BORONGAN CITY- The Sta. Fe National High School (SFNHS) of this city was able to defend its title as the grand prize winner in this year’s Padul-ong Festival, one of the highlights of the city’s annual fiesta.
The Padul-ong Festival, now on its 25th year, is being held Thursday (Sept.7)or a day before the annual city fiesta in honor of Blessed Virgin Mary.
SFNHS received P300,000 as their prize.
The Padul-ong festival depicts the legend of how the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary was mysteriously transported to Borongan from Portugal and how the enigmatic Lady in White who supposedly frequents the Hamorawan Spring located at the heart of the city gave the water its miraculous healing powers.
Unlike other festivals in the region where contingents wears ethnic costumes, Padul-ong guidelines specify the use of baro’t saya as costumes of their dancers and the use of live music in the ritual and dance presentation.
Aside from the Padul-ong Festival, another highlight of the city fiesta was Borongan City Native Pig Lechon Festival, now on its seventh year.
For this year, 12 entries competed for the cash prize with the entry of ‘Salabay Litson’ named as the best lechon and won P15, 000.
The entries of ‘Puya Litson’ bagged 2nd and 3rd place winning PP10, 000 and P7,000 respectively.
The Lechon Festival follows strict guidelines like entries must be cooked according to Boronganon standard which includes the spices used and mode of roasting and they must also include idea of a side dish that can be considered as best for the lechon.
Participants must also submit their entries to undergo the usual inspection with the veterinary office before they can be accepted as official entry in the competition.
Meanwhile, the 3rd ‘Aton Ini Pagkaon Paisan-isan’ that showcased the ingenuity of Borongan residents in creating dishes, the top winner was the ‘turon de cassava’ for the ‘kakanin’ category. They also won the People’s Choice Award.
For the veggie category, the ‘buco pansit’ dish won the grand prize.
(ROEL T. AMAZONA)
