By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
After a hiatus of 2 years, no thanks to the COVID 19 pandemic, Adivay 2022 proudly resumed this year. In a sense, it was a bold move considering that Benguet never had an Alert 1 status for COVID 19. The best that it could muster was Alert 2.
But other festivals in many parts of the Philippines had already resumed, why not Adivay? So on it resumed.
For this year, the theme is “ADIVAY: A peoples’ festival of culture, nature, and the future” . It is supposed to highlight the history, culture, the arts, trade and industry of the people of Benguet. Also, it spotlight’s Benguet as a viable tourism destination.
I hurried to see what remains of the agri-trade fair afternoon of Nov 25. Tried to also roam around the adjacent Adivay trade fair, which was no different from any trade fair in other towns or provinces except for what they sell in some booths. I wasn’t able to visit them earlier due to other activities, including travels to other regions.
No doubt, practically all the booths of the 13 municipalities of Benguet leveled up a bit. It is so evident in the “houses, bridges, the ponds”, and the plants they put up. The designs, the lay-outs are a sight to behold. The landscapings are generally much more pleasant to the eyes compared to the previous editions, starting in 2005 when Adivay started, until 2019. Obviously, there was better planning and maybe more budget to make up for the lost two years of forced interruption, when everyone was hiding from the torment of COVID 19.
Some of the activities included in the celebration of Adivay, such as the battle of the bands were a hit, especially to young people. It was standing room only. Many people just content themselves from hearing though not seeing live the performances on stage, outside of the venue. The cultural part, such as the showcasing of dances was also well attended.
The agri- and trade fairs definitely attracted hordes of visitors day and night, according to those I asked. People were simply longing so much to be part of the revival of hibernated events, and revel in them. This should be a sure signal, a clear motivation to plan even much better for the next one.
At the penultimate day of the fair, the various booths were still in excellent conditions after weeks of opening, showing good anticipatory management by those involved in planning and actual operations.
I saw again some improvements in the products displayed, like in the processing aspect of food, beverage, condiments and others. It’s so nice to see packaging materials, and labeling improved. Other new products were also on display. Cacao tablea, daing together with carrot preserved in bottle, cacao fruits and seedlings, veggie pasta, and oolong tea are some of the new products exhibited.
The booths of Kibungan, La Trinidad and Tublay impressed me most because of their design, lay-out, landscaping and overall aesthetics.
Despite the above upgradings, the rate of progress or the development in other areas leaves much to be desired. While others’ progress are by leaps and bounds, ours is still a crawling one. I still remember writing in one of my column pieces a couple of years before the pandemic that we have a creeping progress. For example, we scarcely note a sign of the use of digitalization in the production or processing of final product. Also, LGUs should craft a program for the development of new small tools or handy machines (even manually-operated) to hasten food production and processing. There are local inventors around just waiting to have such opportunity to showcase their talents. The Dept of Science and Technology, Dept of Trade and Industry, the Philippine Patent Office, and other agencies could help along this line.
The aim of Adivay to showcase history, and also spotlight the tourism potential of the province was not given much attention in the celebrations. Only Kapangan, Tublay and Mankayan provided some glimpse of their history. Tourist attractions were not amply highlighted in the displays of most municipalities. Maybe a separate fair for tourism (attractions, and all) should he held yearly.
For agricultural production, coffee( being the One-Town-One-Poduct or OTOP of at least 3 towns-Bakun, Bokod, Kibungan), ubi, fruits like banana, lanzones and avocado could be declared priority crops in coordination with agencies like Bureau of Agricultural, so the needed financing from government financial institutions maybe easier to access.
In addition, cacao could be the future winner in many parts of Benguet. Its good that it is being given attention in the province at the moment. Benguet could become a major producer of cacao beans in the Philippines. The recent holding of the first Cacao Congress in the province, is a step towards the right direction. The recently established cacao farmers associations in every town could be immediately mobilized to function as it should.
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