ILOILO CITY – The town of Calinog in Iloilo province was the center for the Day of National Mourning as Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (National Living Treasure) Federico Caballero was given a State funeral on Tuesday, September 3.

THE State funeral of National Living Treasure Federico Caballero in Calinog town, Iloilo province on Tuesday, Sept. 3.  (Tara Yap) 

“The death of Manlilikha ng Bayan Federico Caballero is a great loss to our nation and it is appropriate to honor his outstanding commitment to the preservation of the Panay Bukidnon cultural and artistic heritage,” said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Presidential Proclamation No. 678.

The President’s message was read in the state funeral facilitated by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) under Chairman Victorino Mapa Manalo.

“He left a permanent presence in our culture and history and made the nation aware of the Panay Bukidnon,” noted Sen. Loren Legarda in her message.

Caballero died last August 17 at the age of 88.

He was a highly respected culture bearer of the Panay Bukidnon indigenous people of Central Panay Island.

Caballero is best known for documenting the Sugidanon epic chanting, the pre-colonial tradition of storytelling in Panay Island.

With more than 10 volumes, the Sugidanon is believed to be one of the world’s longest epics.

Caballero was awarded Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan in 2000.

His work with anthropologist Alicia Magos and researchers Anna Razel Limoso-Ramirez and Judith Pabito of the University of the Philippines-Visayas during the 1990s sealed his role in reviving the epics, especially for the younger generation.

It was also through Caballero that a Balay Turun-an or the School for Living Tradition was established in Barangay Garangan in Calinog to teach the younger generation of both the epic chanting and other cultural practices of the Panay Bukidnon who are also collectively known as Sulodnon.