Regene Odon Takes His Singing from Bayambang to Broadway

(photo from his Facebook page)

A boy who grew up in Brgy. M.H. Del Pilar, this town, has been steadily making a mark as a singer and stage actor of repute in Broadway. He is Regene Odon, now a resident of New Jersey, USA. And his latest feat is being cast as the lead of a well-known religious musical, "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," which was staged last March in a New Jersey theater.

Regene Joshua 'Seven' Sendaydiego Odon comes from a musically and artistically inclined family on both sides. Now 22 years old, Regene is the son of Ringo Odon and Ma. Fe Sendaydiego. His grandfather Rene Odon was a well-known singer in town. His family was able to come to America because of his grandmother Remedios Mijares, who had immediate family members there.

According to his aunt Snooky O. Cuison, Regene was nicknamed Seven because he is Rene's seventh apo (grandchild). Apparently, singing well runs in the family, as he shares the same passion for singing with a number of siblings, cousins, and other relatives.

On his mother's side, he is the grandson of Generoso 'Gene' Sendaydiego Jr., who was a cartoonist/graphic artist for the popular tabloid, Balita, where he created the comic strip "Dorot," among other works in various publications. His lola, Rosita Duque Sendaydiego was a Spanish and English professor at the then Pangasinan State University-College of Education (now PSU-Bayambang Campus).

Already a veteran 'kontesero' (contest regular) as a young boy here, Regene had been a perennial singing contest winner in the US as well from the time he settled there with his parents when he was 8 years old. He discovered theater while studying in Monmouth Regional High School, and from there developed not just singing but also acting skills.

He continuously reaches new heights as he delivers one impressive performance after another. Pleasing audiences of mixed ethnicities with his breathtaking, steady vocals, he has appeared in many other musicals and plays staged by school and professional productions, such as "Pippin," "Kinky Boots," "Heathers: The Musical," "Alladin: The Musical," "In the Heights," "Seussical: The Musical," "Spring Awakening," "Footloose: The Musical," and "Shrek: The Musical."

Check out his past performances on his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/seven0don/videos. Or type "Regene Odon" or "Seven Odon" on YouTube to see his earliest performances.

Alvin Bantog, Wire Artist

As a seafarer, he has seen the world, but whenever he lays his eyes on some wire, he sees another world.

Meet Alvin Bantog, a local wire artist. A resident of Brgy. Malimpec, this town, Alvin started making wire art in 2002. One time, he saw a raw spider wire art made of copper wires from his sister-in-law's brother. Fascinated by it, he began his own version when he embarked on his next ship assignment. Since there were a lot of scrap wires on the ship, he turned them into something else as part of a newfound hobby -- you could say it was his way of escaping the pressures of his job and the boredom he endured onboard. Recycling is the idea that inspired him at first, knowing there are a lot things that we could do to our trash than making them into another contributor to environmental pollution. As he himself puts it, "It's like taking out the 'sh' out of 'trash' then reversing the word so it becomes 'art'."

But it's not like he became an artist overnight. Alvin has long been into graphic design, designing mugs, keychains, ref  magnets, and other souvenir items for he co-manages his schoolteacher wife Marisol Inacay's little business. Their products remain on sale at the Capitol Resort Hotel in Lingayen.

Through trial and error, he said, he was able to create scorpions and spiders from the wires, and the initial result was not bad at all. He admits he still needs more time to fine-tune his dragonfly pieces, and other designs. But his family and friends were pleased with his work which he usually gives as gift. What he gets are priceless smiles and suggestions as reward, which help him improve his work.

Some of his friends want to buy his works and even suggest that he sells them too.

That was an indication that his wire creations had a strong market potential, for if you can't please those close to home, then how can you attract attention from the rest of the world?

He recalls a video of Kenneth Cobonpue, his design idol, being interviewed during the World Industrial Design Day 2016 celebration at the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts. When asked, "What are the challenges you encountered and how did you overcome them?" Cobonpue is said to answer, "I think one of the greatest challenges that I had when I was starting out my career was to overcome this feeling of lack of confidence in what I was doing and not being sure about my designs. And I think I came to a point when I said that if I like it, then someone else out there in the world will."

That was Alvin's second inspiration -- where his confidence came from. Not all people will like his work like spiders and scorpions and other such creatures that would strike some as nasty critters or 'creepy crawlers,' but someone else in this world will.

Alvin has since gone on working on other types of wires. A few twists and turns here, and some splices and joints there, and he was able to come up with bicycles. He reserves a day that he calls his "Wednesday Wire Art Day," so whether on vacation in the Philippines or wherever he is in some part of the globe at the moment, you can be sure that he is holding a wire and a pair of pliers in his hands. But that doesn't limit him if he gets inspired on a regular day. He just makes it a point that on Wednesdays, he must hold a wire, even if he doesn't feel like it, to keep him creating new designs.

He now focuses on his wire creations as having a double purpose, like turning the wire spiders into ref magnets, gadget holders, key chains, or wall decors, which are not only good for display but as functional art as well.

He dreams of having his own art exhibit someday and his works being displayed in mall galleries, as well as to inspiring artists of all ages to pursue their passion in art. He also hopes that the message of his art may touch hearts, that whatever people are going through, they would stop for a while, smile and appreciate the art. "After all, we are 'wired to touch each other's heart, and to create art," he muses.

These days, while working shifts on the ship with his colleagues, he continues to tinker with other ideas to occupy himself while being miles away from home. Who knows what is in store in his mind of possibilities, which stretches as vast as the world's seas?

Contact details:

https://www.facebook.com/alvin.bantog.1
https://www.instagram.com/simanlalakbay/

Pagey, Ilik, Belas, Niluto: Our Many Words for Rice

Pagey, ilik, belas, niluto, etc.: Our many words for rice

With Pangasinan being part of the vast Central Luzon plain often dubbed as the country's "rice granary," locals have evolved an entire vocabulary revolving around rice, its byproducts, and things associated with it, and the terms mostly have no English equivalents.

Pagey or paguey (palay in Tagalog) is the term used to refer to the whole rice plant. Rice seedlings that are ready for re-planting are called pasedser. 

 

When it comes to the rice grain itself, it gets complicated. Unhusked rice grains are called ilik (palay in Tagalog) once they are harvested, while the milled grains are called belas (bigas). A bundle of rice grain stalks is called pingey.

In homes, belas is stored in the rice dispenser or belasan, where the small measuring cup called tagayan is found. According to local belief, the tagayan must not be left just anywhere -- it must be returned right away to its place, while the belasan must never be left empty, or else the tagayan and belasan will always be empty. This certain reverence is reserved for belas elsewhere. Every New Year, it is believed that the belasan should be filled with rice, and the same is true for when one steps into one's new house for the first time. Belas is also thrown at a newly married couple as they approach the church door on their way out after the wedding ceremony, and inside the new house as part of the good luck pot (which also contains coins) used for house blessings.

The ilik are stored in a huge box called garong which is made of woven bamboo slats. A garong may be found inside a roofed hut-like structure called kamalir (kamalig or storehouse).

Traditionally, the ilik is pounded using the wooden alo or pestle and lasong or mortar (bayuhan) or taltagan (giant mortar), and then the chaff or taep (ipa) are removed from the grains using the bigao (bilao) or bamboo winnowing tray. Before cooking, the cleaned rice grains are often cleaned further for the few remaining unhusked grains and other impurities called keta.

When the rice mill arrived using modern machines, it was called kiskisan or pakiskisan.

Once the milled rice is cooked in water, it is now called niluto (kanin or sinaing, newly cooked rice) or baao, baaw. (Others say baao is used only for when the niluto gets cold.) The act of measuring the amount of water used to cook rice in the pot using one's fingers or hand is called dangka. The toasted bottom part of the baaw is called galor or garol (tutong). Leftover rice is called betel a baaw or ambetel a baaw, literally meaning cold rice (bahaw or kanin lamig), and is the one used to cook insanglil (sinangag) or fried rice. Cooking fried rice using newly cooked rice gives a different result that is not favored by Filipinos because the fried rice will not be as fluffy (buhaghag) in texture.

