17. BAMBANTI AND THE MORIECOS
BAMBANTI AND THE MORIECOS
Dr. Troy Alexander G. Miano
27 January 2017
The Bambanti Festival of Isabela was awarded as Best Festival Practices
and Performance during the 28th and 29th Annual Aliw
Awards in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Aliw Awards of the Aliw Awards
Foundation was established by the renowned Philippine journalist Alice H. Reyes, to recognize
achievements in the live entertainment industry in the
Philippines. Founded in 1976 in Manila, it is the pioneer
in giving awards for excellence in theatre, opera, dance, live vocal and
instrumental shows.
Aliw is the root word
meaning "to entertain" in Tagalog while bambanti is an Ilocano term meaning
“scarecrow”. According to "Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical
Principles", a scarecrow or hay-man is a decoy or mannequin in the shape of
a human. It is usually
dressed in old clothes and placed in open fields to discourage birds such as crows or sparrows from disturbing
and feeding on recently cast seed and growing crops. Since the province is
generally agricultural having over 100,000 hectares of cropland area planted
with rice and corn, its fields of gold are dotted with bambanti.
Isabela’s mother
festival was conceptualized on March 14, 1997 during the Isabela Provincial
Culture and the Arts Council (ICAC) meeting called on by Governor (1992-2001)
Benjamin G. Dy. Madam Cecile M. Dy, wife of the governor, and Dr. Constante B. Andres,
Executive Director of the ICAC were instrumental in establishing Isabela’s main
festival but the full implementation was during the 156th Isabela
Day celebration in 2012 during the tenure of Governor Faustino “Bojie” G. Dy
III.
As early as October
2016, my office, the Provincial Planning and Development Office, being the head
Secretariat, was already preparing all the paperworks and details in
coordinated efforts with the festival consultant Sir Nilo Agustin. As I was
drafting the program for the six-day event, I stumbled and captured the words
of Ms. Rodessa D. Lachica of the Provincial Administrator’s office, “the Bambanti Festival is a stately symbol
for the Isabela farmer’s diligence and resoluteness to earn his keep, feed his
family, and produce for his community. It is a reminder of his enduring spirit
and his creativity. For Isabela, the Bambanti’s towering presence is a reminder
of the key that propelled the Isabeleños to self sufficiency and nationalistic
economic prominence. It serves, likewise, as a directional sign pointing
towards further greatness – Isabela’s dream future as premier agro-industrial
hub in the Pacific.”
Isabeleños also
consider the bambanti as a symbol of
their resilience that helped them get past disasters brought by bad weather
conditions. Governor Bojie Dy stated that “the bambanti symbolizes
the diligence, preparedness, strength, and the kindness of the Isabeleño race
as well as the wealth and progress of Isabela brought upon by the strength of
its agriculture."
The highlights of the 2017 Bambanti Festival were the Giant Bambanti and
Agro-Ecotourism Booth Contest situated within the Bambanti Village, Street
Dance Competition, Search for Bambanti King & Queen and the Festival Dance
Showdown. The Agro-Ecotourism Booth of my hometown of Cabatuan sold the famous “moriecos”
in an all time high of 5,325 pieces in six days from January 23 to 28 despite almost
a week of continuous rain shower. Nowadays, the name of the tasty moriecos is very much attached to the
name of Cabatuan and when one mentions moriecos,
everybody would refer its origin to Cabatuan. Before the world would forget the
history of this native kankanen, I
personally researched on its humble origin.
Since the early
1990s, a native of Barangay Saranay by the name of Gerlina Mercado
Bautista-Agustin regularly made tupig and bibingkang tapong. Seeing her
diligence, Mrs. Pilar P. Bagaoisan motivated her to cook other glutinous rice
recipes until she was able to experiment on a new kankanen using ground
bungkitan – a high variety of malagket or diket in Ilocano (glutinous rice).
Mrs. Margarita E. Pascual named the new kind of suman made by Mrs. Agustin as “moriecos” around the year 1985
before the former died. According to Mrs. Agustin, the moriecos is a modification of a suman
they tasted which was bought from another province. However, it was Mrs.
Francisca “Francing” A. Recto who mass produced the moriecos and was followed by kababaihan (housewives) in barangays
Saranay, Sampaloc, Paraiso, Macalaoat and Culing West.
On November 5, 2012,
during the 63rd Foundation Day and the mayorship of Dr. Cid A.
Dayrit, Mrs. Agustin was honored with a plaque which reads: “In fitting recognition of her great
discovery on the ingredients and procedures on how to make “MORIECOS” – a
delicious and nutritious native delicacy exclusively made and sold in this
Municipality and eventually became the official One Town-One Product (OTOP) of
Cabatuan, Isabela which made our town known and famous all over the world.”
The moriecos is one of the many products of
the Kankanen Festival of Cabatuan which was established in 2003 during the
administration of Mayor Alma A. Dayrit. Originally, Dr. Constante B. Andres and
I strongly suggested that Cabatuan festival’s name should be “Moriecos
Festival” but after a meeting with the Rural Improvement Club (RIC) federation
officers, “Kankanen Festival” prevailed as the official festival of our town
dubbed as the “Land of the Golden Grains”. Aside from the luscious moriecos, other glutinous rice and corn
based delicacies are: bibingkang kanen, bibingkang
tapong, suman, tupig, palitaw, ginataang munggo, ginataang mais, patupat, linapit,
baduya, padarosdos, pilaez, busi, dila-dila, pinikkel, inkiwar, dudol, binallay
and pinabblad.
The Bambanti Festival
and the moriecos are now at par with
world standards and are now known globally.
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