This song brings me back to my very early childhood days as my mum and sometimes my aunt (they are Bicolanas) would sing it to me and my sister as a lullaby. We would drift off to sleep as we listened to them singing it over and over.
Often mistaken as a Filipino folk song, Sarung Banggi was in fact composed by Bicolano composer, Potenciano Gregorio. According to Bicol historian, Jose Barrameda, Gregorio was born towards the end of the Spanish colonial power in the Philippines, and he spent his young adulthood during the American imperialism. Barrameda states that there is enough reason to believe that Sarung Banggi is a metaphorical message that speaks of a longing for national liberation.
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