#NEWS | Batches 2024 and 2025 celebrate 2nd day of Humanities Festival 2021
by Davis Nicholo Magpantay, Andrea Margarette Ganancial, Wrynah Dale Calpito, and Bianca Abigail Peralta
December 1 — Students from Batch 2024 and 2025 participated in various webinars and activities to celebrate the second day of this year’s Humanities Festival, with the theme “Tindog: Ang Humanidades sa mga Kuwento ng Pagbangon sa Panahon ng Pandemya.”
Ang Kahalagahan ng Musika, Pisikal na Edukasyon, at Kalusugan upang Makabangon sa Panahon ng Pandemya
The second day of the festival opened with a webinar on the importance of music and physical education in rising up from mental health issues during the pandemic. The event officially started with introductory remarks from Ma’am Melody Hernandez. Afterwards, students participated in warm-up exercises facilitated by Sir Jade Mark Alvarez, a Physical Education (PE) teacher.
Sir Anthony Ryan Cruz, from the Music unit, then began his talk which focused on music therapy and the benefits it offers. Throughout the presentation, he played songs such as a rendition of “Joyful, Joyful” from the movie Sister Act 2, “Tayo’y Magsayawan” by Filipino group VST & Company, and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” by rock band Guns N’ Roses to highlight the benefits of music therapy.
After Sir Cruz’s discussion, Sir Alvarez followed with the segment on the importance of physical education. “Tayo’y Magsayawan’’ played again while students participated in dance exercises. He encouraged the students to do household chores, weight train with objects found at home, and participate in TikTok dance challenges to stay active at home.
“I learned from the talk that music can be our best friend in everything: in anger, academics, and relaxation, among many others,” August Lim, a student from 10-Photon, commented. “Playing or listening to music and doing physical exercises also let us focus on our own health as we keep our attention away from the distractions and stress coming from the outside.”
Raising Up New Journalists in the New Normal
Sir Brian Villanueva, an English teacher and the adviser of the school’s English publication, was the speaker of the English and Social Science webinar entitled “Raising Up New Journalists in the New Normal.”
The discussion articulated what journalism is, what journalists have endured during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what being a journalist entails. Various polls where students could interact with the speaker came up occasionally.
At the end of the discussion, Sir Villanueva encouraged students to participate in the value of truth-telling and to be citizen journalists themselves. The webinar ended with an open forum about echo chambers and bias in journalism.
“The webinar was an eye-opener about the things that journalists went through ever since the pandemic started. This webinar reminded me that they are also heroes as they continue to provide us updates on the pandemic situation across the country,” Claire Daryn Chua, a student from 9-Rubidium, remarked.
Tanghal: Masining na Pagbasa ng Dula
Groups of three in each section submitted their play which revolved around rising up from the pandemic for the Reader’s Theater activity. The best play from each section was chosen as their representative and was presented in the event.
Ma’am Ma. Celeste Aguila of the Filipino unit officially opened the event. The hosts followed by announcing the judges of the competition who were Ma’am Ma. Donna Rebong of the Social Science unit, Sir Salvador Fontanilla of the Filipino unit, and Sir Edwin del Rosario of the English unit.
The representatives of each section introduced themselves and presented their play. At halftime, the students were given a five-minute break.
“The Reader’s Theater activity was the best among all of the activities in that week. I loved every presentation picked by the Filipino teachers, for they each had good content and execution. Furthermore, the teachers hosting the event also kept the audience’s interest maintained throughout the session,” a Grade 9 student who chose to be anonymous commented.
After the presentations, the winners of the competition were announced, with Nickzel Pagayatan, Maria Estrella Manauis, and Amaris Laelle Tomas of Magnesium as second runner-up, Dante Chi-young, Nathan Cometa, and Dane Hablo of Rubidium as first runner-up, and Wrynah Dale Calpito, Ogden Michael Javier, and Harvey James Dolar of Strontium as the champions.
