Ambon, Ulan, Baha Returns to MET After 34 Years
Ambon, Ulan, Baha was already talking about deforestation, flooding, and the cost of unchecked development in the 1970s.
Almost 50 years later, it is heading back to the Metropolitan Theater.
Frank G. Rivera's ethno-pop-rock zarzuela will be staged at the MET in Manila on September 26 and 27, 2026. CJ Navato and Thea Astley play Nonoy and Inday, with Anton Juan, Rendell Sanchez, Nazer Salcedo, Onyl Torres, Shermaine Santiago, and Sweet Buchanan also in the cast.
The 2026 staging is presented by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Metropolitan Theater, and produced by Pixel Art Media Production Co.
This is not a newly written environmental story borrowing an old setting. The material itself goes back nearly five decades. The problem at its center never really left.
The work started as Kaingin in 1976, part of MSU-Sining Kambayoka's Ang Hawla trilogy. Rivera expanded it into the full-length Ambon, Ulan, Baha in 1978.
It reached the Metropolitan Theater in 1992 under Rivera and Teatro Metropolitano. More than three decades later, it is coming back to the same stage.
Why Ambon, Ulan, Baha still hits close to home
Barrio Magubat is fictional. The choices people make there are not hard to recognize.
Nonoy, played by CJ Navato, and Inday, played by Thea Astley, are two young lovers living in a community where a logging concession arrives with the promise of development. Behind it are the wealthy Don Calixto, played by Anton Juan, and his son Doctor Anton, played by Rendell Sanchez.
The logging begins. People are told it will bring progress. By the time the flood arrives, the damage is no longer something they can argue about in the abstract.
That was already the story in the 1970s.
In 2026, a Manila audience hardly needs the premise explained.
We know what it is like to watch another heavy downpour turn into flooded streets and another conversation about development, drainage, disappearing trees, and where all that water is supposed to go.
That is the part of Ambon, Ulan, Baha that makes this return worth paying attention to. The musical is old. Its central anxiety is very much alive.
Who's in the Ambon, Ulan, Baha 2026 cast?
CJ Navato plays Nonoy opposite Thea Astley as Inday.
Anton Juan takes on Don Calixto, with Rendell Sanchez as Doctor Anton. Nazer Salcedo plays Kapitan Berto, Onyl Torres is Mang Pedro, Shermaine Santiago plays Nana Ilyang, and Sweet Buchanan is Nana Maring.
The Taumbayan ensemble includes Beng Jordan, Jerome Ferguson, Joseph Sy, Jonathan Montes, Lian Silverio, Peachy Dumaya, and Phil Panganiban.
Members of Tanghalang Bagong Sibol make up the Koro, with JM Ursula and Joch Bucacao as lead dancers.
Manlilikha ng Bayan Rosie Godwino Sula also joins the production, bringing T'boli epic chanting traditions into the musical.
Her participation fits naturally into a work whose history has always been tied to regional Filipino performance traditions.
What changes in the 2026 staging?
CJ Andaluz directs the new production, with Frank G. Rivera as playwright and principal composer.
Pipo Cifra handles the 2026 musical arrangement and musical direction. Anthony Cruz is choreographer, Ohm David is production designer, Raqs Regalado is costume designer, Charlotte Despuez is lighting designer, and Roman Cruz handles technical direction.
The new staging also uses projections, rainfall effects, and aerial sequences inside the Metropolitan Theater.
Those are new tools around a work that began with Sining Kambayoka nearly five decades ago.
The 2026 production comes during the 52nd anniversary of Sining Kambayoka, which Rivera founded at Mindanao State University in 1974. Its Kambayoka Theater Form draws from Meranaw chants, folklore, music, and dance.
The Manila comeback is only part of the story. Ambon, Ulan, Baha came out of Mindanao, and that history remains part of what the production is bringing back to the stage.
Ambon, Ulan, Baha 2026 schedule and ticket prices
Ambon, Ulan, Baha runs for two days at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila.
September 26, 2026
2:00 PM
7:00 PM
September 27, 2026
10:00 AM
2:00 PM
6:00 PM
The September 26, 7:00 PM show is billed as the Gala Performance.
Reserved Seating tickets are priced at ₱1,500, while General Admission tickets are ₱1,000. Tickets are available through TicketNation.
The date I keep coming back to is 1976.
A Filipino musical was already putting forest loss and the consequences of so-called development onstage then. Nearly 50 years later, the flood at the end still doesn't feel like old news.