Pistay Baley 2023: Women Shining Through

 

This year’s celebration – Pistay Baley 2023, its 409^th – is historic for one reason: it is the first full-scale fiesta celebration after the doom-and-gloom of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions. Like “revenge travel” among those cooped up at home while in quarantine, it can be described as “revenge festivities,” as though we are rising up from the ashes of destruction (health, economic, psychological) to avenge our three years of drought and deprivation, three long years of reducing traditional activities to mere online gatherings and slim body counts in indoor and even outdoor events.

This year, 2023, we indeed bounce back with a vengeance, as this is also the first fiesta celebration under the leadership of Mayor Niña Jose-Quiambao and Vice-Mayor Ian Camille Sabangan, the town’s first female Mayor and Vice-Mayor and quite possibly the youngest ever.

With such infusion of young blood into Team Quiambao-Sabangan 2.0, there is a sense of renewed energy in keeping up the fight against poverty at all fronts through the Rebolusyon Laban sa Kahirapan. But this time, the fight hits different, as our two top women leaders infuse their new, that is to say, feminine, sensibility in their governance.

This historic first did not come about abruptly: it is, in fact, born of many precedents that came in increments in the annals of the town. According to local informants, the 1940s saw Sofia Martinez Ferrer attempting to run as municipal councilor, followed possibly by Teting Roldan in the 1950s, although the very first one who actually won was Priscila de Vera in 1970 – the number one councilor to boot at the young age of 27, ending the era of “Dons” as exclusive rulers. Informants further recount that, on that very same year, Norma Lomibao Cancino of Brgy. Alinggan became the first barangay captain when she was all of 19. Later on, the first appointed female department head of the municipal government is Susan Menor of Local Civil Registry Office in the 1990s, while the first female Municipal Administrator is none other than the feisty Atty. Rodelynn Rajini A. Sagarino (and a former beauty queen too) in July 2016.

Furthermore, from Bayambang had sprung such daughters as Sr. Mary John Mananzan, the founder of Gabriela, among other things, Carmen Velasquez, the distinguished national  scientist, and Luzviminda Camacho, the first female Commodore of the Philippine Navy.  

But it is only now that feminine leadership reaches its peak, that is, in the two highest ranks of local office, so it is a breath of fresh air. We now live in exciting times, as we await TQS 2.0 to fully unravel its platform of “Health for All, Education for All, Jobs for All,” which is really a reinvigoration of Rebolusyon Laban sa Kahirapan, with their brand of nurturing leadership “as ilaw ng tahanan at puso ng bayan” shining through, truly befitting them as women of both beauty and substance.

The foregoing thus explains this year’s theme of “Isulong and Ninanais na Kaunlaran,” a most apt one as the town endeavors to keep the fire burning, to keep the onward march to progress in all aspects going, in the age of post-pandemic new normal, viral memes and social media, and such technology-induced sociocultural upheavals.

Greeting all our beloved Bayambangueños a Happy 409^th Town Fiesta!