It has been three years since the last Bambanti Festival was held in 2020—my first and last media tour for that year as the Covid-19 lockdown followed two months later. And this year, the festival is back with a vengeance, with me joining a national media group to cover the event.
Isabela province’s thanksgiving celebration for the previous year’s harvest was named after the human-like guardian of the rice fields (bambanti is the Ilokano word for scarecrow), the ultimate symbol of the diligence, vigilance, and resilience of the Isabelinos. Also, because of its resemblance to the crucified Christ, it is also regarded as a symbol of the people’s spirituality.
Introduced in 1997, during the term of former Gov. Benjamin Dy, the first festivals were held in May, the province’s founding month. When Faustino “Bojie” G. Dy III assumed the governor’s office in 2011, a resolution was drafted to move the festival to January. From 2015 to 2017, the festival has received numerous awards, including the Aliw Award for Best Festival Practices and Performance and the Aliw 2018 Hall of Fame Award for Best Festival Practices and Performance. In 2019, the Guinness Book of World Records awarded the Bambanti Festival for the largest gathering of people (2,495 street dancers) dressed and dancing, nonstop for two hours as scarecrows.
Now on its tenth edition, this year’s festival theme is “Isabela, Pagharap sa Bagong Hamon ng Kinabukasan” (Isabela: Facing the New Challenges of the Future). Just as in the 2020 edition, our home for our six-day stay in Isabela was to be the 110-room Hotel Sophia in Cauayan City. The festival had already commenced the day before our arrival with the official opening of the Bambanti Village by Vice Governor Bojie G. Dy III (2023 Bambanti Festival director-general) and DOT Regional Director Troy Alexander Miano.
The center for the festival’s activities was the 8-hectare Provincial Capitol Compound at the City of Ilagan. Here, we visited the 34 booths at the Bambanti Village Agro-Ecotourism Trade Exhibit, where each participating municipality and city sold its local specialties. Each booth was decorated with giant bambanti (scarecrows) built with natural, organic, and biodegradable materials indigenous to the province, such as wood, bamboo, rattan, and straw, and decorated with corn kernels, munggo beans, rice, assorted vegetables, and fish.
The evening was highlighted by the grand coronation night for the Search for Queen Isabela 2023, held at Queen Isabela Park. Crowned Miss Isabela 2023 was Catherine Joy Legaspi (San Manuel), while Julie Mae Villanueva (Cauayan City) was Queen Isabela Tourism, and Johanna Trisha Cinco (Ramon) was Queen Isabela Culture and Arts. Jaycel Lumauig (Ms. Indigenous Peoples Community), and Cherry Lee Garlijo (Alicia) were 1st runner-up and 2nd runner-up, respectively. During the proceedings, Filipino singer, actor, and model Ronnie Liang serenaded the crowd with three of his hit songs (Ligaya, Gusto Kita, and Ngiti). Qurino’s Roseann Camille Fernandez, the former titleholder for three years (thanks to the pandemic), passed the crown to Legaspi with a fireworks display capping the event.
At the Isabela Sports Complex, we watched the much-awaited, high-energy Street Dance Parade Competition, the Search for Festival King and Queen, and the Festival Dance Showdown. The some 2,000 dancers, from 20 participating cities and municipalities, performed three-minute sequences with themes such as their locality’s popular myths, cottage industries, or their resilience during the pandemic. Also performing were singers from Sining Tanglawan, and Whiplash Dance Company did a contemporary jazz dance number.
The seventh edition of the Makan ken Mainom (the Ilocano term for food and drinks) contest, chaired by Chef Mary Ann Arcega-Dy (Vice-Gov. Bojie’s wife), was also conducted, and this year’s cooking competition was the first ever to be joined by kids ages 9 to 14, who underwent short culinary courses supervised by Chef Cornelio “Cocoy” Ventura (co-chairman of the contest) for their competition recipe. The 30 municipalities and cities that participated used local ingredients found in their areas. One of the judges was Chef Luigi Muhlach, son of actor Aga Muhlach.
After the proceedings, the winners for the various festival competitions were announced by Gov. Rodolfo “Rodito” T. Albano III and Vice-Gov. Faustino “Bojie” G. Dy III (2023 Bambanti Festival director-general). Cauayan City (Category A) and San Agustin (Category B) were winners in the Street Dance Competition.
The City of Santiago won the Makan Ti Isabela Competition with their Chicken Sinaba and Binalkot a Baboy (pork and chicken wrapped in a banana leaf), while Tumauini won the Mainum Ti Isabela Competition with their Vulungan ta Basu (a multi-layered drink with flower extracts). As a way of keeping records, Dy will spearhead the publication of a cookbook to feature winning recipes from the festival’s last seven years.
For the Giant Bambanti Competition, the winners were Dinapigue (Category A) and Cabatuan (Category B). The latter, called Queen Scarlett, was designed by Reynald Bernabe and took 2 welders and 3 decorators a total of 15 days to build. Holding a crown, it was decorated with 40 to 45 kilos of dried sapsap (a local fish). Cabatuan’s bambanti was made with abaca and rattan. For the Agri-Eco Tourism Booth Competition, the winners were the City of Ilagan (with their futuristic booth in Category A) and Cordon (with their fairy tale-themed booth in Category B). Echague (Category A) and Quirino (Category B) won the Festival Dance Showdown.
Quirino was the overall champion in the 2023 Bambanti Festival, winning P1,000,000 worth of projects, placing third in Giant Bambanti, second in the Agri-Ecotourism Booth; second in Festival King and Queen, second in the street dance competition, and winning first place at the street dance showdown. First place went to San Agustin, second place was a tie between Alicia and the City of Ilagan, and third place went to Cauayan City.
At the Isabela Sports Complex, the festival culminated with a music festival featuring world-class theater performers Gian Magdangal, Carla Guevarra-Laforteza, Jep Go, Alyn Magadia, Ima Castro, Fin Ramirez, and Myramae Meneses, and a grand concert party featuring the Agsunta Band and female rap artist KZ Tandingan. Again, the proceedings were closed with a fireworks display.
Image credits: Benjamin Locsin Layug, Teddy Pelaez and Benjamin Locsin Layug, Benjamin Locsin Layug and Isabela PIO