Vizcaya marks 167th founding anniversary

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — This northern province kicked off its five-day Panagyaman Festival yesterday as part of its 167th founding anniversary celebration on May 24.

This year’s festival, with the theme "Economic Productivity: A Journey to Nueva Vizcaya’s Prosperity," took off with an ecumenical thanksgiving Mass and formal opening of a grand exhibit featuring the best of this landlocked province in the fields of arts and culture, history, agriculture, entrepreneurship, and tourism.

Panagyaman, an Ilocano term for thanksgiving, was started in the 1990s during the term of then Gov. Rodolfo Agbayani, now representative of this province’s lone congressional district.

Among the highlights of the five-day festival are the street-dancing of the province’s indigenous groups, an inter-tribal festivity, an inter-tribal wedding festival, and the search for this year’s Mutya ng Nueva Vizcaya.

Nueva Vizcaya, one of the five provinces comprising Cagayan Valley, hosts several indigenous groups, including the Bugkalots (known as Ilongots during their head-hunting days), Kalanguyas, Ibalois, Igaddangs, Isinais and the now endangered I-wak tribe. — Charlie Lagasca