GENERAL SANTOS is celebrating the 5th Blaan Day on July 22, which has been declared a special non-working holiday in the city through Proclamation No. 767 signed last July 17. An arts exhibit and competition on the culture of Blaan, also spelled as B’laan, was held over the weekend. A parade and the culmination program will be staged Monday at the GenSan Oval Gym. According to the City Economic and Cooperative Development Office, The Blaan “are the original inhabitants of General Santos, and traces of their early settlement of the area are found in the city’s place names, which are derived from their vocabulary.” GenSan’s old name, Dadiangas, comes from the Blaan, who named it “after the thorny Ziziphus spina-christi tree that was once abundant in the area and is now a protected species under Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Right Act of 2007.”

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