During pre-pandemic times, Teacher’s Day was celebrated in schools all over the world with programs and school activities that pay tribute to educators.
In many Chinese schools in the Philippines, this special day for teachers coincides with the birth anniversary of Confucius, a popular figure portrayed in history as a teacher, advisor, philosopher, and a paragon of Chinese sages. Students offer flowers, sweets and gifts as a symbol of their gratitude to the noble men and women they call teachers.
Gabay Guro is now on its 14th year of paying tribute to teachers all over the Philippines. Aside from its yearly musical extravaganza, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. chief sustainability executive Chaye Cabal-Revilla said that Gabay Guro’s core is strengthened by its many programs on housing and educational facilities, trainings and workshops, scholarships for advance learnings, livelihood modules, broadband connections, computerization updates and technological upgrades.
With the obvious pandemic challenges in continuing its tradition of gathering the country’s most formidable live performance artists in a special musical show, Gabay Guro recently assembled all its available resources, both human and technology, to come up with another spectacular online show that was witnessed by hundreds of thousands of teachers from all over the archipelago, spearheaded by the PLDT Smart Foundation and presented by Metro Pacific and PLDT Home.
The theme for this year was “Guro sa Gitna ng Pandemya: Heroes for Digital Transformation,” and our best and brightest local artists made time to record and submit their individual numbers, put together by creative producer and content specialist Eloisa Matias. One of the more outstanding segments was the guitar and acoustic performances of Barbie Almalbis, Yeng Constantino, Ice Seguerra and Janine Teñoso. We also liked the “Iconic Ballads” portion where legendary singers Basil Valdez, Nonoy Zuñiga, Martin Nievera and Jose Mari Chan came out one after the other.
The “Divas Medley” was also a hit among the teachers watching online, with wonderful performances by Joey Albert, Kyla, Regine Alcasid, Jona Viray, Zsa Zsa Padilla and Sharon Cuneta. The megastar gave a heartfelt message and then sang the classic “Kahit Maputi na ang Buhok Ko.”
The Side A and Neocolours medley was also beautifully performed by the likes of Mark Bautista, Jeremy Glinoga, Jason Dy, Christian Bautista and Poppert Bernadas.
For the finale, Ogie Alcasid sang “You Are My Song,” while his wife Regine soared as she interpreted the Gabay Guro theme song “Believing in Me.” The show was hosted by Pops Fernandez, Derek Ramsay, Atom Araullo, Iza Calzado and Dominic Roque, then ended with select artists singing “Isang Mundo, Isang Awit.”
Gabay Guro has constructed and donated 55 double classrooms in 18 cities and municipalities nationwide. It has already given around 2,000 scholarship grants and has distributed thousands of laptops and learning gadgets to its deserving beneficiaries.
PLDT chairman and Gabay Guro founder Manny Pangilinan gave a brief but meaningful message thanking the teachers for their hard work, sacrifices and dedication, with a promise to continue looking after their needs especially during these extraordinary times.
To our dear teachers, then and now, mabuhay!