PUGO, La Union – Residents and visitors alike will be again given a month-long treat by the municipal government with the scheduled launching of the second edition of the fast-growing Tinungbo festival on Monday, December 11, 2017, simultaneous with activities lined up for the town’s 106th founding anniversary.
Mayor Priscilla Marrero-Martin said the successful conduct of the festival last year served as an inspiration for the local government and its private partners to sustain one of the major crowd-drawing events in the locality, to help in inculcating to the youth the importance of remembering the old ways of cooking food with the use of indigenous materials present in the town such as bamboo.
“We were overwhelmed by the support that we were able to get from residents and visitors alike when we conducted the first-ever Tinungbo festival last year. That is why we want to institutionalize the festival as our crowd-drawing event, which people will be raring to see the highlights simultaneous with the celebration of our town’s founding anniversary,” Martin said.
Aside from being the town’s major must-see event during the Yuletide season, the local chief executive underscored the aggressive promotion of the festival through various media platforms will help promote available ecotourist destinations and empower agriculture industry stakeholders to sustain the production of organically-grown crops now in demand in the local, national, and international markets.
The mayor is optimistic that with the support of the concerned government agencies, the private sector, and the people of Pugo the Tinungbo festival will be one of the well-attended festivals in Northern Luzon, especially for visitors who want to explore the rich culture and traditions of the residents who trace their roots mostly from the Cordillera, other upland towns of La Union, and a mixture of lowland inhabitants equitably distributed in the 14 barangays.
The Tinungbo festival took its name from the local dialect Tinungbo, which is an indigenous way of cooking rice and fresh water and other local delicacies such as light young bamboo internodo, locally called as tubong, grilled over charcoal or low fire.
With its vast plantation of light bamboo, or bolo, along river banks and mountains, the old folks of Pugo during the ancient times used raw materials to cook their food. This had been carried along by the following generations though it is no longer widely practice because of the presence of cooking utensils, gas, and electric stoves.
Martin underscored reviving it and celebrating the life and memories it evoked in the present time, which would render a tradition of family love, camaraderie, and gratefulness for God’s given treasures to the people of Pugo.
In the olden times the main livelihood of the people in the locality was farming. Farmers used to go to the mountains or forests to forage for food or cultivate plants along the vast forest lands of the town. After their work on the mountains, they go down to the rivers to take a bath and while in there, they eventually have a picnic after catching fish. Since they do not carry any kitchen utensils, the old folks used light bamboo to cook their food and it turned to be a delicious and indigenous way of food preparation.
Over the past century the traditional way of cooking food had been shared among families and friends who spend bonding time along rivers of the town such as in the Tapuakan, Asin, Sakib, Mangaw, Libtong, Kimmabalyo, Tuon-bato, and Cares; Nagbukel in Ambangonan; Baliw and Pimmader in Poblacion West; Amburayan in Tabora Proper; Pungdol, Panggal, and Pantar in Tabora East and Tabora Proper; Sangbay in Cuenca; Kagaling River in Palina; Kapilpilaan and Pottot in Saytan.
Though the practice has tapered off especially with modernization, easy transportation, and accessibility to resorts and recreation parks inside the town and nearby places, the local government envisioned the conduct of the festival that would help preserve and pass on to the next generations the age-old tradition, along with the creation of awareness among the younger generation of love and care for the natural environment. Fish and vegetables would not abound, and rivers would not continue to live without the much needed care from local residents.
Martin claimed the Tinungbo festival will also evoke fun and excitement among visitors and balikbayans with the events by the local organizers. Among them are the conduct of the street parade, agro-industrial trade fair, and the Tinungbo cooking demonstration.
She expressed confidence festival will pave the way to more protection of Pugo’s God-given natural resources and environment since the local government will be inspired to lay out programs that stop siltation of Pugo rivers, and revive and nurture the natural production of fish, shellfish, and freshwater plants of the rivers.
According to her, the ecotourism program and development of the local government unit will flourish.
The Tinungbo festival will surely catch the attention and fancy of the balikbayans overseas, visitors, and townspeople who had migrated to come home to feel once more the town’s warmth, congeniality, and dynamism, and it will soar as the province’s one of the best celebrations to be known.
By HENT