At the dining table, when the diner eats sloppily and pieces of baaw fall off the plate and onto the table or the floor, the wayward rice pieces are referred to as mikmik, as are other food bits that go with these. Treating rice like this is often reproved, as the natives know how much is involved in producing each tiny bit.

The thick boiling broth of the rice being cooked is spooned out and fed to babies as vitamin B supplement to prevent beri-beri, and the broth is called sitsit (am), and it is often sweetened with sugar.

Certain blunders in cooking rice also have assigned terms. When the baaw is under-cooked as a result of inadequate fire using firewood or inadequate water, it is described as abelbel or naetan baaw. For the under-cooked rice to be thoroughly cooked, one has to liwliw (in-in) it, or give it more time under the fire until one smells the distinct cooked rice aroma. When it is overcooked because of too much water, the baaw becomes inmaltey (liver-like) or like kutsinta in consistency, what Tagalogs call malata, or if really soupy, like binolbol (lugaw or rice gruel). The cook for the day remedied these blunders by placing some salt on top of the cover of the cooking pot (usually a cast iron kaldero), and waiting until the rice is done, or the undercooked or overcooked rice is mixed using a ladle and cooked again on low fire.

Baaw that got accidentally toasted at the bottom is described to be ginmalor.

Before serving rice on the table, the person tasked to scoop out the steaming hot rice from the kaldero or pot for the first time writes a cross on top of the rice using a special flat bamboo ladle called aklo (as opposed to the balaok). This is a form of benediction or prayer of thanksgiving.

Rice that is maalsa, or absorbs more water and rises more considerably when cooked, is described as malebag.

But there is a close-sounding term used for ground (giniling) non-glutinous rice that is used to cook a local version of puto called puton belas (non-glutinous rice puto) or puto lasong (puto cooked in a clay pan called lasong): malbag. Glutinous rice is called ansakket, while a variety of reddish-purplish glutinous rice is called batolinao.

A consistency of cooked rice that is highly valued is being makulaney or limber, making baao easy to chew on. Makulnet is used to describe the pleasantly sticky quality of ansakket/glutinous rice.

Broken rice grains traditionally removed using a particular bigao with holes called yakayakan are called umek (or emek, pegpeg) and then fed to the chickens or cooked as part of feeds for the swine.

Milled rice kept in storage for so long is described as umbak. It is characterized by undesirable qualities: malebag, no longer fragrant like the newly milled one, and often infested by weevils.

The rice hull is often used as cooking fuel or spread on ice blocks to delay melting, while the rice bran byproduct of milling is called babang (darak), which is also fed to the pigs. The rest of the discarded remains of the rice plant after harvest is called dayami (the equivalent of hay in English) and is often stored in a lusbua'y pagey or mandala (haystack).

In the public market, not all the rice sold are equal, as there are mind-boggling varieties with specific names and codes, such as Wagwag, Dinorado, Sinandomeng, and Milagrosa, and the varying prices bear this out. The Maharlika or Corazon variety is specifically sought out for making the deservedly popular Calasiao version of puto. The indigenous varieties being grown in Bayambang reportedly include the Mugen, Milbuen, and Sinamon.

Apart from rice being a staple, Pangasinenses, just like Ilocanos and Tagalogs, have come to associate it as well with dessert, because anything sweet and starchy is called kanen (kankanen, kakanin) even if it is technically not a rice cake. The general term for sweets is palamis, while an even more general term is used for snacks: mirindal.

There's the charcoal-blackened or toasted young glutinous rice called deremen, which is used to prepare the black kanen called inlubi on All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day. There's also rice that is formed into pinipig (toasted and then pounded immature rice), and fermented sweetened non-glutinous rice (or red rice) called binuburan, which literally means "fermented using bubor," or fermenting agent. Toasted glutinous rice crispies fashioned into bricks are called gipang, while puffed rice rolled in molten red sugar is called ampaw or pop rice. Other kanen that look like plain rice are inangit, inkiwal, inkaldit (or patupat), latik, and suman. (Inkaldit resembles the Cebuano puso or rice steamed in woven coconut leaf purse.)

Tapong (galapong in Tagalog) is used to refer to giniling a ansakket or ground glutinous rice that is turned into rice dough. A kanen that is made of tapong is often cooked bibingka style, or cooked with burning charcoals on top and at the bottom, thus the delicacy called bibingkan tapong.

The list of kanen made mostly of ground glutinous rice is long: bicho-bicho (carioca in Tagalog), unday-unday (palitaw), kulambo, tikoy, tambo-tambong, etc.

Rice is also used as a filler in fish buro together with labong or bamboo shoots. Arroz caldo (literally, 'chicken rice' from the Spanish) is a favorite congee-type of snack especially during the rainy season. Long-time residents attest to locals cooking arroz valenciana as well.

Rice is also toasted until burnt and made into rice coffee.

A relatively novel product in Brgy. Sancagulis is the rice cracker, our answer to the Japanese senbei. The dictionary of Howard P. McKaughan of the Pacific and Asian Linguistics Institute (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1971) has additional terms and definitions that have become mostly obscure, if not obsolete, with disuse.

Belyér or bellér means soft (as e.g. the quality of cooked rice). Bonál is to transplant rice seedlings, or plow or cultivate the field for transplanting rice seedlings. Dawá is rice grain (in relation to the remainder of rice plant). Ebés is to be behind time or too late, or when referring to rice, maturing too late, therefore with little harvestable grain. Pásol means field or uneven ground. Kapásolán (pásol) is rice fields. Liglíg means to grind a small quantity of rice, e.g., just sufficient for the day’s supply. Lúba means to grind rice for a second time (it also means allowance in size or hem of clothes made for a growing child). Nasnás are grains of rice which have become separated from the husk. Ombés is a late maturing variety of rice; it also means to be late. País refers to fish wrapped in banana leaf and cooked in a kind of rice cake. Páti, when used to refer to rice being cooked, means to boil over (manpáti). Páwpaw is the uppermost portion of cooked rice. Poñgó is another term for a bundle of rice stalks. Súlsul is the first stage of husking rice.

A bird that frequently pecked at the rice grains was called anoyao.

The changes in the lexicon through time are reflective of the changes in the local society's adoption of technology, culture, and lifestyle in general.

Judging by how much rice is deeply embedded in our DNA, the idiomatic expression 'bread and butter' does not strike a chord with locals as much as rice does. In these parts, rice remains essentially our 'bread of life.'

It is no surprising, then, when expressions related to rice have become part of local idiomatic expressions. If Tagalogs have "Marami ka pang kakaining bigas" (You still have a lot of rice to eat) and "Ako ang nagsaing, iba ang kumain" (I was the one who cooked rice, but other people ate it), Pangasinenses have equivalent expressions.

"Baaw" per se is used in different ways. "Ginawam ya baaw" or "binaaw" ("you turned it into rice") means "pinapak ang ulam or pulutan," treating a dish as though it was rice. (The dish was eaten on its own, like any staple carbs.)

"Agmo babaawen" (huwag mong itratong parang kanin; don't treat it like rice) is an expression that means "huwag seryosohin" or "do not take it seriously."

"Makapatabang na baaw" ("makes cooked rice taste bland") means "makapadimla" or loathsome, disgusting.

"Aliwan kanayon ed baaw" means "not a relative based on rice," indicating that the relative being referred to is "angapo'y arom" or "walang iba sa amin" or "malapit na kamag-anak," a close family relation.

"Umbarong ed baaw" ("magtampo sa kanin" or "sulking over rice") is a street lingo that means someone is no longer afraid to die or no longer has the desire to live. Example of usage is "Bugbugin kita eh hanggang sa magtampo ka na sa kanin (o hindi ka na makakain ng kanin)." "Labay mo amo'n umbarong ed baaw?" means "Gusto mo na atang mamatay, p're?" (You want to die now, as in you no longer wish to eat rice?). 

