During my June 3-6 2000 visit of Calapan City, I received and accepted a standing invitation from Jose Victor “Vic” E.M. Pascua, Senior Provincial Tourism Operations Officer, to attend the forthcoming June 24 town fiesta of Pola. The 14 other municipalities of Mindoro Oriental were then in the thick of preparations for the coming 50th foundation anniversary of the province on November 15 of that year. This would be a first for me as I have never attended a “real” town fiesta before.  I decided to bring along Jandy.

Jandy and I left very early in the morning of June 24 on a BLTB bus for the 3-hr./112-km. trip to Batangas City, the ferry port to Mindoro.   We arrived by 8 PM and took the  45-min. Aboitiz Supercat fast ferry to Calapan City.  We were picked up by Ms. Tess Gaeg of the Tourism Office and ushered into a van for the 70-km. trip to Pola.  Joining us was Ms. Mayette Sanchez, also of the Tourism Office. We drove at a fast clip, passing by beautiful Lake Naujan, the towns of Victoria and Socorro (where we made a left turn at the junction) and arrived at the town by 10 AM.

The fluvial parade

At the town, we were welcomed by Vic who arrived ahead of us.  We arrived just in time to witness the town’s morning fluvial parade where the statue of San Juan Bautista (St.  John the Baptist) was given a ritual spin around Pola Bay accompanied by a flotilla of outrigger boats. The fully-packed and gaily-decorated boat carrying the statue soon arrived at the wharf.  Every one aboard was drenched with sea water including the marching band and their instruments.   Once alighted, the statue was again paraded from the wharf back to the church on a carroza pulled by its drenched escorts.

Parada ng Lechon

We were invited to the home of Mr. Alfredo V. “Aljun” Rabulan,  Pola Mayor Jose V. Baldos Jr.’s private secretary.  Well-preserved, the house had high ceilings, decorative double eaves, ventanillas, narra plank flooring, capiz windows and period furniture and santos.  However, unlike the Rabulan house, other ancestral houses in the town were in a sorry state of disrepair due to age and the disintegrating effects of the tropical weather.  After refreshments, we were told to change into the more informal shorts and T-shirts as we were to catch up with the street dancing and lechon parade, the highlight of the celebrations. Joining me, Jandy, Vic, Tess and Mayette were our guides, the petite  Ms. Tiny Sanchez (I really thought she was just a child, actually she was married with kids) and the taller and more mature-looking Ms. Dimple Ocampo.

Everyone in the town seemed to be out on the streets, all dressed casually as we were and dancing to the beat of the competing marching bands.  The street dancing reached competition levels as many contingents from the different barangays and schools tried to outdo each other for the top prize.  However, nothing beats the spectacle of the Parada ng Lechon, the toast (and roast) of the fiesta. This unusual and tempting parade of dressed up lechons featured the crispy roasted pigs, golden brown and glistening in the sun in their spits, suitably attired as firemen, policemen, beauty queens and basketball players (complete with shades, rubber shoes and medals). One from the local cable company had a satellite disk for an umbrella.  The lechons delicious aroma was all over the air and truly, this fiesta highlights the Filipinos’ love for food.

The winning lechon

All these proceedings were done with the blessing of the great baptizer St. John the Baptist whose image was borne atop a fire truck.  To signify his approval, all amused onlookers within reach of the fire hoses were doused in a ritual buhusan reminiscent of Christ’s baptism in the River Jordan.  So far, I, as well as my other companions, have escaped being “baptized.”  All these changed as we neared the parade’s end as a substantial amount of water hit us squarely in our faces.  We all entered the town’s gym drenched as a newborn chick.  Our predicament became all the more noticeable, as our group (me, Tess and Mayette), being honored guests, were made judges in the lechon competition, all wet and unsuitably garbed.  All these proceedings were filmed and later shown in its entirety at the town’s cable channel television.  I looked like the dressed-up pig I was judging.  Who won?  The basketball player, who else.

What is a fiesta without food?  Not a fiesta of course!  In the true Filipino tradition, food takes center stage.  Right after the parade, the feasting and drinking began.  We were warned to just take a nip of everything that was offered as we had to make the rounds of different houses. Advise taken but never followed.  Anyway, who can resist the tasty temptations offered in every household?  The usual fare, to name a few: lechon, rellenong bangus (stuffed milkfish), kare-kare (ox tail in peanut sauce), adobong manok (chicken stew), laing (taro leaves with shrimps in coconut cream), inihaw na baboy (barbecued pork), callos (ox tripe and knuckles in garlic tomato sauce), bulalo (beef shank in onion broth) and   pinakbet (vegetable stew).

For dessert, we had a choice of leche flan (custard), maja blanca (blancmange of corn and coconut cream), guinatan (fruit and yam stew), halo halo (melange of sweetened fruits and pulses) and gulaman at buko sa pandan (coconut jelly dessert). And don’t forget to wash it down with the Philippines’ unofficial national drink: San Miguel beer.  A truly Bacchanalian feast!  By the time we reached our third house, I couldn’t take any more.  After we have stuffed ourselves full, we now engaged in the country’s newest past-time: videoke singing.  No one was exempted as we sang our hearts out to the young and old tunes of Madonna or Frank Sinatra.

Filipinos appreciate beauty more than anything else and a town fiesta is never complete without a beauty contest.  In the afternoon, another procession (Parada ng Bayan) was held for Pola’s crop of beauty queens, all dressed in ornamented gowns of white, and led by Ms. Rosszen Yorkah Nueva Rivera, Miss  Pola 2000  as well as Miss Oriental Mindoro Tourism 2000.  Instead of carrozas, they were uniquely paraded around town on tricycles.   After the excitement and camaraderie of this whole-day affair, Vic and Aljun checked us in into one of the town’s homestays, another ancestral house. Although the town (and many others for that matter) don’t have any hotels or lodging houses, it does have a homestay program for visiting guests and tourists.

Fiestas continue all through the night up to the wee hours of the morning and that evening was no exception as a Barangay Night (disco dancing at the gym) was to be held with Gov. Rodolfo “RGV” G. Valencia and Mrs. Chalie P. Valencia as guests of honor.  Jandy and I were dead tired by now and I had to politely refuse the invitation to attend. After supper, we retired for the night and fell asleep with the sound of disco music and joyous revelry not far from our ears.

After breakfast, Vic toured us, past mangrove forests and a beach, to the Prayer Park of St. John the Baptist at Tungtong overlooking Pola Bay.  Here, I did some soul searching amidst the quiet and windy chapel surroundings.  After lunch, we packed our stuff as we had make another long 5-hr. land-sea-land trip back to Manila.  Before being dropped off at the Calapan City wharf, we made a short ocular visit to the 50-room Microtel hotel then being constructed by E. Ganzon, Inc., my wife Grace’s outfit.