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 28^th and 29^th 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 156^th 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 63^rd 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.