By Penelope A. Domogo, MD
Tapey (rice wine) and basi (sugar cane wine) are part of indigenous Igorot life. Traditionally, these were produced at home or in the barangay for occasions. My Mom would make “tapey” from glutinous black rice and we would help her. The steaming hot cooked rice was spread on the “liga-o” and we would get some to eat especially the “ittip” (slightly burnt rice at the bottom of the pot). I love “ittip”. Then Mom would mix the rice with “bobod” (locally-made yeast) and place the whole thing in a big basin, cover it with banana leaves and place this in the “tappan” or under the stove. She would check after some days and we would peep as well and smell the tapey- hmmmmm…. The mixture now is called “tapey”. Tapey that is newly made (“karkarwak”) is so sweet-smelling and so sweet-tasting! At this stage of the tapey, children can partake but still in moderation as this could also intoxicate. The whole mixture is then placed in an empty gusi (earthen jar) and covered and left to age some more and will be opened only at the proper time. My Mom makes the sweetest tapey – and even if it is many months old, it still tastes sweet!
In the past, tapey or basi was drank only on occasion. (Naturally. The main ingredient, rice or sugar cane, can only be harvested once a year and making the wine takes effort and time. Only Jesus converted water into wine in an instant.) The “gusi” can first be opened only by an “am-ama” (male elder) when there’s a gathering like during weddings or begnas (thanksgiving festivities) or the visit of a dignitary. Tapey, though, can also be part of the meals during rice harvesting. In these instances, there was a remote possibility that one would get drunk. Why? There’s limited supply of tapey. A household can only have 1 or 2 or 3 jars of tapey. If these were finished, no more. Even if you wanted to drink some more, there was no tapey in the store. What some people did was to go house-to-house but that took effort and sashaying along the way is not something to be proud of. Same goes true with basi. Limited supply.
Came now commercial alcoholic drinks – gin, rum, brandy, etc. I don’t know the difference of all these- they all taste bleh to me- but somehow, some people come to love them. The problem now is that there’s unlimited supply. You finish one bottle, just go to the store. The storeowner is just too happy to serve you. One bottle can become one case – with the barkada, the drinking can go on and on till the next morning. And in the morning, you get a hangover- headache or stomach ache- and cannot work well. But then you drink again. My, oh my, I wonder why some people want to inflict so much suffering on themselves and even on their families and on society in general. There was a time in the past when the Besao fiesta was marked by violence because of alcohol drinking. Thank God, this is now a thing of the past. There are also reported cases of violence at home perpetrated by intoxicated husbands. What about the noise disturbance at night caused by people who had a drink too many?
This alcohol problem has come to a point that communities are talking about it and are taking steps to control it. In the 1980s, the Episcopal Churchwomen of Besao initiated a liquor ban with the slogan “Save your husbands and sons. Support the liquor ban.” It was an interesting case of local politics (this will make another story). Just last week, I attended a policy workshop on reducing the harmful use of alcohol. In this workshop, Balanga City in Bataan shared their initiatives in making their city a healthy place to live in, and that included their efforts to control alcohol use. Their efforts are commendable and worth emulating.
This brings us to the question of how much alcohol can we drink? And why do people drink?
At this point, however, let us be clear that drinking alcohol is a choice, not a necessity. You are not missing anything if you haven’t been drunk. Oh, wait, you’ve missed the hangover. Okay, how much alcohol can we drink? There are many opinions on this but the general advise is that men can have 2 bottles of beer a day and women can have 1 bottle. The regular bottle, not the grande. That translates to 40 grams alcohol a day for men and 20 grams for women. So check your intake. ** (more next issue.)
