MANILA, Philippines — Isabela Province recently succesfully held the Bambanti Festival after a two-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Derived from the Ilocano word for scarecrow, Bambanti Festival is a tourism, trade, investment and environment project focusing on the development, marketing and promotion of the province.
In the Bambanti Village located in Isabela capitol, each municipality and city in the province showcased their products in their booth via the Agri-Tourism Exhibit.
Ilagan City won the Agri-Ecotourism Booth contest, followed by Cauayan City, Ramon, San Pablo and Divilican.
@jmilsev22 Bambanti Festival 2023
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Cauayan City won the Street Dance Competition followed by Alicia, Jones, Santiago City and Ilagan.
The festival also had a food and drinks competition. Santiago City won the Makan Ti (food) category, followed by Tumauini and San Agustin. Tumauini, meanwhile, won the Mainum Ti (drinks) category, followed by Santiago City and San Isidro.
San Manuel's Catherine Joy L. Legaspi won as Queen Isabela 2023, Cauayan City's Julie Mae Villanueva won as Queen Isabela Tourism, Ramon's Johanna Trisha C. Cinco bagged the Queen Isabela Culture & Arts title, while Jaycel Lumauig representing the indegenous community ranked 1st runner-up and Alicia's Cherry Lee Garlijo is the 2nd runner-up.
With the festival theme “Isabela, Pagharap sa Bagong Hamon ng Kinabukasan,” the festival aimed to develop and market the province through excellent indigenous products locally and internalionaly, thereby providing more employment opportunities for the people of Isabela. It also aimed to showcase, promote and preserve the province's rich cultural heritage, resilience and industry.
The festival's overall champion is Quirino, followed by San Agustin, Ilagan, Alicia, Cauayan City and Echague.
Musical stars KZ Tandingan and Agsunta capped off the festival with great performances.
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