Mahal kong mga Kababayan;

Malugod po kayong inaanyayahan na maging bahagi ng pagdiriwang ng Agawan Festival (Kapistahan ni San Isidro Labrador) sa Mayo 14 at 15, 2008 bilang pasasalamat sa masaganang ani at sa iba pang mga biyayang ipinagkaloob ng Maykapal sa ating Bayan.

Ating ipagdiwang ngayong taong ito ang Agawan Festival nang payak subalit puno ng kasayahan, pagkakaisa at pagbibigayan. Atin muling buhayin ang diwa ng bayanihan sa ating mga puso. At ating muling pag-alabin ang likas na pagmamahal sa ating pinagmulan, sa ating kasaysayan at sa ating pamanang-yaman.

Isa pong karangalan sa inyong lingkod, kasama ang mga bumubuo ng multi-sectoral na Comite de Festejos at ng Sangguniang Bayan, na kayo ay mapaghandugan ng mga programa at Gawain na nag-uugay sa mga kwento ng ating buhay mula sa kabundukan, kapatagan, at karagatan.

Arya! Sariaya!

Boyet V. Masilang
Punong Bayan

Download Agawan Festival '08 Program

Over the last three years, I have received several emails from people who were upset because they had prayed and asked God for newer cars, bigger houses and other material things and He didn’t give them what they had asked Him for.  How dare you and I get upset with God when He doesn’t do what we want Him to do.  He knows better than we do what is good for us and what is in His perfect will for our lives.  We would do well to remember our Scripture verse “for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return”.

Sometimes we act like God is a puppet and all we have to do is pull His strings to make Him perform for us.  God is not a name it and claim it God.  He is a holy God and we need to treat Him with the respect that He deserves.  Thank God for His mercy and for His forgiveness or we would be in serious trouble.  He loves us so much that He gave His Son to die for us.  If He would do that for us, we should never doubt that He loves us even when He doesn’t give us what we think that we need.

I think that all of us would like to live in a beautiful big house and drive a fancy car but we don’t need these things.  God allows us to have these things because He wants us to be happy, not because we need them.  If we have food to eat, clothes to wear and a house to live in, then we have all the material things that we really need.

The Sariaya Tourism Council (STC) launched its Lenten production “SANTO KRISTO: ISANG SENAKULO” via a small gathering at the Dona Concha Subdivision residence of STC Treasurer Ma. Teresa Cuello-Baligod on the evening of February , 2008. Present on the occasion were the members of the STC Dramatic Guild and five new recruits from the St. Francis High School, as well as Senakulo Director Mr. Federico Ceribo, Sariaya Institute Teacher Ms. Jenny Salumbides, Designer Christopher Quejano, Make up artist Janice Martinez, together with STC representatives Brgy. 6 Councilor JR de Gracia, Mrs. Baligod herself and Mr. Eric J. Dedace. They talked about the necessary preparations for the forthcoming street play to be staged in selected town thoroughfares on Holy Wednesday, March 19, 2008, a regular feature of the Sariaya Lenten season scene ever since it started in 2006.

In reality, the preparations started even earlier, in the afternoon of January 11, 2008, when Mrs. Baligod, Mr. Dedace, Mr. Quejano and his assistant drove for the Cuello Family Compound at Sitio Loob, Barangay Bignay I, where the Senakulo costumes are being kept. They did an inventory and sorted out which of them need to be repaired and altered to suit the production requirements. These costumes were then brought to the Quejano Boutique for the purpose.