‘Bolo-making’ a hit in Badiangan’s 5th Pandayan Festival
BADIANGAN, Iloilo -- Ilonggo ingenuity in the elaborate process of bolo-making shined anew in yesterday’s “Pandayan Festival” here. Bolo, the local knife-like tool is one of the homegrown products and specialties distinct to Badianganons.
Now on its fifth year, Mayor Suzette Mamon led the day’s festivities with guests, actress turned city councilor Alma Moreno of Paranaque City and Iloilo Ex-Officio Board Member Cecilia Colada.
Moreno is the current national secretary-general of the Philippine Councilor’s League (PCL) while Colada is the province’s league president.
“Pandayan Festival is celebrated both as a showcase of local talents and thanksgiving for our year-round blessings,” Mayor Mamon said while adding that this year’s commemoration is more meaningful following the previous year’s Typhoon Frank devastation. “It is exactly one year and we are grateful on how we managed to get back on our feet.”
While similarly a cultural and tribal presentation, distinct to the “Pandayan Festival” other than its theme is the use of unconventional instruments.
Yesterday saw a set of empty bottles and those half-filled with water as main instrument alongside pots and pans and drums. Literally, barrel-type drums and not the musical instrument kind.
With five contesting groups comprised of schoolchildren, other instruments used were aluminum-kind of water buckets, bamboo, and scrapped irons and steel bars.
“I am very thankful of the cooperation of our barangay officials. Each participating tribe got some financial help from the municipal government but our various barangays had respective counterparts,” the lady mayor added.
Each contesting group performed to a chosen storyline though directed to the showcase of the town’s products.
To note, other than the bolo-making, Badiangan is also famous for its local ginger brew called “Tahu.”
Badiangan is now a fourth class municipality, some 40 kilometers north of Iloilo City.