Monday, December 11, 2006 Maxey: Lupang Hinirang By Ram Maxey Bar None
DAVAO City councilor Nilo Abellera should be commended for coming to the defense of the Philippine national anthem on the floor of the City Council after Manny Pacquiao's sensational three-round demolition of Mexican icon Erik Morales in the last of their trilogy series in Las Vegas, USA recently.
Abellera was referring to the way Filipina singer Sarah Geronimo sang the anthem atop the ring moments before the start of The Grand Finale. Instead of singing "Lupang Hinirang" in uptempo manner as befits a martial air that the song is supposed to be sang, Geronimo's version reminded us of a funeral dirge.
I was one of the all-seats-taken crowd at Cinema 1 of the SM Davao that fateful Sunday morning, and I experienced an inward shiver of embarrassment and disgust as Geronimo proceeded to disrespect our national anthem by slowly, excruciatingly dismantling it the way another Filipina singer had done in the second bout of the trilogy which Pacquiao won last January.
This time around, however, I made up my mind to time the song from start to finish. What was supposed to last for only 70 seconds uptempo finally hit the tape in one minute and 55 seconds. That's 45 seconds too long.
Listening to the way Geronimo dragged the song at snail's pace gave me goose pimples. Not out of nationalistic fervor in anticipation of a historic Manny Pacquiao victory, but because the song sounded like a portent of disaster, of doom for national hero Pacman. The song came across like an advance lamentation of things to come.
Unfortunately for Erik Morales, little did he realize that the dirge was for him to the boisterous delight of millions of Filipinos who saw the fight on television "live" -- or excruciatingly delayed by commercial.
Councilor Abellera was at the foundation day-induction ceremony cum Christmas party of our Tabak organization Saturday night at the Apo View Hotel. The lady singer who led the singing of the national anthem had been cautioned beforehand that Tabak members expected her to respect the song by singing it the way it should be -- uptempo and with lots of animo.
And that's the way it went. In fact we almost overdid it by way of making up for Sarah Geronimo's faux pas. After the singing, many heads in the Waling-Waling Room were seen nodding in approval of the way the song was sung. And that included Nilo who happens to be a Tabak member in good standing.
