ALFONSO LISTA, IFUGAO – – The Sto. Domingo barangay fiesta always adds special memories to the people.
Scheduled April 28 to 29, villagers, guests and many others in Alfonso Lista town are looking forward to another opportunity of celebrating the barangay’s success in propelling growth and developing through cooperation among the residents and barangay council officials who actively pushed for timely and relevant programs and projects in the past 12 months.
Barring the resetting or postponement of the barangay festivity due to the enhanced community quarantine in Luzon to another date, all roads are leading to Barangay Sto. Domingo for 48 hours of merry-making and jovial mood. This year’s edition has a wide array of interactive activities for young and elderly folks.
Whether it is conducted as scheduled or a month later, the Sto. Domingo Barangay Fiesta brings joy, inspiration and amusement for folks of all ages.
Middle to late of May of this year looms as the probable date of holding this fiesta.
Undoubtedly, Barangay Sto. Domingo is a great place to visit this summer time.
For the visitor from Quezon City, this is a natural way to relax, recharge and energize your life. After the fiesta’s day time activities, feel the peaceful rhythm of a night sleep in the barangay’s homestay program.
The main program on the evening of April 29, a Wednesday, is highlighted by the presence of Ifugao Rep. Solomon Chungalao. He is the program’s keynote speaker.
Many can’t help to describe the guest of honor’s valued presence into a billing approximately as this one: REPRESENTATIVE SOLOMON R. CHUNGALAO, What Everyone Needs to Know of a Tried and Tested Leader.
Rep. Chungalao is expected to exhort villagers and other participants to continue working together with the officialdom and rally around the leadership of the incumbent village chieftain for the betterment of society.
Rep. Chungalao, chair of the committee on agrarian reform at the House of Representatives, shall be introduced by Little Tadian Elementary School principal Marie Taganas, a resident of this barangay.
Chungalao, also a lawyer, as in previous terms shall take the lead in lauding barangay government officials of this predominantly farming town for their exemplary performance since 2017.
Even long before the fiesta, Rep. Chugalao congratulated the Sto. Domingo Barangay Council for its timeliness in expanding delivery of fundamental services to the people.
A touching moment of the program may well take place during the reading of the Sto. Domingo Barangay Council’s resolution bestowing the status of an “Adopted Son” of the barangay to Rep. Chungalao for his “invaluable contributions” to the barangay.
Sto. Domingo Barangay Council is currently headed by Punong Barangay Jovito Valenzuela, one of the most outstanding barangay captains in Alfonso Lista and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
“This is the best time to showcase the gains of Barangay Sto. Domingo through the solidarity of the people, hard work of barangay council officials and all-out support of Congressman Solomon Chungalao,” Punong Barangay Valenzuela told the ZigZag Weekly.
“Residents, visitors and all other participants will have fun-filled and memorable experiences during the barangay fiesta,” he added.
In an exclusive interview with the ZigZag Weekly, Punong Barangay Valenzuela stressed the vitality of proactive leadership in the grassroots level. “Today, the wisdom of good and responsive governance is widely viewed and appreciated by the people as the key to ensuring progress in their communities,” he said.
Fulfilling a strong desire to be relevant and responsive to the needs of the people, most especially the poor, Punong Barangay Valenzuela and the other barangay council officials have come up with high-impact development projects and well-attuned programs to better serve the vast majority of their constituents. Thus, they have been commended by various sectors for their splendid actions.
Verily, leaders in the business, professional and agriculture sectors issued the call for Punong Barangay Valenzuela and his kagawads (councilmen) to persist and persevere in their mission to help villagers face the future with confidence.
“Doing so, you live up to the promise to the people that ‘their future’ is your utmost concern,” Jesus Domingo pointed out. Domingo, a Department of Agriculture awardee, owns the popular Rancho Domingo, a vast agriculture estate also known as the Domingo Integrated Organic Farm.
Domingo is the chairman of the Tourism Council of Alfonso Lista. He is expected to actively take part in the barangay fiesta together with businessman and civic leader Paul Perlado, the tourism council’s vice chairman.
Cultural dance numbers are to be performed during the main program. The Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) has been tasked to take charge of an event for the youth sector. Other activities for farmers, fisher folk, women and senior citizens are being eyed by barangay fiesta organizers.
The Sto. Domingo Barangay Fiesta 2020 will also be holding different sports events for the young that show their prowess and physical fitness.
