SBMA mounts photo exhibit for Ayta scholarship program

In observance of Indigenous People’s Month, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) has mounted an exhibit of photographs of Ayta tribesmen in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone to help fund its Ayta scholarship program.

SBMA Chairman Roberto Garcia said the exhibit has been put up by the SBMA Public Relations Department as a fund-raising project to benefit 10 Ayta children currently on full scholarship at the Olongapo City National High School.

“We’re enjoining the public to support in this worthy cause,” Garcia said during the opening of the displays on Monday.

“The exhibits are designed not only to raise funds, but also to raise consciousness about our Ayta brethren and how we can help uplift them to be part of the mainstream society,” he added.

The IP Month celebration organized by the agency will also serve to emphasize how both the SBMA and the indigenous people in the Subic Bay Freeport have looked after each other through the years, Garcia said.

SBMA public relations manager Armie Llamas said the photographs will be on display and be available for bidding at Harbor Point Ayal Mall’s Zen Garden until October 28.

The photographs were taken at the Ayta villages of Pastolan in Hermosa, Bataan and Kanawan in Morong, Bataan by SBMA information officer Carlos Andres and Alan Fabricante of Vantage Point Photography in Olongapo City.

The two photographers donated their collection of work for the project.

Llamas said that bidding forms will be available at the exhibit area during the two-week exhibit. The minimum bid will be P1,000 per photograph.

Bidders should write down the number of the photo, bid price, name of bidder, and contact details on the bidding form and place the filled up form in the drop box provided at the exhibit area.

Winning bidders will be notified on October 29 so that they can collect their photographs at the SBMA-PRD office, Llamas added.

Aside from the fundraising exhibit, the SBMA has also scheduled several other activities for the IP Month.

The opening activities included a special flag-raising ceremony led by the Pastolan Ayta community on October 14, followed by a community breakfast among Ayta leaders and officials of the SBMA, and free movie-viewing for Grades 3 and 4 pupils of the Pastolan Elementary School at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center on October 14.

On October 16, the SBMA scheduled a radio interview with Pastolan tribal chieftain Conrado Frenilla and tribal elder Bonifacio Florentino to help promote community awareness of the Ayta culture. The following day, October 17, a drug prevention seminar will be held by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency for secondary school students at the Pastolan village.

The month-long celebration will be capped by a visit by Grades 5 and 6 pupils of the Pastolan Elementary School at Zoobic Safari on October 22; a feeding project and children’s hour at the Kanawan Elementary School on October 24; and a feeding project for pre-elementary children and Grades 1 and 2 pupils at the Pastolan Elementary School on October 25. (HEE/MPD-SBMA)

PHOTO:
An Ayta tribesman demonstrates fire-making techniques to foreign tourists at the Pamulaklakin Ayta Village in the Subic Bay Freeport where a month-long program has been organized by the SBMA to celebrate the Indigenous People’s Month.