‘Hep hep, hooray!’: Baguio City tourist cheers crowd at Igorot Stone Kingdom

October 3, 2022 - 7:07 PM
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Igorot Stone Kingdom
Igorot Stone Kingdom in Baguio City in this photo taken on March 2021. (The STAR/Andy Zapata Jr)

A visitor in Baguio City got the crowd’s attention at a popular tourist site with a hilarious gimmick.

The visitor named Randy Hugo on Facebook had a lively exchange of responses with other tourists at the Igorot Stone Kingdom, one of the new attractions in the province.

“Mga kababayan,” Hugo shouted while atop one of the structures at the site. “Hep, Hep…”

“Hooray!” the crowd below replied, enthusiastically.

Hugo then repeated the cheer. “Hep, hep…”

The crowd shouted back with the same energy: “Hooray!”

“Thank you!” Hugo said at the end.

This hilarious moment was caught on video and uploaded on Hugo’s page on October 1.

“First-time ever in Igorot STONE Kingdom Baguio City,” Hugo captioned his post.

The post has since gained traction on the platform. The video has so far earned more than one million views while the Facebook post garnered 49,000 reactions and 3,100 comments.

Most only users were also amused by Hugo’s antics in the video. Of the reactions, 47,000 were laugh reactions, 828 were likes and 534 were heart reactions.

In an interview with The Philippine Star, Hugo shared that he got shy when he got down from the cement tower.

“Nahiya nga ako pagbaba pero ang dami bumati sa’kin habang naglalakad ako pababa, mga napasaya ko daw sila sabi sa’kin,” he was quoted in the report as saying.

Hugo said that it was his friend that dared him to shout from the top of the tower.

“Napagtripan lang namin na mag-video kasi tinatawag ako ng friend ko sa itaas eh nasa baba ako. Sinigawan [niya] ako eh alam [niya] na mahilig ako sumigaw kaya pag-akyat ko pinasigaw na ako,” he was quoted in the report as saying.

The Igorot Stone Kingdom opened to the public in 2021.

Pio Velasco, the owner, said in an interview that he conceptualized the park in March 2020, which was the start of the tough lockdowns due to COVID-19.

Velasco also said that the tourist destination represents Igorot folklore and the identities of each province of the Cordillera region.

The “kingdom” covers a 6,000-square-meter area of real estate. It features a stone wall on the left side and a modern-day tower on the right side.

RELATED: Banaue, Benguet, Baguio: Where is Igorot Stone Kingdom located?