Why Artists Do Relief Work · Sandino Libres and Pakighimamat 2

June 19, 2026

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Pakighimamat 2 will happen on June 21, 2026 at Parking Space Bar

Doors open at 6:30PM and the show ends at 12MN

Gate Fee Php 200.00

Theme: A benefit concert for victims of Earthquake in Big Margus, Glan, Sarangani Province.

This is a collection of artists from different music genres ready to help those people in need.

Project spearheaded by Sandino Libres.

Music doesn’t stop when the ground shakes. If anything it gets louder.

June 8, 2026. First day of school. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit offshore Sarangani at 7:37 in the morning and everything changed for thousands of families in southern Mindanao.

I know what a serious earthquake feels like. I’ve written about it on chipcanonigo.com — my experience with a 6.9 magnitude quake and how you cope with something that violent and that sudden. The ground moves and your whole sense of safety moves with it. Now imagine a 7.8. On a school morning. In communities where landslides then cut off access roads for days.

Magnitude: 7.8

Date: June 8, 2026 · 7:37 AM

Dead: 78 reported

Injured: 1300+

Missing: 36

Cut off Glan & Malapatan

Landslides, road damage, and the collapse of critical infrastructure crippled relief operations, leaving thousands of residents in Glan and Malapatan dependent on water rationing, private donations, and sporadic aid.

The national government response came.

The Coast Guard came.

But in those first days, as always, it was ordinary people and community organizations that moved first.

Including artists.

· · ·

Pakighimamat 2 · Sandino Libres

Sandino Libres, or Tatot as he is most widely known, is doing what Filipino artists have always done in times of crisis.

Pakighimamat — which means “to come together” or “to meet” in Bisaya, a gathering, a coming together — is both the name of a benefit event and a philosophy.

The idea that music creates the space where a community can find each other again after something devastating has separated them.

According to the artist, “Free will and initiative.. Mao jud ni ang dapat nato buhaton bai dugay nanako ni gina buhat lami man gd sa paminaw na maka tabang ka”

(Free will and initiative. This is what we should be doing and I’ve been doing this for a long time. It feels good to help.)

Pakighimamat 2 is coming.

And the reason it matters beyond the funds it raises is the signal it sends: that this community is paying attention, that Mindanaoan artists are showing up for Mindanaoan communities, and that the creative sector here doesn’t sit on the sidelines when things get hard.

Why do artists do this?

Not for the attention.

The ones who do it seriously are usually the quietest about it afterward.

They do it because art communities are communities first.

Because a musician who has played for a crowd of fifty people in a small venue understands something about collective human experience that translates directly into relief work.

You know how to read a room.

You know how to hold space.

You know that sometimes what people need before food and water is to feel like someone sees them.

That’s what Pakighimamat does.

It’s a benefit gig and it’s also a declaration that the scene here is made of people who give a damn about the place they call home.

This is what Musika Wabad is for, to bring light to events like this. To proclaim to others what these artists are reluctant to do. To help spread the word about events and movements within the metro that focus on human connection, cultural upshifts, and the drive to contribute in a positive manner to society despite being viewed as outsiders, misfits and the lot.