Sonny Calamita: The Panday of Sto. Niño

For Filipinos the word panday (Filipino for blacksmith) evokes thoughts of a hero larger than life thanks to the Carlos J. Caparas comic book character immortalized in the silver screen by the late Fernando Poe Jr.   But what is a panday?  And what does it take to be one?

At its very essence a panday is a craftsman who works with metal.  The “black” in blacksmith comes from the black metal which they use to make different things and smith is derived from the word “smite” which means to hit.  Blacksmiths were essential to village life in the olden days but today the purpose they serve has been replaced by hardware stores which have all the tools and implements we will ever need.

Blacksmithing is a dying profession as urbanization spreads outward to the provincial and rural areas.  Progress comes in the form of malls or department stores that carry a wide array of very affordable items from all over the globe.

But in a remote agriculture-based barangay like Sto. Niño – located in the municipality of Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro – the Mangyan community there still needs a panday. 

Sonny Calamita is in his early thirties.  He is a soft spoken man who is economical with his words, but when he does speak he is insightful and always diplomatic.  His father Onyo is a well-known Mangyan  elder with the equivalent “rank” of a Mayor.

From his father, Sonny inherited his affable demeanor.  Sonny is uneducated and can neither read nor write.  He has 6 children, the youngest being a newborn while the eldest is in her late teens who has given him a granddaughter.

He is a rice farmer by profession and also plants root crops to supplement his income.  He is your average Mangyan save for one thing: he successfully completed a training workshop on blacksmithing.  By itself, this was hardly earthshaking but taking into account the Mangyans’ traditional way of eking a living, this was most extraordinary.  Nomadic and traditionally dependent on hunting, blacksmithing to and for the Mangyans was a literally a craft above the rest.

Going by the age-old adage of “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day but teach him how to fish and you feed him forever” – Mindoro Nickel undertook the blacksmithing workshop as part of its continuing livelihood and capacity-building programs to uplift the lives of Mindoreños.

This was in December of 2009 when Sonny signed up to be part of a select group of Mangyans who were trained as blacksmiths.  Today, Sonny is the local panday of his community in Barangay Pag-asa in the municipality of Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.  He and his group have since been serving the needs of the Mangyan community and more importantly, they have recently taken in apprentices to share the knowledge that they have gained.

In today’s highly industrialized environment, blacksmithing may seem insignificant.  However, in Sonny’s world, it is probably the most wonderful thing to have happened, for through his blacksmithing skills, Mangyans will have harrows and agricultural implements to farm, knives for crafting, weapons for hunting.  In short, everything the Mangyans would need to eke out a decent living.

Blogged with permission from http://www.intexresources.com.ph/mindoronickel/ .