THE way the national anthem was sung at the opening of Manny Pacquiao’s final fight against Mexican boxing champion Eric Morales has momentarily created a fracas at the Davao City Council.
Two days after Pacquiao’s win at the Thomas and Mack’s stadium in Las Vegas, city councilors, who were previously jumping with joy over his victory, raised a howl over the way Sarah Geronimo sang the national anthem during the opening of the fight.
To the amusement, and perhaps, chagrin of most people attending the regular council session, the councilors spent about an hour discussing the right tempo of the song and whether or not Geronimo or any other artists should be allowed to tamper with it.
“That song is supposed to be vibrant, full of life,” said an indignant Nilo Abellera, who even filed a resolution reminding the people of Davao of the national song’s official version.
“But the way that she sung it was very slow,” he complained.
One councilor sang a lullaby while another broke into laughter as the serious, teary eyed Abellera discussed what he called the bastardization of the national song.
“The singer, obviously unaware of the law, sang it in a subdued, classical and kundiman-like interpretation,” he said in the proposed resolution, co-authored by Susabel Reta.
He described the original version as a marching song, with a highly patriotic beat.
Other councilors argued that Geronimo’s rendition was only to set the mood for the game, which somehow matched Pacquiao’s prayerful mood before the fight.
But Abellera cited Republic Act No. 8491, also known as the Flag and Heraldic Code.
He said the law was passed in response to the trend among artists in the mid-90s to experiment with various tempos and renditions of the national anthem.
Abellera said he felt “weak for a while” when he listened to Geronimo’s rendition of the national anthem but eventually recovered as he watched Pacquiao fight.
“Anybody who represents the Philippines in such a large crowd and in an event that is broadcast worldwide should be faithful to the original and official rendition of the song,” he later told the Inquirer.
He said he was concerned that some people, especially schoolchildren, might follow Geronimo’s example.
