(Photo collage courtesy of Magallanes FB account)
MAGALLANES, Cavite -- What a way to prove this town’s claim to fame as Cavite’s “sweetest” upland municipality than to showcase on Thursday its “Muscovado Festival” which coincides with the local government unit’s 103rd founding anniversary.
Mayor Jasmin Maligaya-Bautista, along with Vice Mayor Renato Dimapilis, local officials and townsfolk, gathered at the municipal square in front of the historic town hall for opening of the two-day celebration from March 14 to 15 to showcase the town's wide array of organic and native sugarcane-based products.
Bautista led the opening ceremony for the Muscovado Festival and Agri-Trade Fair at the town plaza with the festivities’ theme "Bawat Ngiti ng Tagumpay sa Bawat Magalleñ ay Alay"(An offering of every Magallen’s smile of success).
“This annual celebration marks the town’s thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest and its transformation from a barrio of adjacent Maragondon in 1916 into a separate and 4th class municipality,” Bautista said.
She said the muscovado sugar and sugar-based products take center stage as the “One Town One Product (OTOP)” through the initiative of the 350-member Magallanes Women’s Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MAWCO).
Monaliza Nepomuceno, municipal tourism officer, said the opening festivities also highlighted 17 school children and youths, donned in colorful costumes for the parade and street dance depicting the muscovado products at the town plaza.
She said the town also engaged the town’s Sangguniang Kabataan (youth council) Federation for their youth forum at the evacuation center here.
“During the two-day festival run, Mayor Bautista also serves as solemnizing officer for a mass wedding while the local civil registrar also facilitates the distribution of certificates of live birth to concerned constituents,” Nepomuceno added.
Friday’s events include the Sama-Summer Zumba at 6 a.m. which will highlight the town’s Women’s Month celebration.
The local government also offers free Pap smear and breast exams for the women and a blood-letting activity at the Rural Health Center at the town proper.
The two-day festival also features a car show and the “Day and Night Market Banchetto ala Magallanes” participated in by the town’s 16 villages. (PNA)