"Apigar so kaldero" literally means "the rice kettle tumbled over," but it actually means "anggapo’y baaw ta naupot" (naubos ang kanin; the steamed rice was all eaten up), an indication that the meal was so delicious. A similar expression is "aputer so aklo" ("naputol ang sandok" or "the flat wooden ladle for rice got broken"), which means "naupot so inluton niluto" (naubos ang sinaing na kanin) or "the cooked rice all got eaten up," indicating the same (the diners have just relished a most delicious repast, that is why).

Informants:

Dr. Leticia B. Ursua: niluto, malbag, kutsinta, deremen, buro, arroz caldo, arroz valenciana Dr. Nicolas O. Miguel, Fr. Carmelo Carreon: lusbua'y pagey, mandala Jeric Manuel, Bayambang Culture Mapping Project, citing Tanolong Brgy. Captain Gloria Solomon and farmer Vicento Suria: Mugen, Milbuen, and Sinamon. Lily Luz U. Abella: inmaltey Clarita F. Tagab: abelbel and remedies

Joseph Anthony Quinto, Melchor Orpilla: distinction between niluto and baaw

References:

http://bucaio.blogspot.com/2013/05/binuburan.html https://www.facebook.com/.../binuburan.../10154004699313602/ - "The bubur is made by mixing ground rice and pounded ginger with a small amount of a pre-made culture - the previous bubur - then fermented, molded, then dried under the sun." https://www.hawaiiopen.org/.../files/9780824879082.pdf

The town fiesta in the '70s

Fiesta time in Bayambang town in the 1970s and before that was quite a far cry from today's festivities.

Almost everyone at the time was a devout Catholic -- when the 6 PM siren sounded, every soul on the street stopped for a minute to pray the Angelus. So, of course, on fiesta day proper, there was the usual grand procession around Poblacion after the high mass at the parish church. Townsfolk lit candles at their housefront the moment the carroza of San Vicente Ferrer passed by their place as a gesture of paying homage.

In the homes, busily prepared were the traditional feast of assorted meat dishes that utilized the poor fattened pig (or cow) "from nose to tail," to go by today's parlance. There was quite a wide array of choices: igado, menudo, baguisen, mechado, caldereta, crispy pata, patatim, hamonado, pinapaitan, morcon, embotido, spare ribs, and a fatty pork dish that is pininyahan (cooked in pineapple juice). Obviously, this required many hands to prepare, usually immediate kith and kin recruited from the barrios whom the family referred to as "angapo'y arom" (literally "no one else" but used in a positive sense: "not different from us") or "kanayon a peteg" (a member of the clan who is a very close relative whether the family member has just met him or her for the first time or already some sort of a best friend). Certain dishes had to be prepared the night before -- there were no shortcuts, as there were no food processors yet.

Friends and relatives from afar, even as far as Manila, visited and dined together, renewing ties by exchanging happy updates about their lives.

***

About a couple of weeks prior to the fiesta week, the "caravan" or roving vendors of various goods arrived in town and set up makeshift shops. They made brisk sales, as locals lapped up their diverse offerings, from dining sets to shirts to plastic toys.

***

As the feast day neared, the plaza was invaded more and more by the peryaan (perya) and sirko (circus) with the arrival of a roving troupe from afar. There were fun games of all sorts, like in today's mall arcades. You hit balloons with a dart, and you win a stuffed toy. You threw hoops into a target and there was an equivalent prize, like some nice glassware for the kitchen. The air was, of course, pervaded by happiness and amusement, one that is punctuated by shrieks of surprise.

Children and their tenders eagerly awaited their turn as they lined up for the Ferris wheel, caterpillar, octopus, and other fun rides, and later in the '80s, the horror train and the haunted house.

For the circus, a giant parachute was set up as a tent. People, of course, paid considerable fees to get inside, but the shows were affordable to the huge majority. The locals got their money's worth through nightly shows featuring magicians of all sorts, jugglers, a flying trapeze troupe, animal shows featuring dogs that solved math problems and other amusing tricks. Some daredevil threw daggers within a literal inch of a poor lady's life who stood throughout the ordeal with her body positioned like a cross, and the audience, of course, watched with bated breath. Then there were the magic tricks that invited more horror, as in the case of a lady's body being seemingly cut up and rearranged in boxes piled on top of one another, and the piece de resistance: the elaborate horror show of cutting up another lady in two pieces using a giant saw...only for the ladies in all instances to emerge totally unscathed, and smiling too -- to the wild applause of the dumbstruck audience.

During those politically incorrect days, persons with various disabilities, now called PWDs, were made into a spectacle too, with the PWDs performing various stunts to entertain the crowd. They were marketed in a sensational way, as in, for example, "Ang Lalaking Ahas" for a man born without hands but who could shoot balls in a hoop, etc.

There were two shows that were most unforgettable to locals. One was "Ang Babaeng Kumakain ng Manok na Buhay" and a motorcycle stunt that featured whizzing daredevils negotiating a circular wall that slowly turned vertical on the way up.

***

The crowning of Miss Bayambang, which reportedly started in the 1920s, was a far cry from the star-studded beauty-and-brains pageant type of shows of today. It was done in "kwartaan" style, which means that each candidate had to solicit an amount of money from friends and relatives, and the girl who had solicited the greatest sum would emerge as the winner.

But it was not that simple. On the big night, which was scheduled after the feast day proper, there was the so-called "Social," where prominent townsfolk who came home from far and wide just for the festivities would jump a surprise by donating something unexpected, whether live chickens or cold cash, for their favored girl. And of course, the most favored one would be crowned Miss Bayambang.

At the center of the plaza was a giant crown-like structure that served as the holding area for the beauties and their respective families, and the crowning was held at the fronting stage with much pomp and pageantry. The costume, the crown, and the hair styling never failed to elicit oohs and aahs from the audience. The giant crown structure has since been transferred to the entrance of the plaza.

Proceeds went to development projects for the town.

After the fiesta, the town plaza stank from all that refuse and rubbish left by the perya people and the sirkeros and had to be thoroughly cleaned.

Sitio Caboloan: The many uses of bamboo among locals

The kawayan or bamboo tree -- or to be more botanically accurate, bamboo grass -- figures prominently not just in the local culture but in all of Pangasinan culture. After all, the province of Pangasinan used to be called Caboloan, meaning a place where there is a profusion of bolo, a species of bamboo. It must have been when salt, asin, 'took over' the province's identity over bamboo that Caboloan was replaced with Pangasinan.

The kawayan bolo or Gigantochloa levis (Blanco) Merr. is "a very thin bamboo that grows in the midlands and can be planted by seed or offset, and is primarily used for sawali (traditional woven wall)."

A common local riddle reveals another native species: "Kawayan kiling, aga natakiling," which translates to "Kiling bamboo/can't be viewed from below," which is a riddle that has "the sun" for an answer. This riddle indicates that this variety of bamboo, scientifically named Bambusa vulgaris Schurd ex. Wendel (or is it Dendrocalamus asper Schultes f.?), is particularly towering.

Another species is called kawayan bayog, Dendrocalamus merrillianus Elm. or  Bambusa blumeana var. luzonensis. It is a variant characterized by "a diameter as small as that of kawayan tinik (Bambusa blumeana Schult), but with thicker walls and is used for the superstructure of buildings and homes." It "often has curved culms and may be used for furniture for a desired effect, and is slightly thorny and grows in the lowlands."

According to research, "there are 12 bamboo genera consisting of 49 species in the Philippines." Today, 16 species reportedly thrive in the country, which now include introduced species: These are "Indian bamboo, kawayan tinik, Oldham bamboo, bayog, laak, kawayan kiling, giant bamboo, machiku, Calcutta bamboo, kayali, bolo, iron bamboo, muli bamboo, anos, buho [Schizostachyum lumampao (Blanco) Merr.], and Thailand bamboo." "But only eight are extensively used, and these are the most likely indigenous kawayan tinik, kawayan kiling, bayog, botong, giant bamboo, bolo, anos and buho."

