New heritage group Hambin holds lecture on religious movements

Hamiling Binilin (Hambin), a newly formed heritage advocacy group, held its third monthly lecture last August 26, 2007 at the Cathedral Museum of Cebu with Prof. Laila Labajo, a faculty member of the Department of History, as speaker. Labajo presented her paper entitled, “Kalihukan sa Tinuohan: Reformative and Dissident Religious Movements in Cebu: 1900-1990.”

Labajo discussing her work on religious movements at the Fr. Virgilio Yap Memorial Gallery of the Cathedral Museum of Cebu.

In her lecture, Labajo tackled the origin, growth, beliefs, and practices of 14 religious movements that have sprouted in Cebu. According to her, religious movements came into existence as a result of the desire of followers for a new way of life after undergoing extreme stress posed by many factors experienced during the early 1900s up to the 1990s.

This latest lecture is the third since Hambin began tackling fascinating aspects of Cebuano culture and history. In June, Dr. Louie Nacorda, another Hambin member, examined whether Tamblot, the Boholano religious leader was male or female. Trizer Dale Mansueto, a faculty member of Department of History and the Department of Languages and Literature, followed Nacroda;s lecture a month later with a discussion on the construction of stone churches in Cebu as seen though the canonical Libro de Cargo y Data.

Hambin is composed of the first batch of graduates of the Certificate Course on Cebuano Heritage Studies initiated by the Department of History in tandem with the Cebuano Studies Center.

Other than Labajo, Nacorda and Mansueto, the group is also composed of Gavin Bagares, Ernesto Chua, Joselito Costas, Lilia Tio, Jason Verallo and Dr. Hope Sabanpan-Yu.

Author: Trizer Dale Mansueto/J.E. R. Bersales
04 / September / 2007