Lourdes Gomeyac Fangki, one of the icons of Cordillera Music, energetically performed and gave entertainment to a full house audience at the recent TCC’s Concert for Life 27 at La Trinidad Municipal Gym held on December 14, 2018.
She was backed up by Cordillera’s most requested performers, comprising the TCC Band. In her performance of the all-time favourite “Nu Laydem Sumaa Ta”, she explained why it was Dangwa Bus that was mentioned in the lyrics instead of Lizardo Bus which is actually the transport bus servicing Sagada. According to singer Lourdes, as she styled the song performance to explain, it is because Dangwa Bus is the one that rhymes and not Lizardo. She even tried singing it using Lizardo to demonstratre what she meant.
Her explanation seems to signal that there is a criticism on the writing of her lyrics, specifically using Dangwa instead of Lizardo. TCC, being an institution that works to preserve culture, arts and heritage, would like to help Lourdes defend her great masterpiece. She could have also forgotten a stronger fact about it. In TCC’s view, Lourdes wrote the song correctly. The term “Dangwa” in the lyrics actually does not literally mean the Dangwa Bus Transport. She has written it right and it reflected the use of “language” during that time of writing. In the earlier days, the most popular bus in Baguio and Benguet was the Dangwa Bus. It became an icon to the people. It became then as a common term for a bus. People literally call a bus as “Dangwa” instead of bus. Most often you will hear old people say, “Man-igid ka, sana’y dangwa” instead of saying ” “Man-igid ka, sana’y bus” (“Keep aside, bus is coming”).
This is similar to how people usually used the term “coke” when they actually mean soft drink : “Sino’y coke mo, orange?” ( What is your softdrink, Royal/ Orange?). Or, similar to how people use the term “colgate” when they actually mean toothpaste: “Gumatangak man ti colgit.”
THE CORDILLERA CONNECTION 