By Rex Catubig

 

IN 2015, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of my high school class of 65, I wrote a marching song as our gift for the City.

When that year’s Hermano Mayor Joeyboy Atty. Tamayo II heard it, he endorsed it to Mayor Belen T. Fernandez who listened to it in a private audience, and when she liked what she heard, it was made the official theme of the City Fiesta’s Opening Ceremony in Dec 4, 2015.

During the celebrations, an ordinance was passed by the Sangguniang Panlungsod adopting the two compositions as official songs of the city.

The marching song was inspired by the Mayor’s slogan, “Balon Dagupan” and is a vibrant rousing, rallying song in contrast to the sentimental Dagupan Hymn that I wrote in 1987 with music by a church choir member, Alfredo Difuntorum Gagaza — for the Pandaragupan theater pageant that I conceived and directed, and was produced by the Dagupan Jaycees under Tito Meneses for the City Fiesta celebrations.

The story of how the Dagupan Song came to be the Dagupan Hymn goes a long way.

Upon the return in 2007 of  Al Fernandez as Mayor, he instructed his son Alvin who was the City Admin to “have a song that shall be sung in all public activities that shall symbolize the love for Dagupan”.

Alvin coordinated with then Division of City Schools Superintendent Aurora Tiu Domingo and relayed the request of Mayor Al. “She told me”, Alvin wrote to me in Messenger, “that there is such a song written by Rex Catubig”.

He continued, “At that time, Pong Mendoza and Jean Llamas Mendoza were commissioned by Mayor AL to form a Dagupan City Chorale from among the City Hall Employees. I then requested the couple to update the musical arrangement following the original lyrics”.

It is to be noted that the original choral arrangement of the song was written by Romeo Macabento at the instance of Division Music Supervisor Narcisa Cornel who belonged to the Dagupan City Chorale of Dagupan First Lady Dr Fe Cruz Manaois and the Singing Cursillistas, that sang the song in its premiere performance.

Alvin went on to add that “to instill love of Dagupan, Mayor Al issued an Executive Order mandating the singing of the Dagupan Hymn following the National Anthem”

“CDs were made and distributed to all schools and  government agencies in Dagupan. They were also given away to Overseas Dagupenos, and the CD became a staple gift of Dagupan City to official guests of Dagupan.”

“Mayor Al was very specific in his instructions that, to sow the seeds of love for Dagupan, every Dagupeno must put into heart the Dagupan Hymn”, Alvin noted. Which probably explained why a framed copy of the hymn was prominently hung on the wall of the City Hall.

When Mayor Al lost to Benjie Lim in the succeeding elections, the hymn was downplayed, the framed copy taken down. Mayor Benjie intimated to me that he found the song too pensive. He asked me repeatedly to write another which was more upbeat—and even announced this in a public gathering at the City Museum. Unfortunately, there was a tragic turn of events before I could work on it.

Recently, Councilor Dennis Canto authored an ordinance which the Sangguniang Panlungsod passed, requiring the singing of the Dagupan Hymn in all public functions.

The love song has come full circle.

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