Flow: Building Inner Strength through Mindfulness and Yoga
Batch 2025’s day ended with a yoga session organized by the Values Education unit. Guest speaker Heidi Sampang, a yoga practitioner and Pisay alumna, explained what yoga is and shared her experience with mindfulness.
Guest speaker Kai Rainer, a yoga instructor, taught the students and encouraged them to turn their cameras on as they participated in the exercises.
“That . . . [one-hour] period of the webinar really helped me . . . rest because it’s very difficult to make time for physical activities. Also, even though I’ve been doing yoga through YouTube videos, the activity gave me a stronger connection with the instructor and the act of yoga itself,” Nickzel John Pagayatan, a student from 9-Magnesium, said.
Harmony: Honing Resilience through Arts Therapy
After the lunch break, Batch 2024 students attended a webinar on expressive arts organized by the Values Education unit, with Ma’am Dianmar Briones as the host.
The event’s speaker was Carolyn T. Tongco, a registered expressive arts consultant, educator of the Philippine Mental Health Association, and professional member of the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IETA).
Tongco started the event with creative exercises such as letting the students pick a nearby object and share their similar “characteristics” to know more about them.
She then discussed her journey towards becoming an expressive arts educator and how she was not great with arts during her youth. She eventually realized that, “You don’t have to be the best artist to use expressive arts.”
She emphasized how expressive arts is not the same as an arts workshop and how you can use it to your advantage as there is no right or wrong in it.
She introduced some expressive art exercises. These included acrostic poetry, breathing exercises, drawing exercises, and mind exercises to vent all the emotions a person feels. During these activities, the students expressed their thoughts on topics related to academics, life, love, and stress.
“I believe that the speaker, [Carolyn Tongco], implemented the talk very well since most, if not all, of the students were engaged in the event. The activities helped me calm down and relax, and I believe we sometimes forget to do these things,” Paris Miguel Bereber, a student from 10-Photon, said.
The webinar ended with a song presentation entitled “Ako Naman Muna” by Angela Ken.
Public Servants: Modern Day Heroes
Batch 2024’s final event for the day was a webinar organized by the Filipino unit and the Social Science unit. Vice Mayor Jeremy Jesus Bueno III of Santa, Ilocos Sur and Mayor Trina Firmalo-Fabic of Odiongan, Romblon were invited to talk about their respective Local Government Units’ (LGUs) responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vice Mayor Bueno discussed how their team prioritized Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) for COVID-19 by focusing on three priority points, namely, security, prevention and detection, and continuity.
He highlighted how a systematic, data-driven approach to the COVID-19 pandemic helped their municipality have better control over the local situation. He then shared some of the programs that their LGU implemented, such as the Anti-COVID19 Crisis Assistance Program (ACAP).
Mayor Trina Firmalo-Fabic focused on the importance of having a timely initial response against COVID-19.
After acknowledging that “COVID-19 is a two-pronged problem,” she shared various programs that their LGU initiated to address the people’s needs both health-wise and economy-wise, such as the e-Reseta, Lab On Wheels, Mercado On The Go, and Odiongan Tulong at Agapay Program (O-TAP).
She ended her talk by stressing that humanities are as crucial as science and technology in governing as it “deepens our perspective and broadens our mindset.”
After the two speakers’ talks, a question-and-answer session was opened. When asked about the vaccination program situation, Vice Mayor Bueno discussed how they continued to defer to the opinion of medical experts and to take precautions.
“[We] see what works, see what doesn’t, [we] adapt [and] change,” added Mayor Firmalo-Fabic.
Finally, the two guest speakers highlighted how the three concepts of security, stability, and continuity are interconnected and important, especially when it comes to handling unexpected crises.
When asked about her insights on the webinar, Julianne Sales, a 10-Photon student, replied, “I never really knew the intricacies of the LGUs’ response to COVID-19, so it was nothing short of fascinating to hear about how it all worked. Even more so, [Vice Mayor Bueno’s and Mayor Firmalo-Fabic’s] answers to the questions of my fellow batchmates struck me in a way that I think [has] profoundly changed how I view local governance.”
