The week is a celebration of festivals, from Talisay City to Salvador Benedicto, Candoni, Pulupandan and San Enrique town. Luckily, we have good weather where people can move around and enjoy the dances from the mountains to the sea.

It was high noon when we travelled about 37 kilometers to the south on a well paved and asphalted road network. It was the celebration of the 113th annual town fiesta of San Enrique, on the theme “Pagpasalamat kag pagsinadya para sa kauswagan sang Banwa”. The festival was highlighted by a character dance presentation and competition of six tribes that showcased the movements of a fighting cock and its relation to the lifestyle of the people, like game fowl raising, breeding and cock fighting.

Game fowl breeding in Negros Occidental is known as an ‘underground industry’. Negros is known for game fowl breeding and the best fighting cocks in the country with about 214,390 fighting cocks shipped out to other provinces in the Philippines in 2014. One can buy a hatch, or dark legged chickens and dark colored fowls, some known as gilmore, mckleen or blue face hatch, and the light fowls where one can have a choice of round heads, kelso and claret. There are backyard and commercial breeders with various associations, such as the Negros Sportsmen Stag Association, Negros Game Fowl Breeders Association, and Game Fowl Breeders Association of Negros.

Breeding can either be a hobby for enthusiasts, business or gambling that has become a way of life of some Negrenses. When transporting game fowl, don’t forget to visit the nearest veterinary inspection team at the Bredco Port, airport or other seaports in San Carlos, Escalante, Cadiz and Victorias, and pay a fee of P20 each fighting cock, or 1-9 hens at P50, and be sure to secure a certification from the barangay.

San Enrique has become a crossroad of breeders and handlers, and a weeklong cock-derby is part of the celebration when the best and quality bred game fowls around the province meet. For the young and non-breeders, the Bulang-Bulang dance festival has become an entertainment for the ‘Tinobaganons’, a term used to address the people from San Enrique, and refers to the old name of the town, Tinubugan, that means muddy place where carabaos and pigs wallow. San Enrique is an agricultural town where bull carts were the means of transportation in the early 1900s.

There were six competing tribes, with 35 dancers; the dance had five basic steps, such as the dalagan, tuka, lupad, arigay and bulang. Performers wore costumes looking like fighting cocks with complete headdresses; there was a street dance competition and an arena dance showdown. Some were like hatch and light fowls with slasher knives on their ankles, looking like giant fighting cocks.

The overall winner was Tribu CIGA of barangays Nayon and Bagonawa, followed by Tribu Abot-Alam of barangays Guintorilan and Baliwagan, and the San Enrique National High School, Sibucao Campus on third place, and received cash prizes and a trophy. The music was a mix of novelty songs, unique and pleasant to hear.

Today, San Enrique is very accessible on a road trip. It has the best tasting buko pie, fresh lumpia and native delicacies in southern Negros. About 35 water bird species of migratory birds visit the place every first quarter of the year, with 10,939 counted in 2013, that attracted a lot of bird watchers, who stayed in resorts, like Las Olas or Soleo Beach.

Kudos to Mayor Mario Magno and Vice Mayor Abner Jardinico, who were hands-on during the festival, with the Festival Secretariat, headed by tourism officer Bryan Juson.

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Visit Pulupandan and Bago City this weekend for the town fiesta and Babaylan Festival!

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Happy Birthday to dear sister, Marie Paz Lourdes Demerre, Rena Maurine Ga, and Betsy Gazo*

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