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This essay is a preliminary discussion of the palo-palo, a cultural performance of the Ivatan community in the Batanes group of islands in northernmost Philippines where performers strike "opponents 's " sticks to reenact a battle of two opposing camps. The first part is a descriptive narrative of the palo-palo performance. The second part is a preliminary analysis and theorization of the palo-palo 's origin by arguing that the performance could have been based on and/or inspired by the komedya, a Philippine traditional theatre form introduced by the Spaniards during colonization which has roots in the socio-historical conflict ofthe Christians and the Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula in Southwest Europe. Generally, the localization of the form is argued to be paradoxically an embrace and repudiation of the foreign.
The archipelagic province of Batanes in the northernmost Philippines includes three major islands: Batan, Sabtang, and Itbayat, 220 km away from Ilocos Norte, the northern province of Luzon. The Bashi (north) and Balintang (south) Channels serve as fishing grounds of the Ivatan people, whose livelihood comes from the sea.
With picturesque landscapes of mountain and sea-as stated in the petition already submitted to the UNEsCO World Heritage Convention (2017), the archipelagic province is characterized by its complex terrestrial, wetland, and marine ecosystem. The Philippine government has already inscribed Batanes as a protected landscape/ seascape, for its wave-cut cliffs, cave-like outcroppings, and secluded white sand beaches. The province is also cited in heritage discussions as the only area that stone architecture in response to the wind and monsoon replaces the wood, bamboo, and thatch commonly used in village architecture.
Batanes has been inhabited for 4,000 years (Alvina and Roces 2016). Because of its isolation, Florendo Hornedo (2000) asserts the culture has remained intact and is a blending of Hispanized Catholicism and indigenous lore. Interviewee Luis Castillon (2016) notes that Ivatans religiously celebrate the pista (fiestas or the feast days of the saints) in each of the barangays (smallest administrative unit), thanking the patron saint for personal or communal assistance such as protection from the islands' frequent typhoons.
Locals who migrated to other parts of the country for economic reasons frequently return for pista, typically a whole-day affair filled with church- and state-sponsored activities. In Barangay Chavayan, Sabtang,...