Ilokano oral traditions remain alive

LAOAG CITY — In this day and age, older traditions are almost slowly fading away especially if not passed on to the younger generation.

However, a native chant delivered during special occasions by the Ilokano community in the olden times — called "Dallot" — remains alive to this day, thanks to natives who have kept the tradition.

One such beautiful native is Adelita Romualdo Bagcal, a 77-year-old which clung to it like a lullaby since she was a child.

And because of keeping this tradition alive, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — through Proclamation 427 — recognized Bagcal for her extraordinary skill and dedication to preserve and promote this oral tradition to the younger generation and named her a "Manlilikha ng Bayan" or national living treasure.

The National Living Treasures Award is the highest state honor conferred to a Filipino in recognition of exemplary work in any form of traditional art.

Bagcal, a widow from Sitio Calao, Barangay 4 Marcos in Banna, Ilocos Norte, is a dallot master and an expert in "duayya" or Ilokano lullaby and "dung-aw" or mourning ritual.

Bagcal recalled accompanying her grandmother, Veronica Suguitan Urbano, when the latter would occasionally join a community of elders during a traditional wedding proposal.

Part of the Ilokano ritual is for an elder to perform dallot, an improvised, versified and impromptu long poem delivered in a chant in front of a man and woman who plan to marry, with the blessing of their parents and nearest kin.