Olango barangay’s ‘Baliw Baliw’ festival draws in more visitors

Men wearing women’s dresses, bringing kittens and frogs caught in a fishnet, some men trying to pit a duck and a cat to fight, and even a cross-dressing man displaying a big male organ made of wood.

These are just scenes of the day in Barangay San Vicente in Olango Island in Lapu-Lapu City as they celebrate “The Baliw Baliw” festival, which is part of the activities of the barangay’s fiesta on Thursday (May 30).

The unusual festival, whom senior residents of the barangay vaguely trace its beginnings to the early 1900s, has been known to be a part of the activities to celebrate the feast day of the village’s patron saint, San Vicente Ferrer.

San Vicente Barangay Captain Cyrus Eyas said there were more visitors this year, who wanted to witness the “Baliw Baliw” festival.

San Vicente Barangay Captain Cyrus Eyas said, the practice had been there already even when his grandfather was still a boy in the 1900s.

“Dili mi maka-trace kon kanus-a gyud nagsugod ug nganong ingon ana ang nahimong tradisyon sa mga tawo (We cannot trace when did it started and why it has become the people’s tradition),” said Eyas.

On the obscene scenes, he said that they had been trying to educate and ask residents as agreed by the fiesta committee to remove the obscene parts during the showdown portion of the festival at the vicinity of the chapel.

But, he said that people would just gather themselves near the chapel and do their thing like cross-dressing men outdoing themselves and residents trying to pit a cat and a duck to fight.

Eyas said that residents considered the unique festival a tradition from their ancestors and some residents even believed that to stop the festival would bring sickness to their families and calamities in the barangay.

With the festival bringing in more visitors, the barangay is also grabbing the opportunity to earn and make their barangay as a tourism destination.

These include adding more programs to the fiesta activities like the street dancing competition and the search for the festival queen.

For the tourism sites, they were also promoting the Boardwalk going to a floating restaurant via the mangrove available for trekking, a place for camping, snorkeling, diving at its Marine Sanctuary and many others.

Meanwhile, a 94-year-old resident of the barangay shared how the festival started.

Feliza Aying told Cebu Daily News that since she was a child the festival was already celebrated in the barangay.

She said that it was first called “Sakay-Sakay” (Ride to a fluvial procession) and the unusual things people do at the end of the fluvial procession were all just them trying to entertain themselves.

She said, it was the visitors, who called it “Baliw-Baliw” because when they visit San Vicente to celebrate the barangay’s fiesta, they call the place “Baliw” because of the unusual acts of the people in the village.

Today, hundreds of visitors had been known to visit the barangay not only to witness the unusual festivity but also to show their devotion to the patron saint of the barangay, San Vicente Ferrer.