Pav-vurulun Festival!

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MAYOR RANDY TING AND THE PAV-VURULUN SPIRIT

Pav-vurulun means oneness or a sense of belongingness. It is in this context that Tuguegarao City annually celebrates its patronal fiesta. The week-long celebration is dubbed as a festival of activities.

The true Pav-vurulun spirit is not easy to attain. Cultural differences, as well as differing political affiliations and social orientations make for the difficulty in cooking up a sense of unity. Engineering the Pav-vurulun spirit requires genius and a lot of sweat.

But Tuguegarao City succeeds where others fail. A young man - Randy - has led over three terms of sanity and a working democracy in this northeastern center of excellence. A professed “transparency” executive, Mayor Randy S. Ting has amassed awards from various sectors for exemplary governance. His work ethic inspires people to set aside their differences and work together notwithstanding the discomfort.

The Pav-vurulun spirit is alive and well in Tuguegarao City. For as long as Mayor Randy is around.

SEARCHING FOR A TRUE PAGEANT WINNER

Tuguegaraoeños share the same favorite pastime among all Filipinos - beauty pageants.

This show is a spectacle parade of beauties in wondrously embellished gowns and shapely swimsuits. It is a grand exposure for young women to develop their talents and skills. It can also be a great venue for some women to voice out their opinions and become functional in society. Yet, there are others who see beauty pageants as nothing more than mere entertainment and a casual parade of flesh. For the male population in Tuguegarao, this is the most-awaited activity of the Pav-vurulun Festival. It is an occasion when their eyes feast with delight in the parade of beauties.

The city government conducts Miss Tuguegarao Pageant during fiesta celebration for how many years already. It has become a tradition, as old as the institution itself. This project gets the largest chunk of the cultural budget at P.6M this year. With the biggest budget allocation, this program does not only help young women but also other people.

Activities like these give chance to our fellowmen, most especially gay people, to make a living. This is a time for them to showcase their artistry in applying make-up and in conceptualizing the elements needed in various competitions for the pageant, from formal wear to festival costume. All these are intended for the promotion of our culture. Above these things, let us not forget that our main objective is to promote Tuguegarao’s culture and history as we celebrate in the Pav-vurulun spirit.

This year, we have a new set of candidates. Hopefully, we can draw from this batch a true pageant winner: someone who could confidently saunter it off through the contest and make the competition mean something beyond the usual catwalk, someone who can prove to people that a pageant can also showcase smarts and substance.

So that whoever will emerge as this year’s Miss Tuguegarao, she can confidently represent us and likewise, we, Tuguegaraoeños will proudly embrace her as our ambassadress.

Highlighting the eight-day Pav-vurulun Festival, 15 candidates vying for the Miss Tuguegarao crown came, “showed” and conquered the eager crowd at the People’s Gym last night where candidate number 11, Yvonne Sonja Groth bested 14 other candidates to win the title of Miss Tuguegarao City 2006.

Groth, who is half-Filipino and half-German also bagged Best in Talent, Broadway costume and Gown as well as other corporate awards such as Miss Myra-E, Ms. Manel’s Total and Ms. R.B. Acorda Pawnshop.

The chairman of the board of judges was no less than former Senator Nikki Coseteng who flew all the way from Manila to grace the occasion.

In front of an excited audience, 15 candidates vying for the title Little Miss Tuguegarao City took center stage last August 13, 2006 at the People’s Gymnasium with Millijoy Dennise M. Villanueva taking home the title.

Not even the strong rain can dampen the spirit of these young ladies as they went through the rigors of the beauty contest like pros compared to their adult counterparts.

Coming out in their broadway costume, the contestants brought the house down with their cute and unmatched modeling movements, creating a pandemonium as the audience jeered, shouted, and jumped out of joy and excitement.

Danielle Clare Tomas was crowned Little Miss Tourism, Myrisha Jehn dela Cruz is 1^st runner-up, Precious Ann Donato is 2^nd runner-up and Princess Joi Vidal is 3^rd runner-up.

Little Miss Tuguegarao Millijoy Dennise Villanueva also outsmarted the other contestants by sweeping all minor awards, namely: Best in Broadway Costume, Best in Casual wear and Best in Gown.

This year’s search was made possible under the chairmanship of City Councilor Danilo L. Baccay with full support from the staff of the city government.

The question went this way: “Your parents decided to adopt a child, will you accept him or her as your brother or your sister?”

The answer was: “Yes, I will love her because my parents adopt a child so that I will have someone to play with.”

That was the question and answer portion of Little Miss Tuguegarao 2006 pageant where Millijoy Dennise M. Villanueva, young and talented as she is, answered the question that fascinated not only the judges but also the viewers during the pageant night.

Little Joy-joy, as she is fondly called, is from Libag Norte. She is just six years old but she can already express her thoughts using the English language. She was blessed with very loving and supportive parents, Dennis and Raquel Villanueva who were very proud of their daughter for winning the title.

PANCIT FESTIVAL AND THE PAV-VURULUN SPIRIT

Tuguegaraoeños are pancit-lovers. Go around and you can find a “pancitan” in every nook and cranny of the city.

The favorite Pancit Tuguegarao is called “pancit batil-patung”. It was called as such because the egg, which is cooked sunny side-up, is set on top of the noodles poured with meat and vegetables. The noodle, which is “miki” in the native tongue, is the main ingredient made from flour.

Pancit has become a staple of the Ibanags. It has become a favorite pastime. It has become Tuguegaraoeños’ way of life.

In 2003, the city government launched Pancit Festival as one of the activities of the weeklong fiesta celebration. The activity is a competition where fastest pancit-eaters are drawn from men and women category.

“Nu egga pav-vurulunan, pancit batil patung y mearrubang.” So goes the message printed in the shirts given to participants. In the Pav-vurulun spirit, we share “pancit”.

This year, we continue the three-year old custom, gathering all men and women from different barangays to challenge the record of eating ¾ kilos of freshly-cooked pancit consumed in 1 minute and .08 seconds last year. It’s a tough act to follow.

This is the challenge to this year’s contenders. The challenge to all of us, on the other hand, is to let the Pav-vurulun spirit be prolonged and more binding among us. This year, may the whole community feast in spirit and in the stomach. Let us all unite and shout “Long-live Tuguegarao City!”