P’sinan town celebrates Guinness feat

STO. TOMAS, Pangasinan – Giant streamers greeted Sto. Tomas residents yesterday as local officials led the groundbreaking of a marker celebrating the town’s Guinness record for the world’s longest barbecue.

Mayor Vivien Villar and Vice Mayor Timoteo Villar III said the corn marker would remind the townsfolk of their record-breaking feat for staging a 3,803.96-meter long barbecue using their native product, the white glutinous corn, during their Corn Festival last February.

Villar received the certificate with the Guinness seal from the London-based Guinness World Records Ltd. last Wednesday afternoon.

It read: “The longest barbecue measured 3,803.96 m (12,480 ft 2 in) and was created by Municipality of Santo Tomas (Philippines) in Santo Tomas, Pangasinan, Philippines on 11 February 2008.”

An accompanying letter dated June 27, 2008 stated: “Welcome to the very select club of Guinness World Record holders.”

“We dreamed. We dared and worked hard to achieve our goal. And now, we would like to officially announce to you that we made it,” Villar said in a press conference.

“We now have in our hands the proof of our victory, the sweet fruit of our labor,” she added. “This made our centennial celebration last February truly a most memorable moment in our lives.”

Villar described the Guinness feat as “one historic moment for us as we proved to the whole world that size is not a hindrance to achieve one’s goal in life.”

“Although Sto. Tomas is the smallest town in Pangasinan, we are very proud to get a world crown through our longest barbecue and this is one big accomplishment, one big good news, one big shining moment for us, our province and the country as well,” she said.

To celebrate the world record, Villar said her husband, Undersecretary Antonio Villar Jr., chief of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group, gifted their constituents with a new Ford ambulance marked Rescue 101.

For his part, Vice Mayor Villar, who chaired the Corn Festival, said, “Remain focused despite the hindrances or blunders. And most of all, you must never quit. We won because we persevered and we were united.”

Sto. Tomas’ feat outclassed the previous record – 1,493.2 meters – of Montevideo, Uruguay.

With the Guinness record, municipal agriculturist Chrisanto Balila is optimistic that Sto. Tomas will now earn the tag “corn capital of the world.”

The town has 352 hectares planted to hybrid yellow corn, and another 15 hectares to white glutinous corn, the one used in the grilling.

“If Dagupan City, also a record holder in 2003, is known as the ‘bangus (milkfish) capital of the world,’ our town, using our white glutinous corn, shall also be known as having the sweetest corn in the world,” Mayor Villar said.