The other side of Bago City
I WROTE this piece yesterday as we were halfway done with Day 1 of the Visayas regional leg ofthe Indigeneous Peoples Games in faraway Bago City in the South.
This event is an initiative of the Philippine Sports Commission( PSC) as mandated to promote traditional culture of our indigeneous people, in this case, traditional games in cooperation with the local government of Bago City.In fact I met Mayor Nicholas Yulo at the colorful opening ceremonies held at the Manuel Torres Sports Center.
Other partners of PSC are the National Commission on Indigenous People( NCIP), represented by Regional Director Atty. Princess May Alkalde-Oral May and DepEd which took care of the billeting of the 17 LGUs that participated in the event.
PSC was represented by Chairman Richard Bachmann who enjoyed trying out some of the traditional games in the event, including the spear throwing or sibat, archery or pana, even tumbang preso, and gamely posed with some of the participants.
I told him though that sorry, people will not believe he belongs to a cultural tribe, also, that he should not pursue the sports he tried out there. He had to leave before lunch though as he had to be in Virac, Catanduanes today Sunday for another event.
The afternoon saw the continuation of the games and the IP Forum and today, we should be finished by lunch time, good that the weather was very cooperative.
At the opening ceremonies, I was able to chat with Mayor Yulo and among others, he agreed that even as boxing remains popular in the city, GenSan in Mindanao has emerged as an even bigger haven for the sport, thanks to Manny Pacquiao.
But he says Bago is not just about boxing as the city won a world junior softball tournament in Michigan last yearm Taekwondo and cycling also are popular sports here.
He even expressed willingness to host other national sporting events subject to the limitation of the city’s sports facilities and lodging too. In fact, the PSC team here still goes back to one of the most known hotel in Bacolod, L’ Fisher every night.
But my talk with the good Mayor was not limited to sports as I asked him about tourism in his city, and that us the other side of Bago City that I am talking about.
Being a farmer and a rancher himself, Mayor Yulo pointed out that his focus is on farm tourism, organic farming that is, and his target is to make the city the organic basket of the province, aside from being the top rice producer in Negros Occidental.
The fact is, his city tourism staff even brought us to two farms, one was a three- hectare cacao farm that used the criollo bean variety for better quality for chocolate products like tablea, I was just surprised that cacao has two other by products, liquor and vinegar in the early stages of processing.
From there, we went to a palay-isdaan, a combination farm and tilapia fishpond where I saw for the first time, vegetarian fish as the owners, Joaquin and Violeta Pablito feed kangkong and pechay to the tilapia, one of my companions said it was an unlimited salad.
The couple has two small ponds with a total of 4,000 fish, harvest time of three times a year, and according to them, what they produce, the rice, veggies, and fish, they just sell around the neighborhood.
The best part, she gave us freshly boiled potatoes and guavas from their farm, which I brought back with me to the venue of the IP Games for the PSC staff working with us on this program.
With part of Mt. Kanlaon, presently on Alert level 2, located in Bago City, trekking opportunities have been limited but during nornal times, both serious and fun trekkers go up this famous Southern mountain.
This mountainous part of the city also boasts of many waterfalls, just mapped out recently, with Kipot Waterfalls as the most popular and open to the public.Sorry but no good beaches in this area.
If you are staying within the city proper, Bantayan Park right beside the river, features a riverside walkway and several native restaurants fronting the river, and we tried some of these restos, the batchoy is good, same with halo halo, and of course, grilled chicken.
But a native delicacy that is gaining popularity is grilled eel, but I was not able to try that out so I will reserve judgment for the meantime.
Other recomnended native items are padara, a rice -based dough with togue fillings, puto, bicho bicho, kalamay-hati, and fresh lumpia.
So you see, it is not just sports for me in the IP Games, I also try to see what these places we go to have to offer to visitors like me .
See you in GenSan next month for the Mindanao leg of the IP Games, and I will try to do the same thing and share with you again what I discover.
