Consider the entire archipelago of the Republic of the Philippines. With its three major group of islands, 17 regions, 80 provinces, 94, 388,044 total population (2011), and a total land area of 343,449.4 (Philippine map). Would you imagine knowing something about an unknown little town off the isle of Cebu? With a large percentage of people preferring urban zones rather than rural districts, I bet many do not even know this place at all.
BADIAN, as it is so-called was baptized its name after by either the natives or the Spaniards themselves founded it in 1746. Its name, according to legend, was derived from an edible plant called Badyang or “elephant ears” in common name. These plants were ample in the place long ago during the Spanish era. It has a land area with a size of 11, 007 hectares and is one of the municipalities in the province of Cebu. It is bounded on the north by the municipality of Moalboal; on the south by the municipality of Alegria; on the east by the municipalities of Dalaguete and Argao; and on the west by Tañon Strait (Wikipedia.com).
To get to our “famous” hometown, one must ride an air-conditioned or ordinary bus at the South Bus Terminal. Then, he must be ready to engage himself on a 3-hour maximum trip, with a stopover of more or less than 15-minutes at Shamrock Barili. During the whole duration of the journey, there will be lots of vendors who will mount the bus to sell various mouth-watering delicacies such as chicharon, mani, banana chips, ampao, bucarillo, etc. Oh! Those scrumptious foods. If one were not cautious enough, he would forget how to be a wise spender in a spur of a moment. Upon arrival, one could find numerous modes of transportation such as the pedicab, trysikad, habal2x and multicabs scattered around the place waiting for passengers to require their services and take them to their destination.
The Badianganons- this is the official moniker of the people of Badian, Cebu, Philippines. With the place known to be a little primitive because of the fact that there are not so many infrastructures built in the locality, the population seems not to be called “much”. Of course, major business would have slim chances to prosper in our municipality because it is excessively far from the heart of the queen city of the south. Another reason is that, most of the people in the locality belong at the bottom of the hierarchy of classes. Sad but true.
In the vicinity of the locale, people from all lifestyles have a polarity of occupations and sources of income. In the municipality, there is a government hospital and a health centre located in Poblacion so there are also doctors, nurses, midwives, nutritionists, dieticians and pharmacists. In addition, there are also some people who work as government employees and police officers at the town’s municipal hall. Others work as schoolteachers. Some are just self-employed and sell goods at sari-sari stores in their respective residences or merchandises in the public market. Of course, there are also fishermen and farmers who constitute at most 50% of the population of the working class. Most people in Badian make most of their living in catching aquatic creatures in the water and sowing land in green pastures and brown soil. But according to some, there are other forms of money-making.
“There is one other way to make money. It is through Banig weaving and it has been passed to us from our katigulangans,” said Laudencia Gaco who is a 52-year old wife of a farmer. “It is because since I was young my mother and my grandparents weave mats for a living or sometimes just for the house. Then, they taught all of us eight siblings to weave especially us girls since we are the ones who are supposed to stay at the house and do the chores. My two brothers usually go to the field to work with my father and do the heavy stuffs,” she added in Cebuano.
“There are three reasons why poor people make every possible way to make money,” said Anecitas Carbero, another farmer’s wife. “First, we deserve to live. Second, we need to survive. Third, we have families and we have lots of kids,” exclaimed Manang Necing in Cebuano.
Most of the farmers’ wives resort to low paying occupations such as Banig weaving mainly because according to what I have observed during my seven years of residency in the locality, they do not have diplomas and good educational background. It is mostly because most of them have not finished elementary schooling or have not gone to school at all. Another reason is that the wages of their husbands are not enough to support their daily needs. Sometimes, they cannot even eat a complete meal three times a day. In addition, there is a high rate of unemployment nowadays. The only decent jobs left for farmers’ wives to work on are being yayas, helpers, and errand-girls. No more, no less.
For those who do not know, Banig is a handwoven mat usually made from pandan or palm leaves. The making of this humble mat is a very tiresome and complex process, especially that the farmers’ wives don’t have high-tech weaving machines. They make banig using their calloused brown hands. According to Nanay Laudencia, there are six (6) main steps in how they make the local banig. First, they gather all the pandan leaves which can be found abundant in the locality, mainly in the mountainous areas. Second, they boil the pandan leaves into hot water with dye for about more or less than four hours or so. Third, they hang the dyed leaves under the heat of the sun until they completely dry up. Fourth, they cut the leaves into strips using a knife or anything sharp. Lastly, they weave the colourful strips into plaits until they form the cool and comfortable banig. After the long process of hardworking, the humble mat is ready to be slept on. The whole process of cutting, dyeing and weaving would take an average weaver two to five weeks if done alone.
As time passes by, the local weavers have continued to improve their skills especially the uses of the banig they produce. There are several factors for the amazing transformation that they had. First, people in the locality prefer soft, warm and fluffy beds than the hard, cool and flat banig mats. Second, they earn only a few in selling the banig mats that they so carefully made with hard work and sweat. Lastly, since people are tired of mats, they have decided to make it into something more useful like using banig as the main material in making bags.
It has been more than bags. It’s really more than that. After many years of a kind of work that seemed to be a daily routine for local farmers’ wives, they must have gotten bored with all those mats and bags from banig that they started to invent other forms of its uses. Now, as I walk around the town market, I could see wallets, lampshades, mini-bags, earrings, pencil cases, place mats, attaché cases and much more of other stuffs of all shapes and sizes that are made from multicoloured banig. From that perspective one could really see from these masterpieces that these local weavers are greatly talented and creative as well.
Every year in the month of July, the same month as of the celebration of the festivity of our town’s patron saint, Saint James the Apostle, we commemorate the festivity of the Banig festival. The whole town will be covered with colourful banderitas, streamers and banners made from banig. Annually, there will be a series of events to be held such as bazaar and exhibition, street dancing, Banig beauty pageant and so on and so forth. These will be held in order to highlight the different things that denote the pride of being a Badianganon.
During the Pasigarbo sa Sugbo, an annual event which showcases the different town festivals in the province of Cebu, Banig festival participates and continues to make the name of the land where it came from more visible and known to the people of other places. With the help of the Banig fest, the once unknown, primitive municipality became one of the most visited places in the Province of Cebu mainly for its local tourist spots and featured souvenir items.
Now, I am miles away from home because of my aim in pursuing college education at the University of the Philippines Cebu. But through that fleeting distance, I still think of that wonderful town and its equally wonderful people especially the farmers’ wives who have already been stereotyped as banig weavers. The various intricate designs tell much about the diversity of their way of living and their creative attitudes. All in all, the Badianganons live a simple life, just like the banig. But in each and every soul holds a colourful story that only they could tell.
The various forms and uses of the now famous banig tell many people about the variety of the Badianganons’ customs and traditions as a whole as well as their struggles for a healthier life in the contemporary world we now live in. One can see the artistic abilities of these folks despite the problems in their neighbourhood and particularly their families. In their own little ways, they strive to prove to everyone that they can be the best.
Bibliography:
Other sources:
Philippine map
Philippine map
Badian annual fiesta magazines