Traditionally, the bamboo has myriad uses: as posts, beams, and flooring for the alulong (hut), kubo (pig pen), papag (table), katre (bed), alar (fence), sawali (woven wall), galosa (carabao sled), kariton (cart), taytay (footbridge), pole (especially for the palo sebo game), scaffolding, baston (cane), tapa (broom for removing cobwebs), bislak (flat whipping stick), lewet (whipping rod made of bulawit or the small thorny branches), kalawit and alawa (types of fruit picker), panagtapa (cobweb broom), sipit (clothespin), barbecue sticks, sunscreen... A little, low, recliner-type of  chair made of bent bamboo sticks used to be commonplace in the barrios, and so were baby's crib-hammocks (baba or anduyan) made of loosely woven bamboo strips. According to old-time resident-educator Dr. Leticia Ursua, this type of baba was called tayok-tayok, because you moved the hammock up and down instead of from side to side so the baby wouldn't get bloated, or so old folks' belief goes. One needed a long, thick kawayan bayog type of bamboo slat for this type of hammock, so it could be bent and the anduyan could be hung on it like a basket.

 Bamboo is also the preferred material in making buksot (handle-less basket), talakeb (fishing implement), bigao (winnowing tray), yakayakan (winnowing tray with holes to separate the umek or small broken rice grains from the whole rice grains), ubong na manok or baki (chicken nest), karaykay (rake), tiklis or kaing (big basket), and other old-fashioned household furniture and furnishings such as ashtray, salt holder, chicken feeder, planter, etc.

Bamboo shoots are part of traditional dishes such as adobon labong, sinagsagan ya labong (bamboo shoots stewed in bagoong with saluyot and topped with fried or grilled bangus or another fish), labong cooked in gata with chicken or pork bits, etc.

Two notable uses of bamboo in the cultural life of Pangasinenses are the kung-kong and bong-bong. The kung-kong is a communication tool that a community leader strikes in times of emergency or when communal help is needed, as in tagnawa or bayanihan, the lifting of houses from one place to another place with the voluntary help of the able-bodied men of the community. The bong-bong is a traditional bamboo New Year's Eve cannon that uses water and kalburo (calcium carbide) as explosive.

Through time, bamboo has found many other uses. It is now being used in making artful liken (table coaster), toothpick, chopsticks, chopping board, a decorative mini-hut with roof net, and an entire sala set, for instance. It is also being used in building floating fish cages in lakes and ponds. In Pangasinan State University-Bayambang Campus, a former professor there, Rufino Menor, experimented with bamboo poles by his lonesome in the '80s to copy the Indonesian anklung and, out of it, founded his Pangkat Kawayan.

In April 2019, engineered bamboo wood was used to build the Guinness Record for the world's tallest supported bamboo sculpture. 

The apotheosis of bamboo use may probably be found in the rise of the factory of the eco-firm that Dr. Cezar T. Quiambao initiated, the CS1st Green Agro-Industrial Development Inc. or CS1st Green AID Inc. in Brgy. Amanperez. It produces bamboo floorboards, bamboo briquettes, bamboo souvenir items, including miniatures, and other handicrafts, bamboo paper, bamboo textile, and even bamboo beer. Who would have thought the lowly bamboo could be all that and more?

Webliography:

https://buglas-bamboo.weebly.com/blog/bamboo-in-the-philippines
http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=PH9610936
https://www.philstar.com/business/agriculture/2005/07/31/289153/16-bamboo-species-named-rampd-work
http://www.science.ph/full_story.php?type=News&key=5770:pcaarrd-advocates-planting-of-more-bamboos-
Pizarro, Corazon M. "Say Kawayan" [poem] (n.d.)

Pantawtawag and Panagkamarerwa

They came knocking at the door, telling the homeowners in a song that they are spirits from the hereafter, pleading for help, for some kind of relief. The song sung by the cantores is called “Taotaoag.” It is a dramatization of the poor souls in purgatory’s need for intercessory prayer.

Members of the Municipal Council for Culture and the Arts, together with Rotary Club of Bayambang and the Office of Senior Citizen Affairs, knocked on the doors of six prominent Bayambangueños in the late afternoon of October 31 to sing the “Taotaoag,” which is a traditional chant in the Pangasinense language. Sung in freestyle and monotone, it opens with an appeal to Christians and ends in a lively counterpoint:

“Ay denglen yo pa Cristiano/So pantaotaoag mid sicayo”

…

“Say irap mi pay talineng yo/A lilicnaen mid purgatoryo.”

The houses of Dr. Henry and Julie Fernandez, ex-Vice-Mayor Jose ‘Boy’ Ramos and wife Judith, Vice-Mayor Raul Sabangan, Municipal Engineer Eddie Melicorio, Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao and Ms. Niña Jose, and Mr. Danilo Gozum were visited one after another by the MCCA led by its Executive Director, retired Professor Januario Cuchapin, and wife Prof. Erlinda, Dr. Clarita Jimenez, Dr. Annie Manalang, Prof. Salome Malicdem Montemayor, and Mr. Rafael Saygo; Municipal Administrator Atty. Rodelynn Rajini Sagarino; Municipal Librarian Leonardo Allado; Rotarians including President Leticia Ursua, Secretary Gloria Valenzuela, Lita Bautista, and Asteria Perez-Wilhelm; and OSCA Chair Iluminada Mabanglo; among others. Telbang Kagawad Oscar Ora served as the guitarist.

Part of the tradition in the singing of “Taotaoag” is the old-time practice of panagkamarerwa, which is said to be an indigenous version of Halloween trick o’ treat. The house being visited either had to offer treats in the form of native delicacies or be subjected to panagkamarerwa (the trick part), which is somewhat a legalized form of stealing anything around the house that could be spirited away in the gathering darkness.

Some of those who were visited were prepared, while some were caught by surprise. Mrs. Julie Fernandez invited the ‘intruders’ to a spread of puto Calasiao, latik deremen, pancit sotanghon, and fresh lumpiang ubod. By the time the “Taotaoag” cantores reached the second house (the Ramoses’ mansion nearby), which prepared an equally lavish set of afternoon snacks, the cantores were too full for more. Thankfully, the next households offered treats in other forms (drinks, juice, cupcakes, cash). Apparently, no one of the homeowners wanted to get tricked.

To all the participants, the experience was an unforgettable revival of an almost forgotten cultural tradition. It is hoped that, as Prof. Cuchapin put it, the event would become a yearly tradition once more from hereon in. (Bayambang PIO/Media Affairs)

***

Lyrics: Taotaoag

1.      Ay denglen yo pa Cristiano

So pantaotaoag mid sicayo

               Say irap mi pay talineng yo

               A lilicnaen mid purgatory.

2.      Ay ama, ina, denglen yo pa

So pantaotaoag da ray anac yo

               Say irap mi pay talineng yo

               A lilicnaen mid purgatoryo.

3.      Alai ermin min ag nabalsacan

Alai apoy sancasulitan

Alai dosai Dios Cataoan

A liicnaen mi dia natan

Ta agkami acasipot ditad mundo

Yan manbayar na otang mid sicato.

               Say irap mi pay talineng yo

               A lilicnaen mid purgatoryo.

4.      Alai caaoetan yon manbilay

Alai poso yon binmalatyang

Alai lingo yo! Alai calamangan

Sicamid purgatoryon manaayam

Sicami pay linguisen yo

No angan mogmo lan itolong yo.

               Say irap mi pay talineng yo

               A lilicnaen mid purgatoryo.

5.      Siguin cacanayon min dili

Asaoa mi no anac mi

Anto lay tipel yo casi

A manaquilingoanan ed sicami

Italineng yo pay laiag yod

Cairapan min panusai Dios.

               Say irap mi pay talineng yo

               A lilicnaen mid purgatoryo.

6.      Sicato laya angaan la

Na pantaotaoag min cacamarerrua

Andi ibas a picasi yo cami pa Ed Dios tan Virgin Maria

Pian dead taoen minabang itayo

Ed glorian ando lang ando.

               Say irap mi pay talineng yo

               A lilicnaen mid purgatoryo.

