The century-old bullfighting or ‘Pasungay’ event held every third Saturday of January in the municipality of San Joaquin, Iloilo province has been declared an important cultural property by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP). ‘It’s a requirement for us to be able to prove that it is not a form of entertainment, it’s part of our way of life, it’s an intrinsic cultural activity that we have in San Joaquin,’ tourism officer Erlyn Alunan said in an interview on Monday. She said the event which features a fight between two raging bulls, is part of Ilonggos’ pre-planting practice called ‘Panidlak.’ ‘The strongest bull is used by farmers to break the ground with the belief that it will have a higher yield. That is why they would always use the strongest bull to break their ground to start cultivating their land,’ Alunan said. Pasungay was temporarily put on hold in 2019 and 2020 due to issues raised by animal welfare groups and resumed only last year. Alunan said they don’t want Pasungay to put their municipality in a bad light for violating a law. ‘We just have to prove to them that it is really an important cultural property,’ she said, adding that it is now listed in the June 10, 2023 publication of the Talapamana ng Pilipinas or the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Alunan said the NCCA has expressed that the event does not violate any law on animal rights. ‘Although we have been doing that for a long time and we all acknowledge that it is the cultural property of the people of San Joaquin and the town of San Joaquin, we have to put it in writing, we have to make laws to support that and to prove that we are compliant with what is required of us,’ she added. The tourism officer said the earliest record of Pasungay was in the 1900s and by the 1920s there were already photos of the event. Last April 18, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Iloilo also declared as legal and valid the municipal ordinance declaring Pasungay as an intangible cultural property that was passed by the Sangguniang Bayan of San Joaquin on Jan. 16.
Source: Philippines News Agency
