Bringing History to Life with Tigbauan’s Pagdaug - Saludan Festival

Tigbauan, Iloilo will host its 3^rd Pagdaug-Saludan Festival with fun-filled activities on March 13-18, 2017. Tigbauanons have such passion for life their daily aim is to enhance life through joyful gatherings such as this festive celebration.

Given the town’s innate party spirit, it is no surprise that Tigbauan will host these series of special activities: March 6-19 with Festival Food Festival; March 13-19 Festival Agritourism and Trade Fair; March 13 (Monday) Opening Salvo and Street Dancing Competition at 9 a.m., PSF2K17 Car show at 6 p.m., Miss Pagdaug-Saludan Festival Queen Festival Attire and Talent Competition at 8 p.m.; March 14 (Tuesday) Sinadya sa Saludan featuring Remix Band with Stand-up Comedian Beyonz at 7 p.m., Tigbauan Covered Gym; March 15 (Wednesday) Pagdaug-Saludan Festival Queen 2017 at 7 p.m., Municipal Covered Gym.

March 16 (Friday) SCFA1 Tigbauan 24^th Foundation Day celebration at 8 a.m., Sireyna Queen Pagdaug-Saludan at 8 p.m.; March 17 (Saturday) Distribution of Free Patent at 9 a.m., Drum and Lyre Competition at 2 p.m., Tigbauan Music Festival at 5 p.m.;  March 18 (Sunday) Victory Run at 5:30 a.m., Mass at 6:30 a.m., Foot Parade and Floral Offering at 7:30 a.m., Tribal Dance-Drama Competition at 3 p.m., Awarding Ceremony at 6 p.m.

The covered gymnasium is an action packed part of the festival week with the celebration’s highlight, the tribal-dance drama presentation. The Pagdaug segment of the tribe competition is a dance-drama presentation dedicated to the memory of all Tigbauanons in war and conflicts who sacrificed their lives in defense of their beloved town.

Life on the home front during World War II was a significant part of the war effort for all Ilonggos and had a major impact on the outcome of the war. It was a total war between the Filipino guerrillas with the Americans Forces against the Japanese. It was said that around thirty thousand Japanese troops held the vital coastal towns including Iloilo City in the island of Panay.

It was on 18 March 1945 when the 40th Infantry Division, spearheaded by the 185th Infantry Regiment landed unopposed at the shores of barangay Parara in Tigbauan. Around 23,000 strong guerrilla forces had secured most of areas in Iloilo under Col. Macario Peralta. Some 1,500 Japanese troops surrendered.

The Saludan segment will showcase Tigbauans’ unique culture presented in fishing or agricultural scenes with its diversified livelihood strategy of Panalud,  a Hiligaynon word coined from Salud or the traditional way of gathering or accumulating a thing for its interest or value such as threshing rice using a basket or catching fingerlings through nets.

In rural communities, traditional hand methods of cultivating and harvesting rice are still practiced. The fields are prepared by plowing using wooden plows drawn by water buffalo. Rice when it is still covered by the brown hull is known as paddy; rice fields are also called paddy fields or rice paddies. The paddy rice is spread on some sort of concrete or pavement and raked over until dry. Rice drying is all over the roads during harvest season. Before marketing, the rice is threshed to loosen the hulls—mainly by flailing, treading, or working in a mortar—and winnowed free of chaff by tossing it in the air above a sheet or mat, this method is locally known as Panalud.

Panalud is also done for Inland capture fisheries group activity of extracting fish and other living organisms from surface waters of coastlines. Small scale fishermen use traditional fish traps made of natural construction materials using indigenous knowledge system are traditionally employed to catch fishes in inland water bodies.  These indigenous fishing devices normally made up of bamboo cast in triangular shape wrapped in net of smaller mesh size is used to catch fingerlings.

Tigbauan is 22.5 kilometers or a 30-minuter ride south of Iloilo City. Comprised of 52 barangays spread over its 6,062 hectare land area it is bordered in the northwest by Leon; the northeast by San Miguel; east by Oton; west by Guimbal and the Iloilo Strait in the south.

Plan your visit to Tigbauan this week to coincide with series of special events and take part and enjoy a variety of it which showcases the culture of this local community.

To get to the town, one can take a Tigbauan, Guimbal, Miagao or San Joaquin jeepneys at the Don Benito Q. Acap Sr. Southern Iloilo Perimeter Boundary in Barangay Mohon, Oton or when in the city, at the market situated at the back of Robinsons Place Iloilo. For more information, please contact Mrs. Linda Fe Camina – Municipal Tourism Officer at  09173283997.