(English Translation by Resty Odon)

1. Hear oh hear, oh Christians

Our call on you

Please take notice of the suffering

that we endure in purgatory.

2. Oh, father, mother, listen please

To the calling of your children

Please take notice of the suffering

that we endure in purgatory.

3. Oh how deep is our sadness

How unquenchable the fire

How punishing is our Lord

Ah, the pain we are going through now

Because we were unable there on earth 

to pay for our debts to Him.

Please take notice of the suffering

that we endure in purgatory.

4. How hard-hearted you live your life

How your heart has turned into steel

Oh the mistakes that you make! You have no idea

We dwellers of purgatory

Would you please take a look at us

and help us even just a bit.

Please take notice of the suffering

that we endure in purgatory.

5. You who are our relatives from of old

Whether our spouses or our children 

How could you be 

ever forgetful of us?

Would you please lend your ears 

to the hardship of God's punishment.

Please take notice of the suffering

that we endure in purgatory.

6. This is the end

Of our calling on you as souls

Please pray for us without ceasing to God and the Virgin Mother

So that in heaven we will benefit 

From the unending glory. 

Please take notice of the suffering

that we endure in purgatory.

Republished from: https://www.bayambang.gov.ph/2016/10/31/taotaoag-tradition-revived/ (Originally posted on Monday October 31, 2016)

CS1st Green AID Inc.'s engineered bamboo factory rises in Bayambang

In Brgy. Amanperez, this town, a factory that produces an array of bamboo products rose around 2017. Initiated by Dr. Cezar T. Quiambao, it is called CS1st Green Agro-Industrial Development (AID) Inc. Dr. Quiambao took inspiration from the existing bamboo industry of Anji, China after he was able to visit the place.

The company's first manager was the town's former Councilor Levin N. Uy, and according to Uy, CS1st Green AID is the country's "pioneering company in the establishment of vast bamboo plantations, biggest bamboo nursery, and [largest] manufacturer of engineered bamboo products, specifically the bamboo floorboard."

The company's operation is currently under a new president, Engr. Bernard O. Bawing, and its Operations head is Forester Webon Lomong-oy.

The factory, among other things, has the capacity to manufacture 7,070 sqm of floor boards per month. Aside from floorboards, CS1st Green AID also produces briquettes, handicrafts (miniatures, etc.), and other products.

Bayambang is unable to supply its need for a steady supply of bamboo wood, so CS1st Green AID has resorted to importing raw bamboo wood from all over the Philippines. It has also been growing the kawayan tinik bamboo variety at a 300-hectare plantation with nursery in Sitio Mapita, Brgy. Laoag, Aguilar, Pangasinan, plus in six other towns in Western Pangasinan, to help supply future needs while reforesting the denuded rocky landscape. Towards these twin purposes, this enterprise has partnered with the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Trade and Industry.

The company uses new technology in growing bamboo seedlings. Instead of traditionally growing from seeds or transplanting bamboo shoots from their mother tree to other spots, it uses the so-called "one node culm technology" to grow seedlings that can be readily transplanted.

High technology is also used in the processing of bamboo wood for use as coal briquettes and floorboards. The briquettes are said to be superior to the usual coal because it easily catches fire. The company has piloted various machines from the Department of Science and Technology-Forest Products Research and Development Institute or DOST-FPRDI for this purpose, namely sowing machine, splitting machine, planing machine, boilers, carbonization furnaces, hot press and gluing machine, and finishing and packaging machine.

Leveraging the numerous advantages of bamboo including "low weight (ease of transport/handling), unusual strength, low cost, sustainability (grows rapidly and abundantly)," and multiple uses, CS1st Green AID Inc. is an "inclusive growth" enterprise as it employs farmers and other folk from the grassroots level while at the same time instrumental in helping government realize its goal of regreening the Philippines on a massive scale.

References:

https://vimeo.com/122939594
https://www.facebook.com/csfirstgreen/
http://www.dost.gov.ph/knowledge-resources/news/48-2017-news/1289-dost-s-bambooo-charcoal-technology-helps-pangasinan-firm-in-bamboo-charcoal-making.html
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084006?fbclid=IwAR2AwQ0WNSwP_28VnnUaCOl_CX4AnSTgL80erAAjLdPZ9UfOI1JU0XumqUU

Local standards of measurement

Someone has noted that Filipino culture is an inexact culture, or at least, to be more accurate, there is a strong element of inexactitude. That is, except in terms of measurement of gold, which reportedly has advanced terminology among pre-Filipino ancients.

But there is truth to the observation among present-day Filipinos. Mike Lu, a former president of the Birdwatchers Club of the Philippines, once pointed out that Filipinos typically are content to call any little bird either maya or pipit. Although certain localities have specific names for specific birds and other species, the terms tend to generalize more than distinguish or specify: yung itim na ibon sa parang, paru-parong bukid, damong-ligaw, halamang dagat, daga at bubwit (mice are different from rats and shrews, and the Philippines has several species of mouse-like rodents)... 

In particular, Pangasinenses use the word sira to refer not just to fish in general but also to the day's viand or main dish, and manok to refer not just to chicken but also to birds in general. Kanen, which is related to kanin (cooked rice), refers to not just rice cakes but all kinds of kakanin or even if made of corn, tapioca, cassava or some other starchy ingredient as long as it looks like rice cake. The list goes on, for other Philippine ethnolinguistic groups.

Even in cooking, one veteran cultural worker, Corazon Alvina, noticed this while featuring a regional cook on TV. She said, "You don't have specific measurements, no?" "Yes, tantya-tantya lang" (estimates only), replied the cook.

Similarly, Doreen Fernandez likened the sawsawan (assorted Filipino dips) concept to a chemical titration test (or jazz to be more accurate), with each dip slowly adjusted until it is perfected according to the diner's personal preferences and not to any existing standard. This high level of deviation and brash experimentation, or total lack of exacting standards, in Philippine cooking has resulted in not just the high variation in these dips, but also, in the various interpretations of adobo, pancit, longanisa, etc., even among households within a given town.

This lack of standard has been lamented by the likes of chef-restaurateur Margarita Fores and sought to address it with prescribed measurements, but then it can be argued that that is the whole point of Filipino cuisine -- it thrives in dizzying (or is it dazzling) diversity of interpretations or versions instead of aiming for just one standard.

When the Spaniards arrived, their measurement system -- which introduced the concept of exactitude -- became the natives' measurement system. But the other generalistic indigenous terms apparently persisted.

A Facebook post that made the rounds listed the following as the most well-known Philippine measurement units today, whose amounts are at best rough estimates.

Length/Distance: piranggot, kapiranggot, sandamak, sandamakmak, dangkal, talampakan, bisig, dipa

Mass/Weight: dakot, guhit, kagitna, gatang, chimanta, kaban

Volume: salok, saro, mangkok

Time: kisapmata, saglit, sandali

Not on the list are: litro, katiting, kapiraso.

Which reminds of a new joke that goes, "Ano ang tawag sa maliit na pusa?" (Answer: katiting.) Ano ang tawag sa maliit na aso?" (Answer: kapiraso.) "Ano naman ang tawag sa maliit na kambing?" (Answer: kapiranggoat.)

Hyperbolic words are a dime a dozen (assuming the regions have other equivalent terms): sangkatutak, sandamakmak, sangrekwa, sanglaksa, sandamukal, sangkaterba.

Regional terms

In Pangasinan, before we ever resorted to the use of guhit in weighing scales, the following were the terms that used to be commonplace in the public market.

litse (leche) - equivalent to a can of Alaska condensed milk

ganta, gantas - what Tagalog call gatang; 10 chupas?

chupa - cup

gantilla

salop - 2.5 kilos?

limon - equivalent to the biggest can of Del Monte pineapple juice available in the market

takal

kaban - 50 kilos?

Nonetheless, long before we Filipinos standardized our system of measurement to the kilogram for weight and the kilometer for length, we already had developed our own. It may not be an exact science like today's calibrated scales, but the measures worked in an environment where bounty and diversity were such a reality that they were probably too hard to deal with, much less to count down to the last degree of magnitude.

