MABALACAT CITY The name of the city’s annual Caragan Festival was changed to 'Balakat Festival.'
City Tourism Officer Arwin Lingat said the new name encompasses the origin of the city’s name.
“The change intends to correct the wrong impression created by the previous festival name that the Aetas are the ancestors of the people of Mabalacat,” Lingat shared during Pampanga Press Club’s News at Hues press briefing at Park Inn by Radisson Clark on February 22.
Lingat also read a message from one of the city’s advisers Robby Tantingco.
“The change will also bring the focus back to what makes Mabalacat great—the beauty of the land and the strength and resilience of the people, as symbolized by the balakat tree,” Tantingco’s message read.
He also said the Balakat Festival celebrates the city’s real origin, which is not the Aeta chieftain, but the balakat tree, the message reads.
“There is no other place anywhere in the country or the world named after this tree,” Tantingco, who also head of the Center for Kapampangan Studies, said.
He added that the Balakat Festival has a greater name recall because it comes from the city’s name itself and is more inspirational because it resonates more with the people of Mabalacat themselves, not their Aeta brothers and sisters.
“Balakat is more than just a tree. Balakat is fortitude, stability and resilience. Balakat is the heart and soul of the city. Balakat is the spirit of its people rising to the sky. When you say ‘Mabalacat,’ you are not just referring to a place that is full of balakat trees, but to someone who is full of fortitude, stability and resilience. Thus: Kapampangan ku. Mabalacat ku. I am a Kapampangan. I am a Mabalakat. Masikan ku. Matatag ku. Mabalakat ku,” Tantingco said.
The Balakat Festival will kick off on February 27 with “Barangaynihan”, where the services of the city will be taken to the barangays in four clustered venues – San Rafael Village (Feb. 27), Bical (Feb. 28), Duquit (March 1) , and Sta. Ines (March 2).
Lingat said among the services which will be made available to the Mabalacat residents are heath and social services, civil registration, business permits and licenses, as well as legal services.
Serving as a pilot program, this will become a quarterly activity, he added.
Also a highlight of the festival, which commemorates the 311th year of Mabalacat as a town are caravans for employment and for farmers, as well the opening of the Agro-Industrial Trade and Food Expo Pavilions.
There will also be a tree planting activity of balakat seedlings on March 1, which aims to promote awareness that the trees still exist around the city up to the present time.
Another change in the annual celebration is the inclusion of all its 27 barangays, where each will be given a space to put up their own trade fair to be headed by the barangay councils.
In addition is the Miss Mabalacat beauty pageant, where candidates are from all the barangays of the city.
According to Lingat, Mayor Crisostomo Garbo sees this as a promotion of a sense of belongingness to all the people of Mabalacat who are rooting for the candidate of their respective barangay.
The coronation night of the pageant will be on March 2, 7 PM, at the SMX Convention Center located at the SM City Clark complex.
Lingat said with the new festival, Garbo wants everything to be cohesive and inclusive.