BUGUIAS, Benguet – The agricultural town of Buguias celebrated its 5th Albubo Festival aiming to promote and revive their indigenous knowledge and practices with the unveiling of their first standing giant carrot cake.
Every Albubo festival, the communal sharing of the Buguias townsfolk is not limited to the community’s traditional lunch called “ukob,” as the community shares with the yearly giant carrot cake. For this year’s celebration, the cake was upgraded from a lying-down giant carrot cake into a 6 x 5 foot standing carrot cake weighing 120 kilograms. The unveiling and cutting of the cake was led by Buguias Mayor Ruben Tinda-an, together with Benguet Representative Eric Yap, Benguet Governor Melchor Diclas, and other local government officials.
According to Mayor Tinda-an, the festival was originally a vegetable fiesta until he assumed office in 2016. Mayor explained,
“We originally have a vegetable fiesta. But later on during my term, we have to see yung mga cultural values na pwede nating mamaintain. So we have to look for a word na magdedepict lang sa Buguias na value. We looked for different terms pero nakita namin na parang language sa ibang lugar. So we came up with Albubo, that is the term na kinuha namin for a festival that will humbly describe our culture na nagtutulungan”.
He added that the difference between Albubo with other Bayanihan values is that the community helps or contributes something without expecting anything in return. Schools Division Superintendent Sally Banaken-Ullalim supported this during her speech,
“We are not expecting to be compensated. Whatever the outcome of the help you gave, that is what you deserve”.
As the town’s vegetable fiesta turned into the Albubo Festival, Mayor Tinda-an further explained this change. He stated that, “Ngayon kase nag-evolve. Marami na kaming ibang livelihood, pero ang main pa rin ay vegetable. Pero yung nawawala ata sa atin ay cultural values lalo na sa mga kabataan. So we have to do something para i-enhance natin ang preservation”.
The Albubo culture was exemplified through the creation of the giant carrot cake, baked by the Almond Groceries and Restaurant bakers in partnership with the Buguias Business Sector, being the lead sponsor. Head baker Jerald Zamora, together with fourteen people worked together in crafting the cake. Taking them one and a half days to finish this masterpiece.
Buguias remains as the leading producer of highland vegetables, especially carrots, cabbage, and potatoes. During the One Town One Product (OTOP) program, Mayor Tinda-an said that they have all kinds of vegetables, but since they can only choose one, they decided to choose carrots as their “one product.” This choice is evident not only with the giant carrot cake but also with orange remains to be the prevailing color used by the municipality.
As the Albubo festival celebrates the vegetable industry of Buguias while promoting their culture of helping and working together; Mayor Tinda-an also shared two visions for Buguias: to create a bigger cake as an exposition of the Buguias vegetable industry and to make Buguias a 2nd class municipality. By Peachy Clarisse L. Tillay