References:

Here's an eye-opener from Dr. Abe V. Rotor: http://avrotor.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-accurate-are-folk-measurements.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/Philippines/comments/96imfj/philippine_measuring_units/

http://manilastandard.net/opinion/columns/so-i-see-by-lito-banayo/281012/-kapag-puno-na-ang-salop-.html

Cezar Quiambao: From STRADCOM’s CEO to Bayambang’s Anti-Poverty Czar

If Cezar Quiambao is not famous yet outside of his hometown of Bayambang, Pangasinan, he should be. Maybe part of the blame is his distaste for publicity.

If there is name recall at all, it's probably limited to his being associated with Pinoy Big Brother-Teen Edition star-turned-actress Niña Jose (as her husband), or at least as the current mayor of Bayambang.

But the few who are in the know are well aware of his own achievements, which are nothing short of historic, at least on the national stage.

Aside from being a successful businessman and philanthropist, consider the following:

In 2008, he automated the elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, preventing electoral fraud.

He was behind the computerization of the Land Transportation Office through his IT company, Stradcom, thus cutting red tape and eliminating notorious fixers associated with the government agency. 

He was also behind the digitization of the Land Registration Authority’s land title records, through his company, Land Registration Systems Inc. (LARES). His achievements in IT didn’t escape the attention of Computerworld, which honored him as one of the recipients of the 2008 Honors Laureates in Washington DC, USA.

Quiambao is also the pioneer of PPPs or public-private partnerships, particularly the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) scheme between the government and private sector through the Metro Manila Skyway project – a groundbreaking project worth USD514M. He was also behind the STAR (Southern Tagalog Arterial Road) Tollway, again through the BOT scheme, a project immensely benefiting Calabarzon or the southern Tagalog provinces.

Because of these extraordinary feats, “the man of humble beginnings but with a great vision” – or in the words of former President Gloria-Macapagal-Arroyo, “the local boy who made good,” became the recipient of a Doctor of Humanities (Honoris Causa) degree from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines Graduate School and Open University during their Commencement Exercises in April 25, 2013. Not to be left behind was Pangasinan provincial government’s conferment of its prestigious ASNA Award for outstanding Pangasinenses like him.

In 2014, now as Dr. Cezar T. Quiambao, he financed Bayambang's attempt to snatch the world record for the longest barbecue grill from Turkey, with 8,000 pieces of fish grills that altogether are 8 kilometers long.

This is on top of other big-ticket projects abroad in which he has been a partner, namely the Guam Regional Medical City, a USD219M tertiary hospital, the Second Vivekananda Bridge Tollway in India, which was worth $145M, and another tollway project in Vietnam.

***

Who is Cezar Terrado Quiambao?

It was on November 17, 1948 when Cezar Terrado Quiambao was born in the town of Bayambang. As the second child of small-scale business folk Simplicio Quiambao of Guagua, Pampanga and Veronica Terrado of Bayambang, Cezar first dreamed of a better life when he was just a pupil at Bayambang Central School. He carried this dream until he finished secondary education at Bayambang National High School (BNHS) and when he left for Manila in 1969 to take up Business Administration, with a major in Accountancy, at the University of the East and even beyond that, when he took up Strategic Economic Program at the University of Asia and the Pacific. In college, he experienced being a working student. At one time, he also became a messenger and a jeepney driver.

When he found an opportunity to work abroad, in Indonesia, it was a big leap for Cezar in fulfilling his childhood dream. There, he worked for 20 years, and through patience and diligence, his slow rise to the top became steady. In 1977, he became Executive Vice-President of PT Green Timber Jaya, a leading timber company in Indonesia. It was in that country where he found a wife and started a family.

Later, back in Manila, he became the Chair and CEO of Strategic Alliance Development Corp., and the President and CEO of Stradcom Corp.

Upon retirement, he had over three decades of executive experience in various industrial activities, infrastructure and development projects, information technology applications, management knowhow and corporate planning, and banking, finance and investments.

It was in 1994 when Cezar decided to come back to his hometown for good. Armed with formidable knowledge and experience gained in Indonesia and having witnessed the kind of economic progress and development in the different countries he had visited in between, he initiated together with his batch-mates from BNHS Class of 1965 the program called “Baley Ko, Pawilen Ko, Aroen Ko, tan Tulungan Ko” (literally “My hometown – where I shall come back to, to love and to help”). The program was conceived because of Cezar’s dream which through time evolved into a dream not just for himself but also for his hometown.

His dream started to become concrete quite literally when he had the muddy road from Barangay Tanolong going to Barangay Bical Norte paved with gravel and sand, after learning how the poor teachers in the area were having a hard time navigating it just to reach their school. After this project came a similar project benefiting a road in Mangabul.

He continued giving help in his own quiet way in the ensuing years. One of the most important of these is the renovation of the Public Plaza which, back then, had quite a reputation for its pervading stench – a great embarrassment to visitors.

He also had a hand in the establishment of the College of Information Technology in Pangasinan State University-Bayambang in 2000, and the number and quality of its graduates 19 years hence are quite evident.

In 2004, a most notable project was born: he founded the Kasama Kita sa Barangay Foundation with the help of Bayambang ex-Councilor Levin Uy in order to be of help to the out-of-school youth and the unemployed through trainings and seminars in TESDA-accredited courses and livelihood projects.

In his own way, Cezar was instrumental in the slow-but-sure rise of his beloved Bayambang, but real progress only came in 2012 when he put up his own mall in the heart of town. He called it Royal Mall, the first mall in Bayambang. This mall, together with Strategic Alliance Holdings Inc. (SAHI), LARES, and STRADCOM, all Cezar’s businesses whose headquarters he transferred from Manila to the third-class municipality perpetually referred to as “sleepy,” became a huge source of funds for the local government under other mayors due to the sheer amount of tax that they put into the coffers of the municipal treasury. The funds were so big that, if only utilized properly, would have made a great impact on the lives of ordinary Bayambangueños.

When Bayambang celebrated its 400th year of foundation as a town, Cezar played a big role. Using his savings, he donated P15M to the local coffers to help the town snatch the Guinness World Record for the longest barbeque on April 4, 2014 which a town in Turkey previously held. This feat put little-known Bayambang town on the world map, so to speak, if only in a small way.

It was a joy-filled and successful achievement in the history of the town, but it was also an eye-opener for Cezar with regard to the appalling political realities at the time, when he found out that the grills he had donated for the ‘Kalutan ed Dalan’ giant street-grilling event were sold to the townsfolk by those in authority.

With Cezar being a long-time patron to the town’s succession of politicians, this incident broke the camel’s back, so to speak. In the 2016 elections, he decided that he himself would throw his hat into the political ring to ensure a win against the incumbent leader who was seeking another post. Upon his assumption of office with his team of councilors led by Vice-Mayor Raul Sabangan, Bayambang’s socio-economic ascent became evident and unstoppable. Together with Team Quiambao-Sabangan, Cezar fought off corruption, criminality, and political dynasties, and together with his entire Local Government Unit of Bayambang family, continues to fight against poverty through a concrete plan called the Bayambang Poverty Reduction Plan 2018-2028.

Cezar’s childhood dream proved to be the same dream that would lift the living standards of his town-mates. That is why Cezar is doing and giving his all to ensure that every man, woman, child, farmer, teacher, and worker in his beloved town will have a good future to hope for.

He dreamed big, he worked hard, and now he has fulfilled his dream of giving back to Bayambangueños of every color and stripe, and on an unexpected level too as municipal mayor – that is who Cezar Terrado Quiambao was, is, and has become. And to think that he didn’t have to do it, for it was easier by far to settle in the creature comforts of the big city.

