By Bernard L. Supetran (Business Mirror) - February 18, 2018
Coupled with cartoon animation, techno-pop music, and capped by a pyrotechnics display makes the show a cut above the rest, enough to make it a perennial winner in the Aliwan Fiesta competitions.
MANILA, Philippines — Bambanti. It is the Ilocano word for “scarecrow.” In Isabela, where close to 69 percent of the population are Ilocanos, the province’s premier festival is named after the bambanti. The annual festivity not only pays tribute to the figurative guardian of the rice fields but also displays a literal outpouring of joy and thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest.
Located on the northeastern seaboard of Luzon, Isabela is the country’s second largest province in terms of land area, occupying almost 40 percent of the Cagayan Valley region. With its rolling terrain and fertile plain, between the foothills of the Central Cordillera mountain range to the west, the Sierra Madre to the east, and the grand Cagayan River that runs through it, Isabela thrives primarily on agriculture. It is the country’s No. 1 corn and monggo producer, as well as the country’s biggest rice surplus producer.
The Mindanao Grains Corn Processing facility in the municipality of Reina Mercedes is the biggest post-harvest plant in Asia. The Magat Dam in Ramon is the biggest dam in Southeast Asia, supplying the energy needs of Central Luzon and Metro Manila while servicing the irrigation needs of 95,000 hectares of farmland all year round.
With the theme “Isabela kong mahal” (Isabela, my beloved), this year’s Bambanti Festival, which was held from Jan. 22 to 27, featured a weeklong Agri-Ecotourism Exhibit and Sale at the pop-up Bambanti Village within the grounds of the provincial capitol in Ilagan City.
The 34 municipalities and three cities of the province set up their individual booths, each showcasing the different products they are best known for, such as mung beans (monggo) from San Mateo; aromatic red rice called Pinilisa from Jones; rice wine made from brown rice from Luna; moriecos, a sticky rice cake (suman) stuffed with latik (coconut syrup) from Cabatuan; Inatata (an Ibanag name), tiny suman also known as bala-bala, so called since they resemble a magazine of bullets when strung together; and pancit miki from Cabagan, to mention just a few of the many local products
Isabela makes tourism a priority through a very unique festival
By Art Sta. Ana
You’d think it was something right out of a production for a Jay-Z or a Justin Timberlake concert. The stage was massive, and the lights were 10 times as bright and colorful as those of the best clubs in Manila. The sounds were booming, and the beats were infectious. Only, instead of some foreign act gracing the stage that was set up in the middle of the Ilagan Sports Complex in Ilagan City, it was the delegates of the 22 participating Isabela cities and municipalities that were giving their all on and around the platform. For most of the participants, it was the performance of a lifetime, and they left everything on the stage during the Festival Dance Competition. There was no shortage of energy, and it made for some of the most amazing display of dances and cheers one would ever have the privilege of witnessing. It was one of the many activities held during the Bambanti Festival in the province of Isabela, a six-day long festival of festivals, grandiose enough to rival the best ones in the country. It was the ultimate showcase of the diligent, creative, spiritual, and resilient Isabelan spirit, a spirit so determined that not even the constant downpour of rain can stop. Nothing to be Scared of Scarecrows
