The man who coined the word "Dinagyang" is no longer in our midst.

But Pacifico S. Sudario is assured of a significant niche in the history of Iloilo City when he gave it's annual pompous socio-religious and cultural festival a name--signifying merry-making--which has since became a byword in Ilonggo households.

While volumes of material had been written about the Dinagyang and its impact on tourism, nobody though about writing a piece on Sudario, or "Picoy", as friends and associates call him.

We hope this short article will rectify the oversight and familiarize the man with the present generation of merrymakers who hardly knew him.

Pacifico Sumagpao Sudario was born on May 17, 1917, in Zarraga, Iloilo, where he also spent much of his childhood.

He was married to Marietta Benemile Sudario (now deceased) and their union produced eight children, namely: Eunice; Gideon, a successful businessman; Smyrna, now with the Philippine Information Agency; Lydda, also a successful businesswoman; Phoebe, who works with the Iloilo City Government; Mara, employed by the Philippine Fisheries Development Authority; Miriam and Dinah Joy.

His educational attainment is a blur, although daughter Smyrna-who now regrets the family's failure to keep the clan's records intact-is certain he finished his elementary and high school education in Zarraga before going on to complete a correspondence course in journalism.

It was actually as a newscaster-commentator-writer that Picoy gained a great degree of popularity in the 1960s up to his untimely demise in 1989.

Veteran broadcasters Ed Morales, Ed Padilla and Carlos Brasileño (who succumbed to a lingering illness in late 2001) have nothing but pleasant memories of Picoy who they claim was one of the pioneering blocktimers in Iloilo radio along with Rafael Valencia and Ramon dela Luna.

The three remember Sudario as a jolly fellow, friendly, masinadyahon, malangas, palahambal, religious, and with a hand ready to help anyone in need or in distress.

Ed Morales, who owns working stints with dyRI, dyBQ, IBC-TV 12 and dyXX, among others, considers Picoy as his broadcasting mentor. Sudario, he recalls, started with DyRI sometime in 1959 when that station was still under the aegis of the Visayan Broadcasting Network (and later the Universal Broadcasting Corporation). Sudario was at the time doing the morning newcast sponsored by Panay Electric Company as well as another locally-sponsored commentary, Morales recalls.

Picoy would later transfer his newscast and commentary of dyFM (Northern Broadcasting Corporation), brought there by friends Ric Berlin, who was station manager at the time, and Vic Mercado.

Ed Padilla and Caloy Brasile¤o, on the other hand, share a singular experience with Sudario. The two were trained by Picoy in news writing.

Brasile¤o fondly remembers Sudario, who was a member of the Sumakwelan, both as a versatile writer in the vernacular and as an objective radio commentator who treats issues without any hint of bias at the height of his radio career.

On the other hand, Padilla said it always fascinated him to see Picoy take an English-language national daily and make direct translations in the vernacular of the news items therein during his morning newscasts. At times, when the newspaper deliveries were delayed, Picoy would produce pieces of paper from his pockets where he has previously stashed notes and various items heard on radio the night before and then report these on the air.

"His favorite expression was 'Husto 'ina!' and he would roar with this expression every time a fellow commentator hits an issue right in its most sensitive context," Padilla reminisces.

They also remember an accident, probably in the 70s, where Sudario figured in a road accident while riding his motorcycle. "The accident broke his nose, but not his sense of humor," Ed Morales said.

Picoy, the tree attested, was also fond of discussing the Scriptures with anyone who cared to listen. This inclination, the added, was brought about by his active membership with the Jehovah's Witnesses.

But he was not exactly blameless when it comes to observing orders by Church elders to stay away from forbidden matter. Morales recalls with amusement how the barkada would frequently tempt Picoy into eating a bowl of dinuguan at Johnny's Place in Burgos Street where they often hanged out, and how Picoy would often succumb to the temptation. Brasile¤o also attests that Picoy was fond, too, of kaldereta.

In 1977, Picoy attended a conference called by the City Government leadership to hear suggestions as to how to give the religious-cultural festival celebrated annually by Iloilo City a distinct name and identity.

Amidst suggestion such as Hinugyaw, Kasadyahan and other catchy words in the dialect, Sudario stood up and told the conferees that Dinagyang, meaning merry-making, aptly describes the spirit that goes with each observation of the festival. The conferees listened intently to the logic of his suggestion and by the time the meeting ended, Dinagyang was to be unanimously adopted as the name of the festival.

Ed Morales remembers how Sudario told him that the name just shot out of his head for the simple reason that each celebration sees people making "dagyang" or merriment.

The former Iloilo City Government information officer Rene Bartolo-Espeleta introduced me to Picoy sometime in the early 80s. By that time, he was no longer as active as he once was on radio. However, he was still writing occasionally for the weekly Bag-ong Kasanag, having suffered a stroke hat somehow curtailed his journalistic activities.

The place was the Dinagyang Restaurant in the old Pendy's Building at J.M Basa Street, and I remember clearly that Picoy was then in the company of veteran journalist Fraulin Peñasales and Fermin Sornito, among others. Their discussion was lively and criticism about the City Government were flying thick and fast. Bursts of laughter occasionally punctuate the session, and as Rene desperately defended City Hall, I sat through it all enjoying my role as a simple spectator.

When it was time for parting, Picoy gave me fatherly eye and said, "What you hear at Pendy's must never leave Pendy's."

I saw him twice or three times again after that.

The on April 24, 1989, Picoy suffered a cerebral stroke--his third--and was dead at age 72.Nobody, not even members of his family, ever heard him flaunt the fact that he coined the word that would make Iloilo famous over the year: Dinagyang.

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