the surrender of the Spaniards.
Bagonhons will commemorate and celebrate anew the heroism that General Juan Araneta and his troops showed for the people of Negros to stand up against the tyranny of foreign colonizers, Yulo said.
“It was a bloodless revolt, and through which, Negrenses were freed from the 300-year Spanish tyranny,” he said.
Yulo said “the lesson of the Al Cinco de Noviembre should still be learned today, especially by the younger generations, and applied to our modern world.”*