BRIDGING THE GAP
The pork-laden life of the Bisayans
2007 is the year of the pig, according to the Chinese animal zodiac. The pig is a much-prized animal not only in the Philippines but all throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia.
The domestication of pigs in the Philippines started long before the Spanish colonization of the country. It began at a time when the inhabitants of the islands started to settle down to farm and to cultivate their staple crops. It is common knowledge that the mountainous and forested sections of the country are home to wild pigs which were plenty in the past. However, as a result of the establishment of permanent settlements, the early Filipinos had to domesticate these wild pigs, probably because they did not want anymore to spend a lot of time going off hunting for them.
Today, other than the wild pigs called by the West Bisayans as “baboy talunon”, the people raise domesticated pigs of various breeds. As it is in the rest of the Philippines, mainland Southeast Asia, China and the smaller islands in the Pacific Ocean, the pig is a much-sought animal. It is the number one festival food and is consumed in family and community feasts and celebrations. The most popular cooked version of the pig is the lechon or litson but has also equally delectable cousins like the adobo, mechado, afritada, hamonado and menudo which are also considered as celebration foods. What is significant about the pig is that it is raised and slaughtered by every socio-economic class of people and has universal cultural importance. Even the poor families will find ways to occasionally have pork in their meals and, when they have the means, will go for the popular lechon.
When the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines, they found the Bisayans already addicted to eating pork. Fr. Ignacio Francisco Alcina, a Jesuit missionary who had stayed in the Visayas and wrote his observations in 1668, said that the inhabitants raised many kinds of swine or pig. Yet, they also hunted “baboy talunon” and a mestizo variety (crossbreeds of the wild specie and the imported one) called the “bayong” which, Alcina pointed out, were preferred by the natives because of their superior taste when compared to the domestic.
The Bisayan domesticated variety was said to be very fertile, bearing litters twice a year, on the average, according to Alcina. The domesticated varieties also differ in sizes but Alcina learned that the female ones that were smaller than their siblings were prized by the natives and were given special care. This was so because they were believed to be more fertile than their regular-sized counterparts.
In pre-colonial times, pigs used to be slaughtered only on special occasions, like weddings, the birth of a child, a victory won in battle, offering to the ancestral spirits, harvest festival or for healing purposes. In the healing and exorcism rituals of the babaylan, the pig was the main item in order for them to be effective. Pigs were, further employed as a bride price and the number also depended on the status of the bride as well as of the groom.
These days, pork is always available in the markets and in the malls if one has the money and is consumed almost everyday in various forms: bacon and chorizo for breakfast, chicharon for snack, adobo and menudo for lunch, and barbecue and liempo for dinner. All of these chum out great amounts of cholesterol that certainly contribute to the upward trend in cardiovascular diseases in the West Visayas region. Yet, for the Bisayan pork lovers, the threat of having a dreaded disease is not enough reason to deter them from consuming pounds after pounds of the popular meat.