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5000 grace 4th Binatbatan festival

VIGAN CITY (May 1) — The 4th “Binatbatan Festival” beats its own record of grandiosity.

At least 5, 000 visitors, tourists and residents lined along city streets from the city hall to the famous World Heritage Village along Crisologo St. and became part of the street dancing and revelries on Saturday afternoon.

The street dancing depicted the long standing way the Ilocanos beat the cotton pods with two bamboo sticks to separate the seeds from the fluff called “batbat”. “Batbat” is the first process in making the Iluko “Abel” (woven cloth).

“Binatbatan” now became an Ilocano folk dance, City Mayor Ferdinand Medina said.

Binatbatan has its roots from Paoay, a historic town in Ilocos Norte that is also famous for its woven clothing from its traiditional loom weavers.

This year’s Binatbatan Festival featured two categories: the open category that was snared by fisherfolk community of Mindoro here and the school category which was won by the University of Northern Philippines.

“Winners for the first prize in each category received a cash prize of P50,000 each, while the first and second runners up received P20,000 and 10,000 pesos, respectively,” Medina said.

The Binatbatan coincided with the 12th Viva Vigan Festival.

The Binatbatan Festival was launched in 2002 as a yearly tradition to promote, preserve and encourage the hand loom weavers of Ilocos Sur, particularly of Metro Vigan.

In 2003, Gov. Deogracias Victor Savellano initiated the holding of the festival. Then Vigan Mayor Eva Marie Singson-Medina worked for the incorporation of the binatbatan street dancing contest, the abel santacruzan and the abel home decor contest into the annual Viva Vigan Festival.

“Viva Vigan”

Now on its 12th year, Viva Vigan festival started in May 1993, by the Save Vigan Ancestral Homes Association, Inc (SVAHAI), a local non-government organization deeply committed at conserving Vigan’s heritage. It also seeks to increase awareness on Vigan as a unique historic site that needs to be preserved and protected.

Medina said, “encouraging public response has made the festival a yearly event. It has also proven to be a stimulus for the local tourism industry. Over the last 10 years, the Viva Vigan has become one of the biggest cultural events in the north, attracting both domestic and foreign visitors.”

Described by foreign architects and conservation experts as “a place like no other,” Vigan, which was established in the 16th century, is the only surviving colonial town in the entire Philippines, and is the best preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town in Asia.

Its architecture reflects the coming together of cultural elements from elsewhere in the Philippines and from China with those of Europe to create a unique culture and townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia. Because of this, Vigan was inscribed in the Unesco Worlds Heritage Lists of Sites and Monuments on December 2, 1999.

Iluko abel

The provincial government began the abel santacruzan featuring abel gowns and barong for the models (and even abel trousers for the horses) by famous Manila fashion designers, and the search for the best abel decorated facade which involved ancestral homes, business establishments and offices in the competition.

The festival aims to push the resurgence of the abel as a means of livelihood and as a traditional art, especially with the inscription of Vigan as a world heritage site.

Cotton is the main raw material in making the Iluko abel. According to Belen Banas, coordinator of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas of Spain cotton was first made a description of a total of 38 towns and took special note of the fabrics and cotton-growing.

“Because Cuellar knew the Ilocos and the local techniques for processing cotton, he asked the Manila government for a ‘general distribution of land’ so that the local people could plant the land to cotton. The government did not agree. Instead it obliged the locals to plant on 15 by 20 brazas (25.05 x 33.4 meters) plots. Work tools were given them by Cuellar,” Banas wrote.

All the social classes then were obliged in different ways to undertake the cultivation and propagation of cotton. At the same time, to help the young industry people, especially those making terlingas and elefantes.

The King of Spain sent a Royal Decree in 1799 to Manila to promote the attractive cotton branch.

Since then, the abel industry that also won Vigan fame in international tourism feats as a place to be when going North of Manila endured the test of time and that is what the city government wants to exploit and to develop more.

“We are proud to have this industry,” Medina said. She also said Vigan has more plans in the future like the decentralization of “places to see” for tourists. He said they will start developing “Damili Village” and “Kakanin Village”, both local industries Vigan is famous of.

“Damili” meaning “to mould” is an old industry of Vigan where clay pots and jars are made. Nine barangays in Vigan are involved in the industry.

“Kakanin” means rice cakes. Aside from native rice cakes, Vigan is also proud of its local food industry famous for its “bagnet” and longaniza. Hundreds of families have been into this culinary expertise for so long.

“We want to decentralize the focus of tourism from the Heritage Village to include the barangays outside it. In that way, barangays outside the poblacion will develop into a booming economy,” Medina added.

“It is only a matter of good interplay of the local tourism council and governance that is making this works at play for the good of Bigueños,” Medina ended. # Artemio A. Dumlao for NORDIS

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