***

New personal pet project: St. Vincent Ferrer Prayer Park

And now using his own money, through funds funneled from Kasama Kita sa Barangay Foundation and his companies, the local visionary with a taste for transformational leadership honed in the corporate world is gunning for another world record for his beloved hometown: the world's tallest supported bamboo sculpture. The 51-meter St. Vincent Ferrer Statue in Bayambang, Pangasinan is built in honor of the town's patron saint. Taller than the Christ the Redeemer in Sao Paolo, Brazil and the Statue of Liberty in New York City, USA, it is made of a steel frame and ‘engineered’ bamboo panels as cladding material.

An abstract design for the statue was decided upon by the main project proponents, the Quiambao couple. During the planning stage, the problem of the placement of the bamboo polygon-shaped panels on the abstract-design statue was solved by engaging the help of Puzzlebox 3D with its cutting-edge three-dimensional printing technology. The bamboo tiles used, of Moso or Mao variety, were imported all the way from China, and they had been treated in such a way that "they are stronger than steel," thus the term "engineered bamboo." The bamboo strips had to go through a long process of pest and decay prevention, carbonization, moisture balancing, strip milling, strand weaving, extreme pressure treatment, and finishing. The project manager, Architect Jerry Suratos, said the use of 3D design technology cut the work by three to five years.

With this statue, Bayambang is eyeing to clinch another title in the Guinness Book of World Records after breaking Turkey's record for the world’s longest barbeque grill in 2014. The statue will be the centerpiece of the soon-to-be-developed St. Vincent Ferrer Prayer Park (SVFPP), which is envisioned as a sprawling space where people can visit to gain peace of mind, where pilgrims from all over can pray, meditate and venerate the 'patron saint of builders,' St. Vincent Ferrer. Mistakenly dubbed by some mediapersons as an “amusement park,” SVFPP is really more of an unofficial shrine. (The Vatican is strict in conferring on churches the official title of “Shrine.”)

The contractor chosen for the project was Far East Industrial Supply & Company (FEISCO), whose one notable major project in its portfolio is Manila’s first Skyway. JQS Builders, together with RAA–Architects, Engineers & Consultancy Services, were the architectural/design team, with assistance from Palafox Associates to determine the best location.

Truth to tell, this project is just a child’s play to ‘CTQ’ – as his fond corporate moniker goes, considering his earlier projects. But this is meant to jumpstart his long-dreamt of new town center and new economic zone for his beloved hometown.

***

Bayambang: Getting to know a town that produced a Cezar Quiambao

What kind of town would produce a Cezar Quiambao?

If we study its history, the clues are provided here and there. It is a kind of town where heroes would take refuge, the kind where a deputy general (Antonio Luna) would case and scope, there to perhaps brainstorm preliminary military tactics with his band of revolutionaries, and would eventually be declared by his superior (Emilio Aguinaldo) as the budding republic's 5th capital. Historian Jaime Veneracion speculates that Aguinaldo, Luna, et al. chose to stop by at Bayambang for it was a town friendly to the revolutionaries.

That is not surprising, for after all, it had a reputation for pocket rebellions, as per Rosario Mendoza Cortez’s account in her book, “Pangasinan: 1572-1800” (1974): first, as a “flashpoint of the first anti-Spanish revolt led by Andres Malong in October 1660” and that of “the second Pangasinan revolt in 1762-1764 led by Juan dela Cruz Palaris, a revolt surpassing all revolts in the history of Northern Luzon in terms of scope and duration.” Another account would say that this is the reason why almost no Spanish-era houses survived in the town because of the resultant burning and pillaging following these revolts.

While it is true that the town today is just another one of a series of insular, nondescript towns where travelers going north routinely pass by or briefly stop over, it has also attracted its fair share of enterprising businessmen in the colonial era (e.g. Smith Bell & Co., etc.)

It is largely a rustic town, a major producer of rice, corn, onion, and various delicacies made out of these. Formerly, it was also a major source of freshwater catch of all kinds, thanks to the 2,000-hectare Mangabul Lake, which unfortunately has been buried in lahar after Mt. Pinatubo erupted in June 15, 1991, but has left a legacy of buro-making, among other delicacies. The binasuan folk dance, which requires a delicate balancing act involving drinking glasses, is also reputed to have originated in Brgy. Sancagulis, this town.

But in the face of this agrarian background, it is easy to forget that Bayambang is also an old university town, specifically a long-time training ground for generations of the country's best teachers. Pangasinan State University-Bayambang Campus used to be called Central Luzon Teachers' College and before that, Pangasinan Normal School, and this institution of learning pioneered a number of unsung 'laboratory experiments,' so to speak, in the field of education.  Founded in 1922, it put up the country’s first Child Study Center, the first pre-elementary school or kindergarten, and the first Opportunity Class for exceptional children. In 1953, it became the seat of the Philippines-UNESCO National Community Training Center (PUNCTC) where scholars from all over the Philippines and the world came together to learn about the realities in the town’s interior barangays as a kind of benchmarking activity in the field of nutrition. In 1962, it also became the venue of the First National Institute in Physical Education and Recreation in the Philippines.

It is only expected that PSU has a long list of educators who were and are experts in their rarefied fields. Today, PSU-Bayambang is the site of a Food Innovation Center that was put up in cooperation with the Department of Science and Technology. FIC is a place where food research is being done to find alternative means of taking advantage of local farmers’ bumper harvests. In fact, upon the prodding of Mayor Quiambao, Manila-based One Document Corporation headed by Jorge Yulo signed a Memorandum of Agreement with PSU on December 19, 2017 to establish a partnership for this purpose.

From the foregoing, it can be gleaned that even though nothing else much seems to happen on the surface, Bayambang makes some quiet but deep impact. Bayambang Central School, the town's public elementary school, is reported by one Manila Times news item as Pangasinan's oldest, having been established in maybe at least 1915. This reflects the fact that Bayambang is relatively an ancient town side by side most other towns in the country, tracing its founding to April 5, 1614, when an outpost called Malunguey of Binalatongan parish (in the present San Carlos City) became a visita, indicating a degree of independence and thus a distinct identity as a governed locality.

Bayambang apparently is also a bastion of Catholic faith. The people's devotion to their patron, St. Vincent Ferrer, is no less than remarkable. One can say it is a town of San Vicente Ferrer devotees. In the old parish church's Prayer Room can be found an authenticated relic of the saint, a reputed miracle worker. In the third year of 'Paskuhan sa Bayambang,' the country's biggest animated Christmas display according to no less than its maker, the Rosario family of Cubao COD's giant Christmas display fame (circa 1970s), the winged saint from Valencia, Spain (he was actually a Dominican priest), is credited for saving a nearby house on fire and for sparing the church itself from wartime bombs dropped by Japanese forces. There are, of course, an entire host of similar stories around town, and it begs for a book compilation.

One curiosity is the Bubon nen San Vicente, an ancient well along nearby M.H. del Pilar St. whose water runoff, locals believe, has healing properties. In a coffeetable book on the St. Vincent Ferrer Parish Church by local historian and former PSU dean, Dr. Clarita D.G. Jimenez, Subol na Pananisia, a woman named Marcelina Malicdem of Brgy. Tanolong says that her parents, in 1928, stumbled into a wooden image of St. Vincent Ferrer floating on a river there, and the image has proven to be miraculous to her family since then.

Another interesting side note: One Spanish priest who served the parish in the early 1700s, Fr. Lorenzo Fernandez Cosgaya de la Concepcion, wrote the first-ever Pangasinan-Spanish dictionary here, and the original copy is now found in a museum in London, which according to historical accounts, Jose Rizal must have perused while on his European 'sojourn.'

Bayambang, it must be noted further, used to have a large territory, and so its history won't be complete without noting that this includes the former barrio of Bautista (now a neighboring town), where the lyrics of the national anthem were written by Jose Palma, and the former barrio of Camiling (now a town in Tarlac), the home of Rizal's muse, Leonor Rivera, and former President of the United Nations General Assembly, Carlos P. Romulo. It is only logical that Bayambang is a town where Rizal often visited via the old Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan or on a horseback (he was a "most wanted" man back then) to court the elusive 'yes' of the love of his life, whether she was staying in Camiling or in Dagupan.

