A sense of community in the city

Investment banker Roberto Benares is from Negros and Bacolod. From years of living there, he realized that life in the province gives people something that life in the big city doesn’t always do. “When you live in the province, you know all your neighbors. You grew up together, you played together when you were five or six years old. There’s a very strong sense of community,” he observes.

Then Benares moved with his parents to Manila. They settled in Bel-Air, then a very young residential village in Makati. This was back in the mid-’60s to the ’70s. Benares practically grew up with the neighborhood, but then later moved out. He came back with his own family in 1993, bought a house and has been living in Bel-Air since then. Coming from the province and moving to the big city, he found that the sense of community was not as strong — until in 1993, when the Bel-Air Homeowners Association (of which Benares is the incumbent president) and Barangay Bel-Air initiated what is now known as the Pasinaya Festival.

A yearly event, the Pasinaya Festival is held during the summer months as a thanksgiving activity and a way for Bel-Air residents to develop a stronger sense of community. Following the concept of the traditional barrio fiesta, it consists of various activities including a trade fair and special performances highlighted by a grand dance concert featuring specially-choreographed numbers participated in by the residents themselves. This year, it is held from May 3 to 5. Yesterday, the event consisted of “basic activities,” with the main ones concentrated today and tomorrow, May 5.

As a resident of Bel-Air for 20 years, Benares is glad that they have the Pasinaya because it gives him a chance to get to know the people in the community. “I think the underlying objective (of the festival) is to have a sense of community and community life,” says Benares. “Coming from the province, when you bring yourself to another community, you don’t have that opportunity to know your neighbors. So what the Pasinaya has brought to me is the sense of community. If not, I would never have known my neighbor, or the guy that lives 10 doors away. So now I like to say that I know most of the people here in Bel-Air, and what brought that about are community programs, the Pasinaya being one of them.”

The Pasinaya was the brainchild of several people, among them Barangay Bel-Air chairwoman Constancia “Nene” Lichauco. Lichauco is one of the prime movers behind the Pasinaya Festival, along with Travel Time producer and TV host Susan Calo-Medina. Lichauco took a one-year break from her duties as chairwoman, but is now back and helping prepare for this year’s Pasinaya Festival.

The Pasinaya Festival has a theme every year, and for this year, it is Viral at Bel-Air. The speed with which things go viral on the Internet is, Lichauco and company are hoping, the same speed with which a sense of community will spread not just throughout Bel-Air, but in other communities as well for which the Pasinaya Festival has become an inspiration.

The Pasinaya Festival has become the biggest event in Bel-Air and is the reason why it is one of the most thriving communities today. “It’s an open secret that because of the Pasinaya, the Bel-Air community has been strongly united. Really now it has become a family, bonded together, doing things together, cooperating, joining projects, because all these projects are owned by the homeowners.”

For example, practising for the yearly grand dance concert is something that the residents look forward to every year. People of all ages, from children to the older ones, get together months before to rehearse the numbers, design the costumes, and plan what they’re going to do. Some often decline to be in the dances, but Lichauco prevails upon them to join. “Sa umpisa laging ganoon,” she laughs. “They’ll say, ‘I have two left feet’ but since I have already a little influence over them being in the (Bel-Air Homeowners) association before that, in the ’80s, then I became the barangay captain, there’s a personal connection, so I tell them, ‘No, it’s okay, we have professional dancers to teach us.’ And it turns out, they’re very good.”

This year — as in past year — writer and stage and concert director Floy Quintos is again at the helm of this grand production, which is the culminating activity of the Pasinaya. The Whiplash Dancers will help in choreographing the numbers and teaching the residents.

In addition to the dance concert, there will be other fun activities spread out over three days, including a fashion show, an animal show featuring Matanglawin host Kim Atienza, a band concert, a cheerdance competition participated in by school-based squads from as far as Cavite, a performance by Team Pilipinas, a rock concert for the youth featuring bands like Paraluman, a trade fair and a perya-style carnival with rides and game booths. There will also be special performances courtesy of invited celebrities and guests including the Rockin’ 60s, a musical group featuring chef and author Nancy Reyes Lumen and the Tala Children’s Choir conducted by a former member of the UP Madrigal Singers.

For those who prefer to shop, there will be some 30 to 40 booths selling a variety of food items and dry goods, like they usually have at the Salcedo Market. The Salcedo area of Makati is, incidentally, also part of Barangay Bel-Air and thus included in the areas covered by the festival.

Lichauco is excited and hopes that many people — even those not from Makati or Bel-Air — will come and witness this year’s Pasinaya Festival.