Town fiesta of Argao, the land of my birth

COVID or no COVID, pandemic or no pandemic, today the whole town of Argao celebrates the solemnity of the annual fiesta in honor of our patron saint, St. Michael Archangel. Argao is famous for its torta, the most delicious cake in the whole world, and the equally tasty sikwate from its native cacao trees. It has beautiful beaches and the people are warm, friendly, and peace-loving.

Argao is also famous for having produced the greatest Argawanon lawyer, Hilario Gilbolingo Davide Jr., from Colawin, a chief justice, a former assemblyman of the Batasang Pambansa, a delegate to the 1973 Constitutional Convention, commissioner of the 1987 Constitutional Commission, Commission on Elections chairman, and ambassador extraordinary plenipotentiary to the United Nations. Davide is a Magsaysay awardee for public service while his brother Dr. Romulo Davide is also a Magsaysay awardee. They are from the far-flung mountain village of Colawin near the western border with Ronda.

Argao is some 67 kilometers or 42 miles south of Cebu City. It is bordered in the north by the town of Sibonga, and in the south by the town of Dalaguete, in the west by the towns of Ronda, Alcantara, and Moalboal, and in the east by Cebu Strait facing the island province of Bohol. Argao is the home of the famous clans of the Kintanars, the Luceros, the Alcazarens, the Albarracins, the Ortegas, the Gilbolingos, the Almirantes and, of course, the Birondos. My late mom was a Birondo whose ancestors settled in Tulic, a barangay near the poblacion. There was a time that Argao was famous for loom weaving of blankets and also mosquito nets. My great-grandmother, an Aballe married to a Sarmiento, used to make these with my late grandmother and my own mother.

I was born in the small maternity house beside the old municipal building on the feast of Saint Joseph in 1950 and was immediately baptized inside one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. Our ancestral home still stands today in Suba, a small sitio in the poblacion, just a few meters away from the church and the municipio. It is owned by my cousin, the daughter of my mother's younger brother. I like to reminisce about my few years of childhood in Argao in the early ‘60s when I got to study in the old St. Michael Academy, then located in Looc, a few meters south from the parish church. Today the school has relocated near our ancestral home.

The first governor of Cebu was from Argao, Julio Aballe Llorente, from 1899 to 1901. The 17th governor, Francisco Emilio Famor Remotigue, from 1961 to 1963 was from Argao, although he was born and grew up in Ronda. Today, the congressman of the 2nd District is from Argao, Willy Caminero. Former congressmen like Juan Alcazaren, Agustin Kintanar, and Isidro Kintanar, as well as Simeon L. Kintanar were all from Argao. Secretary Cerge Remonde was from this town too.

If not for this pandemic, I would have been coming home to where I was born to light a candle for St. Michael and to honor my ancestors in the old cemetery in Looc. I also miss my relatives and I long to eat torta with sikwate with the folks I truly love in the home that I have been missing all these years. Anyway, happy fiesta to all Argawanons. Viva Señor San Miguel.