A Blooming Town of the North

LIVING in a big city, blinded by sparkling lights, shopping malls and fashion boutiques and having been acquainted and surrounded by people of different faces from different races, makes me feel elated, heavenly blessed and proud to be an Ilokana, San Nicolaeno – by heart and by blood.

Truly, I really do miss my hometown.

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A welcoming paradise of goodworks, haven of prosperity and success, wagon of excellent leaderships, vehicle for every youth’s dream, an institution, which shapes one’s distinctiveness and cascade of smiles and happiness are descriptions of my town.

The phrase “small but terrible” best describes the municipality.

Considered as the smallest town in Ilocos Norte, composed of only 24 barangays, San Nicolas made its way to be a progressive first-class municipality in the province.

The present name of San Nicolas was given in the year 1733, after Saint Nicholas de Tolentino who was believed to have protected the people against floods, earthquakes, fires, typhoons and other calamities. It is significant that in Ilocos Norte, only San Nicolas was named after a Saint.

San Nicolas, small yet blooming town of the North, exudes progressiveness and vitality. The recently built 365 center, mall and the under-construction a few storeys high condominium are proof that San Nicolas is undeniably a center for industrialization and commercialization.

Combating its way as a progressive and developed town, San Nicolaenos strongly managed to preserve its rich culture, traditions, ethnicity and festivities.

Damili or pottery is what makes the town famous.

It is, in truthfulness of words, a competing universal product which gives nobility and glory to the town. The process is not as easy as what many people have assumed.

It goes through a lot of procedure, from molding the clay to perfectly crafting it into variety of shapes and designs, is really a lot of work to do and entails a lot of time.

Damili mirrors a true San Nicolaeno – hard-working, patient, firm, and well crafted with good deeds and virtues.

The “banga” (pot) is used for cooking rice, dalikan (clay stove), and malabi (water jar) are the main products of damili. The “agdam-damili” (people who does pottery), mostly from Barangays 8 and 9, was actually exceptional and gifted with molding hands in creating different kinds of pots and even vases too. They do not only utilize ordinary clay in making pots.

They use the red variety, which is abundant in the Ilocos region. Aside from pots, the red clay is also being used to create the beautiful damili tiles used as flooring for various structures like the Fort Ilocandia Resort, Laoag International Airport, and the Marcos Mansion.

To give recognition to damili, San Nicolas celebrates the Damili Festival every year. The said festival started last 2004 and is fruitfully continuing at its 6th year this coming December.

Damili festival is participated by all the 24 barangays, depicting the damili industry with colorful costumes, dances and reenactments.

Aside from pottery, TUBO (sugar cane) industry is also renowned in the town. Taguiporonians (from barangay 23 Taguiporo) makes assortment of products out of sugar cane like lambanog (sugar cane wine), palinang (sweetening), and suka (sugar cane vinegar).

Food is a prime craving of every individual. And again, my hometown San Nicolas offers the most palatable “longganisa” ever. Made of grind pork meat, best suit for bagoong and kamatis (tomato), longganisa is a dish that gives delightment on every chew.

The municipality of San Nicolas also endures month-long celebration last December. Various activities spiced up the said centennial celebration.

Among the highlights of the event included a sports festival, search for Binibining San Nicolas, agro-industrial trade fair and exhibit, art exhibit, street dancing, a historical photo contest dubbed “San Nicolas: Photographs and Memories of a Hundred Years, and a zarzuela titled, “San Nicolas, Ili Nagtaudak.”

A centennial marker and a commemorative stamp was also inaugurated.

San Nicolas is indeed a town, disgranted with beautiful and stunning beaches, hence, granted with embracing and breath-taking panoramic view at the newly-renovated town plaza, the casa Nicolas or the souvenir shop, and the welcoming ambiance of the Municipal Hall.

The concerted efforts of the administration and the townspeople paved the way for the Local Government Unit (LGU) of San Nicolas to bag three major awards in the recently concluded CY 2007 Regional Development Council (RDC) - Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Performance Awards on March 24, 2008 at the Cabugao Beach Resort, Cabugao, Ilocos Sur. 

Among the awards received by the municipality includes first runner-up for the Best Performing LGU-based on the Local Government Performance Monitoring System, second runner-up for the Best LGU Practices with the entry: Sustainable Mini-Farming Through Bio-Intensive Gardening, and second runner-up for the cleanest, safest and greenest municipality, all for the 1st-3rd class municipality category from Gov. Deogracias Victor Savellano of Ilocos Sur (RDC Chairman), and ARD Ernesto V. Datuin (RDC Secretary).

The municipality has the most number of awards received during the conferment of RDC Awards, which put the municipality in the limelight once again. 

From countless awards and achievements, San Nicolas rings from the walls of the province and in the country and even in my heart and mind.