Iloilo town’s century-old bullfight festival  pushes through after 4-year hiatus

By Jennifer P. Rendon 

The annual bullfight festival of San Joaquin, Iloilo is back in the limelight after hitting some snags in the past four years.

Pairs of carabaos, or swamp-type water buffalos, and cows showed off their battle skills during the Pasungay Festival at the San Joaquin footfall field on Jan 21, 2023.

Officials from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) joined thousands of San Joaquinhons in witnessing the festival.

In 2019, the municipal government deferred the holding of Pasungay due to legal obstacles not only to the San Joaquin local government was facing but also to owners of the animals that would take part in the activity.

Opponents of the festival said the holding of the Pasungay Festival violated Republic Act 8485 or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998.

The festival’s hiatus continued until 2022 because of the ongoing opposition and the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this year’s Pasungay, the NCCA also brought good news to the San Joaquinhons.

NCCA Executive Director Oscar Casaysay, whose mother is also a native of San Joaquin, confirmed that the “Pasungay Festival is now one of the intangible cultural properties of the Philippines, as it is registered in the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property.”

Before that, Casaysay said the San Joaquin local government wrote a letter to the NCCA citing that there are a lot of criticisms against the festival.

NCCA came up with the study and eventually declared the festival as an intangible cultural property of the country.

“What’s the importance of this? Unang-una, we know that a nation without an identity is a lost nation. We have to have strong protection of our culture, especially our intangible heritage’s culture because number one in San Joaquin, we already have an important cultural property, the church and that is a built tangible heritage,” he said.

But San Joaquin, Casaysay said, is also blessed with a lot of intangible cultural practices and traditions.

“I hope through this Pasungay, San Joaquin will continue to be blessed and protected against natural disasters and continue to have a bountiful harvest,” he said.

In 2020, when the festival did not again push through, Mayor Ninfa Garin assured San Joaquinhons and Pasungay aficionados that they would not rest in reviving Pasungay as part of the town’s tradition.

“Pasungay is based on culture and within the bounds of the law,” she said citing that Pasungay has been part of San Joaquin’s culture and tradition that they inherited from their forefathers.

Contrary to the belief that it’s a form of animal cruelty, Pasungay Festival is an event celebrating the importance of livestock as part of the daily lives in an agricultural community like San Joaquin, Garin earlier stated.

Pasungay is a water buffalo or carabao fight held as part of an ancient tradition of San Joaquin done every third Saturday of January.

Local farmers bring their best animals to the town proper to pit them against each other.

It started when two raging bulls fighting one another caught the interest of local farmers.

It is said that there is no other place in the region where bullfighting is observed.

One of those who opposed the holding of the Pasungay Festival in previous years is the Animal Kingdom Foundation.

It earlier stated that “in Iloilo, bullfights are still held at present times as part of an old religious tradition. The festival called Pasungay, involves bulls and horses that are pitted against each other for the sake of entertainment. It’s not a ’fight to the death’ match per se, but there is still clear cruelty involved.”

“Abusing animals will not bring honor to any culture. Stop using tradition as an alibi.”

It was reported that AKF representatives will observe this year’s Pasungay, but none was present in Saturday’s festivity.