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Posted by Lani Estepa on Sunday, December 17th, 2006 at 4:00 pm
They are everywhere, these welcome arches. We see them along the main highways and along barrio roads, silently bidding goodbye to or welcoming people. We don’t really pay much attention to them, unless we’re in strange territory and we need them to tell us where we’re at or how long the remainder of our journey is. Passing by the welcome arch marking the boundary between Lapog and Magsingal, however, evokes in me feelings of relief, that after a tiring trip, I’ll soon be home where I can relax; and when it’s a particularly long trip that took me far away from home for quite a stretch of time, seeing this arch makes me eager and excited to set foot on familiar grounds once more.
It is good to see that our welcome arch has recently taken on a character, one that makes it more “Lapoguenio” – on one column is a relief of a woman weaving buri strips and on the other, another relief of a set of buri products typical of crafts produced by Lapoguenio weavers. Atop the arch is a concrete mould of a native hat depicting the most common buri product made in Lapog, the kallugong.
From a distance, it looks pretty and welcoming, isn’t it? But – what the hey! – “buri capital of the Philippines?” I know that Sinait is the “garlic center of the North” and that’s probably true, but Lapog as the buri capital of the Philippines? The entire country? Isn’t that a little presumptuous and pretentious? I don’t know about you, but I just don’t feel comfortable calling Lapog the buri capital of the Philippines when our buri industry is not yet that productive in terms of quality and quantity, and has yet to get into the export market. Maybe this claim came from the fact that San Juan identified buri as its main product in the OTOP (One Town, One Product) project but I think we still cannot boast of our buri industry to be shouting it to the whole world via the welcome arch; in a few years’ time maybe, but not yet this time. Why, we don’t even have a showroom where we could bring visitors to see samples of the products of the “buri capital of the Philippines.” Whoever advised the LGU should have been more prudent and waited for the right time to proclaim Lapog as the buri capital of the country.
I don’t mean to belittle our buri industry but it is a known fact that there are other places in the country that produce more and even better buri products that reach world markets. I’m not sure exactly what the criteria are for titles such as these but I’m pretty sure we don’t qualify – yet. Let’s not kid ourselves. With the current situation of the buri industry in Lapog, it will take years and a lot of hard work before we can legitimately claim for Lapog the title “buri capital of the Philippines.” With the title emblazoned on the arch, the burden of proof now rests on the buri industry. But then again, I could be mistaken. Maybe sometime in the recent past Lapog was declared as the buri capital of the Philippines and I’m behind the news? Someone enlighten me, please!
About 2 days ago I received an email from Denmark Bueno commenting on the buri capital of the philippines post. Here’s the text:
So I thought maybe he did not read the post and was just reacting to picture of the arch in the random image on the main page. Earlier, I received a follow-up comment:
So there, he finally gets it. That’s my wonder, too, Denmark, if there’s an official document giving San Juan the title. Now there’s another Lapoguenio who is confused.
1 | Lani December 21st, 2006 at 7:28 pmI am for anybody to have big dream . If you aim high, you will strive very hard to fulfill such a dream. Even if eventually you did not reach your goal but tried very hard to reach it, then you can still be a success to most people. Claiming to be the “Buri Capital of the Philippines” is such a gigantic dream. But just like any dream, you don’t advertise until you attained it or else you will become a laughing stock to most people. This is similar to say you are wanting to become an engineer and you want people to know that you are an engineer while you are still in college or without even passing the government’s board examination. I just hope this false claim should be stopped. There are a lot of towns in the Philippines that produce better buri products than ours. They will definitely raise their brows upon seeing the Welcome arch and laugh after finding out that we don’t even have a showroom to showcase our buri products. As I said, I want the local government to dream for San Juan (Lapog) to be the buri capital of the Philippines but let’s do it step by step. Let’s work very hard to be worthy of such a title and will not be feel embarrassed to promote that in the Welcome arch.
2 | Alfonso S. Quilala, Jr. January 3rd, 2007 at 8:41 amThat will be a great dream… In this case the government officials should do their job if they want to claim that Lapog is the “Buri capital of the Philippines.” Isn’t it that before you put something some monument you should have permit from the government first. And since someone put a “hat and some product symbol on the arch” it should be official first. That’s how I understand it but then again I’m in Canada where the laws are different from those in the Philippines. Thanks and hope to read more of the update on “Buri capital of Philippines?”
3 | Narcy Agarma Dela Cruz January 8th, 2007 at 9:47 amWell, the arch is owned by the local government, so local government officials can do with it whatever pleases them, including putting that controversial claim on it. What it all boils down to is, is there a legal basis – some memorandum or order from a higher authority proclaiming San Juan as THE buri capital of the Philippines. Or, assuming that no legal basis is required, the question is, does San Juan really deserve the title considering the state of our buri industry and the fact that there are other places in the Philippines who could be more deserving of the title?
4 | Lani January 8th, 2007 at 10:28 amI have a suggestion. If we don’t have yet any legal or acceptable data to back up the claim that San Juan is the buri capital of the Philippines, let’s put a very subtle figure that resembles a question mark. This way we are not claiming 100% that San Juan is the buri capital of the Philippines. When the time comes that our town is worthy of such a title, then we can just remove the question mark.
5 | Alfonso S. Quilala, Jr. January 9th, 2007 at 9:24 amI agree to what Alf, my best friend commented its nice buri was chosen as the OTOP product like here in my place of assignment DAR Municipal Agrarian Reform Office Sarrat, our beloved mayor had chosen BINAKOL Crafts as our OTOP that is woven abel and the finished products are sewed slippers, leis, bags, make up kits, dress, skirts,blankets, pencil case, table runners, fans, folder bags for seminars and many others. Quality wise my salute to implementing agencies like DTI, DOST,TESDA, who had contributed much to the progress of the BINAKOL KRAFTS. Quantity wise also our products had reached as far as Las Vegas, Taiwan, Hawaii, Singapore and the like. So why not get the attention of the above agencies i mentioned to offer seminars, skills training to upgrade the skills of our buri weavers in Lapog. Rest assured our dream of being the “Buri capital of the Philippines” will turn into reality.
6 | Florida Santiago January 11th, 2007 at 12:33 pmBy the way, I give credit to who ever drew the artistic design of one, if not main, of our town’s crafts. WAY TO GO!!! It looks real from the photos. I can’t wait to see it in person…Who should we thank for for this one?
7 | Jane February 5th, 2007 at 4:03 amagbiag ka lapog!!
8 | SBG April 23rd, 2007 at 6:23 pm