There is a recommendation for the barangay council to put up a trade fair. The barangay’s products are to be showcased in booths. Prominent products include Lakay Berto’s mushroom chicharon, Grilled tilapia of a fish farm in the barangay should also be a crowd drawer. Various fruits and corn products are to be displayed.
A food fair shall also complement the trade fair where delicacies are to be prepared for sale to the public. Since coconut trees are abundant in the barangay, iced cold buko (coconut) juice is a must-sale item. By-products such as buko pie, buko tarts and buko pastillas are likely to attract attention among the buying public.
A fiesta is incomplete without the “lechon” (roasted pig). What do you do with one or two? Sell it by the kilo or let the visitors and barangay council officials eat it as a sign to dispel the African Swine Fever (ASF) fears. While the practice may have been considered ideal for some Filipinos outside of the CAR, others knew it isn’t a uniform practice.
For both the trade and food fairs, Punong Barangay sounded his full support for such an undertaking.
The much-awaited fiesta shall also serve as a major gathering of barangay, municipal and provincial government officials. Governor Jerry Dalipog and Vice Governor Glenn Prudenciano, a former mayor of Alfonso Lista, are expected to attend the program.
Main venue of the fiesta’s activities is the gymnasium, the barangay-operated facility up for expansion situated next to the mammoth Barangay Hall. The gym’s expansion and improvement works are reportedly to be funded by Rep. Chungalao.
Two major road projects in the barangay are attributed to funds infused by Rep. Chungalao. These are the Php 18 million two-lane concreting of a road leading to the 1,000 steps site to the bird-watching site 1 at Sitio Minanga. The construction works prior to the COVID-19 health crisis quarantine were ongoing.
The Department of Agriculture (DA), through Secretary William Dar, gave the green light for the Sto. Domingo Barangay Council to implement another Php 21 million road project related to its water needs. The COVID-19 crisis temporarily sidelined its validation work.
Barangay Sto. Domingo has three puroks and three sitios. It is the home of about 2,300 peace-loving and law-abiding people. It has about 500 households. Barangay Sto. Domingo ranks third largest in terms of number of registered voters in the town’s 20 barangays. The village has a land area of 1,876.19 hectares. Cash-crops raised by farmers include corn, rice, vegetables and fruits. Fishery and hog raising are important sources of income by villagers.
Tourism is very pertinent today in the barangay with the financial wealth being brought in by local and foreign tourists during their visit to the barangay’s popular but largely underdeveloped attractions.
At the veranda of the second floor of the municipal hall, one gets a panoramic view of rolling hills nestled on an unspoiled landscape. Well, this is certainly not a scene from a Hollywood movie. It is absolutely real!
Corn fields burst with breathe of life. For one, it is hard to refute the fact that Alonso Lista is the “corn granary” of Ifugao. A trip to these fields offers the Metro Manila visitor or the German tourist a way to put aside the preoccupations of one’s busy life by means of understanding and appreciating the difference between “planting” and “harvesting” of corn.
The barangay’s transformation from an obscure and sleepy village into a vibrant and bustling one is a point of interest by itself. It used to be called Barangay Cabicalan. Early settlers were the Domingo families.
In the same interview, Punong Barangay Valenzuela explained at length the historical changes in the barangay, the pioneering spirit of the people to overcome hardships and the role of the kagawads, barangay health workers, barangay nutrition scholars, tanods (watchmen), members of the lupon ng mga tagapamayapa (conciliation panel) and other personnel. For the record, the Sto. Domingo barangay government has 123 employees. All of them with identification cards (IDs).
The kagawads are Romulo Galapon, Eduardo Domingo, Juan Bacani Sr., Mauricio Tomas, Benedict Taganas, Elsa Tomas and Domingo Galapon. Clarence Tumolba is the SK chairman. The barangay secretary is Maritess de la Cruz. Jennifer Valdez is the barangay treasurer.
Much had changed in Barangay Sto. Domingo since the time of its founding Domingo families opted to reside here. New facilities had risen. New faces have appeared. New leaders have taken the cudgel of setting the direction. Yet all this is deeply rooted in the Almighty Creator, present in the people’s faith. He had given the blessings and wisdom to villagers to choose well-meaning, competent and dedicated leaders to chart their destiny at the Sangguniang Barangay. With God’s blessings, Barangay Sto. Domingo would further grow and adapt to the global order- a future that now beams with the promise of putting up all-important facilities such as an airport, a by-pass or connector road all the way to Lamut town, a public high school and tourism pavilion. All in Barangay Sto. Domingo and all in a not-so-distant time. If they all follow their hearts! **By Anthony A. Araos
