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[av_heading heading=’PEOPLE POWWOW | A brief reminder on the forthcoming Tatusan Festival ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY HERBERT VEGO
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Sunday, May 7, 2017
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EVERY annual celebration of Tatusan Festival, the isolated island municipality of Caluya, Antique literally suspends its isolation in the two days it takes to gather together migrant natives, local and foreign tourists to its white-sand shoreline.
This year’s Tatusan Festival of tribal dancing and merrymaking – akin to Ati-Atihan of Kalibo and Dinagyang of Iloilo City – will see action on May 17 (a Wednesday) and May 18 (a Thursday).
The name of the festival stems from its indigenous crab known as “tatus” – a unique blue-streaked crab that thrives mainly on coconut meat. It sells locally at P500 per kilo but may cost thrice as much when sold outside the island. This elusive burrowing creature can only be caught at night with the help of a flashlight and grilled coconut as bait. It can grow up to 40 centimeters and weigh up to four kilograms.
It is with gratitude over the bounty of tatus that Caluya celebrates the Tatusan Festival through a parade of colorful crab-shaped floats, street-dancing and booth display showcasing various sizes of tatus, among other highlights of the festival.
The sprightly young mayor of Antique’s only island municipality, Genevive Gumban Lim-Reyes, thinks of Tatusan as not just a festival but as a generator of opportunities for prosperity of their people.
There was a time when native farmers and fishermen could hardly survive on copra making, seaweed farming and fishing due to depressed prices. But when they got in contact with visitors from the “outside world” willing to pay higher prices for their harvest, their lives changed for the better.
Caluya is now the fifth largest seaweed producer in the country. Needing no fertilizer, it takes only about three to four weeks to harvest the seaweed. Compradors buy it at more or less P200 per kilo and send it to Cebu where it is processed into carrageenan, a gum that is used as stabilizer or thickener in jellies and dairy products, processed meat, toothpaste and pharmaceutical products.
The island is a potential tourist haven that could replace the now congested Boracay. It is a getaway for nature trippers escaping from the cacophonous city life. There, they can go snorkeling, diving, boating or swimming alongside playful dolphins.
A dot in the map in the northernmost tip of the province of Antique, Caluya has a population of 30,000 spread out in the cluster of eight islands. Apart from Caluya Proper, it has seven more islands: Sibay, Sibato, Sibolo, Liwagao, Nagubat, Panagatan and Semirara.
If Semirara rings a bell, it is because it is where Semirara Mining and Power Corporation sits and mines coal. As coal supplier to coal-fired power plants in the Philippines and abroad, the firm has catapulted Caluya from 4th class to 1st class municipality. It has provided employment to the natives who now enjoy complete employee benefits, who in turn pay taxes that help the municipality build various infrastructure projects.
Mayor Reyes takes pride of its stately municipal hall that mirrors the town’s success.
Now operational is the port in Barangay Masanag, which links Caluya to its 18 barangays.
The previous town mayor, the late Reynante J. Lim, Sr. (father of the incumbent mayor) had intended to construct a 1,200-meter landing strip. His daughter has started doing it.
The island now enjoys electricity from 8 a.m. to midnight from a diesel-powered generating plant operated by the Antique Electric Cooperative, Inc. (ANTECO).
Caluya’s visitors may be accommodated by reservation in any of its two lodging houses through its Caluya Liaison Office in San Nicolas Bldg. T. Fornier St., San Jose, Antique with telephone number (036) 540-7024.
Incidentally, Mayor Genevive Lim-Reyes has become some kind of rock star in the province’s political firmament, having been elected as the new president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP), Antique chapter. (hvego@yahoo.com/PN)
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