On the morning of May 10, 2026, the grounds of Loyola Retreat House – Spirituality and Art Center Angono (LRH-SACA) came alive with fire, music, and the deep pulse of Filipino tradition. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), through the Subcommission on Cultural Heritage and the National Committee on Art Galleries (NCAG), chose our seven-hectare sanctuary atop Nieves Hills as the site for the official kick-off of National Heritage Month 2026 Philippines. The theme: “Roots and Horizons: Our Shared Heritage, Our Collective Future”: could not have found a more fitting home than Angono, Rizal, long celebrated as the Art Capital of the Philippines.
This is a town where art is not a pastime but a way of life, where the oldest known artworks in the country: the Angono-Binangonan Petroglyphs, carved some 3,000 years ago: still speak to those willing to listen. To open the nation’s Heritage Month here was not merely symbolic. It was a declaration.
A Ceremony Rooted in Fire, Tradition, and Community
The day began at the Kaagapay Monument: a monumental sculpture by Mindanawon artist Kublai Millan, created in 2025, that reimagines the ancient petroglyph figures at breathtaking scale. NCCA Chairman and Executive Director Dr. Eric B. Zerrudo led the lighting of fire and torches at the monument, an act that carried the weight of both ritual and resolve: heritage is not a relic to be stored away, but a living flame to be passed on.
From there, the celebration spilled into the streets. Angono’s beloved higantes: towering papier-mâché puppets standing 10 to 12 feet high: paraded through the grounds, their painted faces a testament to the town’s irreverent, exuberant creative spirit. A Sayaw sa Patio followed at the Chapel of the Risen Lord, filling the open air with movement and joy.
The program proper gathered at the Holy Trinity Garden, where the Angono Choral Ensemble and the Angono National Symphonic Band performed with unmistakable pride: including a stirring rendition of “Mahal Kong Bayan,” the beloved song by Angono native and National Artist for Music Lucio San Pedro (1991). The piece, a celebration of the Philippines’ natural beauty and cultural richness, felt like a homecoming.
A quiet highlight of the evening was the Sayaw ng Bati: also known as the Sayaw ng Pagbabati, a traditional Easter Sunday dance commemorating the Resurrection of Christ. Led by the tenyenta (Ms. Daphne F. Pundamiera) and the kapitana (Ms. Marie Immacon “Icon” C. Reyes), both in grand Filipiniana gowns with full skirts, the dance unfolded in graceful turns and tilts to the waltz played by the Symphonic Band. Ancient in form. Alive in spirit.
Organizers and Partners
The event was made possible through the collaboration of the NCCA and the National Committee on Art Galleries (NCAG), the Municipality of Angono, the Diocese of Antipolo, the DSPSC Commission for Cultural Heritage and the Arts, and Loyola Retreat House, Inc.
Among the prominent figures who graced the occasion:
- NCCA Chairman and Executive Director Dr. Eric B. Zerrudo: keynote speaker
- Angono Mayor Gerardo V. Calderon: welcome remarks
- Subcommission on Cultural Heritage Commissioner Ivan Anthony S. Henares: opening remarks
- Former NCCA Chair Victorino “Ino” Mapa Manalo: delivered the message of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
- NCCA Deputy Executive Director Marichu Tellano
- Rizal Governor Nina Ricci A. Ynares
- Rizal 1st District Board Member Jestoni Alarcon
- LRH Vice President Fr. Rene Pio Javellana SJ: special message
- Most Rev. Ruperto C. Santos, DD, Bishop of Antipolo: message delivered by Fr. Peter Ymari C. Balatbat, Executive Director of the Diocesan Commission for Cultural Heritage of the Church, Diocese of Antipolo
- Postmaster General Maximo C. Sta. Maria III: remarks preceding the stamp unveiling
Closing remarks were delivered by Ms. Maria Teresa B. Rayos del Sol, Vice-Head of the Subcommission on Cultural Heritage. Certificates of acknowledgment were presented by Ms. Sabina Joy V. Cruz, Executive Council Member of the National Committee on Art Galleries and Administrator of the Loyola Retreat House Spirituality and Arts Center – Angono.
The PETROS Exhibit and Commemorative Stamps
Inside Pedro Calungsod Hall, another milestone quietly unfolded: the opening of the PETROS Group Art Exhibit, showcasing works from the Petros Group and local art galleries: the first association of art galleries in Angono. It was a gathering of creative voices, a testament to what becomes possible when artists choose to stand together in the name of shared memory and shared future.
The afternoon also brought the Unveiling of Commemorative Stamps for National Heritage Month 2026, presented by Postmaster General Maximo C. Sta. Maria III. Featuring selected plazas from across the Philippines, the stamps are more than philatelic collectibles. They are small, portable acts of cultural preservation: each one a reminder that heritage lives not only in grand monuments but in the town squares where generations have gathered, argued, celebrated, and mourned.
Together, the exhibit and the stamps affirmed what this month is truly about: memory made visible.
LRH-SACA: Where Faith Meets Culture
The Jesuit mission has long held that forming whole persons means forming them in relationship: to God, to one another, and to the world they inhabit. Culture and heritage are not peripheral to that mission. They are part of its very grammar. A people who do not know their story cannot fully know themselves: and a spirituality that ignores beauty, memory, and art is impoverished at its roots.
That is why hosting the National Heritage Month 2026 Philippines kick-off here, in Angono Rizal, felt less like an honor and more like a homecoming.
In his keynote address, NCCA Chairman Dr. Eric B. Zerrudo offered words that lingered long after the torches were extinguished:
“Nawa’y magsilbing paalala ang pagdiriwang na ito na habang pinangangalagaan natin ang ating kamanahang kultural, pinangangalagaan din natin ang kaluluwa ng ating pagka-Pilipino.”
“May this celebration serve as a reminder that in preserving our cultural heritage, we are also preserving the soul of our Filipino identity.”
That is precisely the spirit we carry at LRH-SACA: a conviction that the sacred and the cultural are not separate territories but one continuous landscape. We remain committed to being a space where spirituality, culture, and the arts meet, where dialogue is welcomed, and where hope is not just proclaimed but practiced.
Throughout May, cultural programs, performances, exhibits, and community conversations will continue to unfold across Angono and the rest of the country: each one a thread in the larger fabric of what it means to be Filipino. National Heritage Month 2026 invites us not to archive the past but to inhabit it: to carry our roots forward, eyes open to the horizons ahead.
Watch the video by MotionTeller I Bruce Gonzales uploaded on our FB page.
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Photo credits:
National Commission for Culture and the Arts
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