Bayambang is the hometown of these other notable personalities: Atty. Geruncio Lacuesta, a former Manila mediaman who is considered today as “the father of Philippine cycling”; former University of the Philippines Vice-President for Public Affairs and now Commission on Higher Education Chairman, Dr. J. Prospero ‘Popoy’ E. de Vera, today a popular resource person on political matters and other topics in the trimedia; Sr. Mary John Mananzan, RGS, a world-renowned leader in religious, feminist, academic, and activist circles; and Christopher Q. Gozum, the director of Anacbanua, the first full-length film in the Pangasinan language which is an internationally acclaimed arthouse film about his native Pangasinan. Showbiz personalities Wendell Ramos and Donita Rose trace their lineage to the town’s Ramos clan. There are several other notables.

Cezar Quiambao's Bayambang is apparently a town where rabid patriots lived while breathing fervent Catholicism, and a rustic town where significant experimentation and pioneering feats are nonetheless attempted and made, creating silent ripples. In history's 20/20 hindsight, MCTQ is a logical and legitimate child of Bayambang.

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Cezar’s journey from CEO to ‘Czar’

These contributions, however, hardly translated to satisfactory economic gains that trickled down to the grassroots. What CTQ left in the ‘70s was the same Bayambang he saw when he came back in the ’90s. Lack of political will appeared to be a stumbling block, but more than that was the institutional structures that blocked progress.

That’s why among his 4-point strategy when he ran for public office in 2016 was to eradicate poverty, the other four being to get rid of criminality, to dismantle political dynasty, and to combat corruption.

One of the things he discovered is that the government has a lot of existing programs against poverty, each facing the enemy head-on in its own way, on various fronts and at different levels of governance (barangay, municipal, provincial, regional, national, international). But many of these projects, he noticed, are similar in nature, that if only they were properly coordinated, would result in bigger and more effective but streamlined projects. Getting rid of duplication or redundancy will also save the precious few resources at government’s disposal. Proper coordination, he believes, will bring about benefits of convergence and synergy among all LGU departments, national agencies, other offices/units, and the private sector in its various incarnations (NGOs, COs, and POs).

In August 28, 2017, National Heroes’ Day, he boldly declared a Rebolusyon Laban sa Kahirapan in front of the Dr. Jose Rizal’s statue at the Municipal Plaza. He expressed hopes that by 2028, the number of 4Ps members would be down to 0% from the current membership of 6,228 households (as of December 2018). Incidentally, it was also the date Martin Luther King of American delivered his historic speech, “I Have a Dream.” If his critics – and there is a rabid band of them – thought that this was mere posturing, they got it wrong, for this would be the biggest revolution in town since Malong and Palaris.

True enough, not long after that, with the concurrence of the Sangguniang Bayan, he wrote an Executive Order reassigning the Municipal Administrator, Atty. Rodelynn Rajini A. Sagarino, as Municipal Administrator on Anti-Poverty Concerns. Atty. Sagarino, in a previous life, as the fashionable expression goes, happened to work with the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) in Malacañang. She was the perfect person for the job.

Atty. Sagarino, a former beauty titlist, and a young, eloquent leader with a passion to serve, lost no time in executing Mayor Quiambao’s marching order. On December 16, 2017, with the Mayor’s blessing and NAPC’s able direction, she organized an Anti-Poverty Summit, to consult the basic sectors of society: women, youth and students, senior citizens, persons with disabilities, children, farmers, fisher folks, cooperatives, victims of disasters and calamities, informal settlers, workers in the informal sector, Non-Government Organizations/Civil Society Organizations, formal labor/migrant workers, and business. And this soon led to the creation of the Bayambang Poverty Reduction Plan (BPRP) 2018-2028, which serves as the bible – or war plan – of LGU Bayambang in its fight against poverty. This ten-year plan, the BPRP, was drawn up in consonance with the two local government plans mandated by the Local Government Code of 1991 (the Comprehensive Land Use Plan or CLUP and the Comprehensive Development Plan or CDP), the national plan called Ambisyon Natin 2040, and the international Millennium Development Goals. As far as Quiambao knows, BPRP is the only one of its kind in the country.

From the Anti-Poverty Summit sprouted a number of other summits, each focused on one particular major sector, addressing that sector’s peculiar needs. There was the Farmers’ Summit, Youth Summit, Cooperative Summit, Negosyante Summit…

Sagarino’s job was no doubt herculean, so she had to organize her own team of “warriors,” and so was born the Bayambang Poverty Reduction Action Team. It functioned like a new LGU department, but it really is a coordinative body patterned after an existing special body called Local Poverty Reduction Action Team, which is a DILG-mandated body. With BPRAT, the fight became urgent.

In crafting BPRP, a technical consultant was hired, but it was the different department heads and staff themselves who labored hard to outline their own programs, projects, and activities within the given timeframe. The process was mentally exhausting, as the enemy proved to be a multi-headed monster with a complicated character. It spared nothing, affecting young and old alike, men and women, professionals and blue collar workers, and especially certain interest groups like solo parents, victims of calamities and PWDs. Soon, BPRP evolved to have five major thrusts as per the result of the multi-sectoral consultation: Agricultural Modernization, Socio-Cultural Protection and Development, Economic and Infrastructure Development, Environmental Protection and Resiliency, and Good Governance.

One crucial element in the fight is the work rendered by the MSWDO and its so-called LGU Links and the DSWD’s Regional Office I team from La Union who are based in Bayambang, including its Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) Project Development Officers and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) team (called Municipal Links). This is because DSWD is the lead agency in the grassroots as far as the government’s antipoverty drive is concerned, particularly in the area of Socio-Cultural Development and Protection. As frontliners, they have the hard data and they are the ones working face-to-face with the major target in situ. Their obviously backbreaking work in the farthest sitios and barangays requires the cooperation of any office or individual touched by the long arm of the anti-poverty drive.

But government funds are limited and it is here where Mayor CTQ’s role is pivotal because he happens to be a long-time “philanthropreneur.” He puts to good use his old companies’ CSR funds in livelihood-driven causes – or as one writer puts it, “community capacity-building and human capital development” – and this includes college scholarships, alternative education, skills training, drug rehabilitation program, and other various forms of aid to indigent groups.

Quiambao’s work as municipal mayor and antipoverty czar did not escape the attention of outside observers. In 2018, Superbrands International invited him to accept his nomination to become one the year’s Most Outstanding Mayor Awardees. Other awards from various levels followed including his administration’s thrice-in-a-row conferment of DILG’s Seal of Good Local Governance, but the most significant, as far as poverty alleviation is concerned, has to be DSWD’s PANATA GAPAS Award, which recognized LGU-Bayambang’s role in microenterprise development among the poor of the municipality through the convergence efforts of BPRAT. Among the DSWD-initiated microenterprises he supported through his foundation include goat-raising, rag-making, hat-making, agricultural supplies store, sari-sari store, food cart vending, piggery, carabao milking, broiler chicken-raising, etc. This is on top of assistance his foundation provided to trainees in security guard service, food processing, computer systems servicing, basic electronics, reflexology, cosmetology, housekeeping, among others, as well as assistance to drug reformists.  

This have all been made possible, of course, with the cooperation of the Vice-Mayor and the Sangguniang Bayan, the Office of the Chief of Staff, Punong Barangays and Barangay Councils, Department of Agriculture (DA) (including the Provincial Agriculture Office, DA Regional Office I, Municipal Agriculture Office, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Philippine Carabao Center, Philippine Crop Insurance Corp., Pangasinan Agricultural Training Institute, and Tarlac Agricultural University), Cooperative Development Authority, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Education including Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and Alternative Learning System (ALS), Department of Science and Technology, and the religious sector.

With the GAPAS Award, Bayambang bested four other LGUs in the country with equally notable work, namely Iloilo and Nueva Ecija provinces, Ormoc City in Leyte, and the municipality of Real, Quezon.

With all his accomplishments in life, it was just an icing on the cake for Quiambao but constitutes enough encouragement to continue on with his vision of Bayambang as a “smart city” where no one is so poor that he or she does not have the capacity to rise from it.