Mayor mulls frog preservation

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — The emphasis of the upcoming “Piyestang Tugak” (Frog Festival) here will not be limited to tourism alone after Mayor Oscar Rodriguez expressed his concern over the decreasing population of frogs.

Rodriguez, also president of the League of Cities of the Philippines, has encouraged committee members of this year’s frog festival to include the promotion of frog preservation.

In a media briefing on Wednesday, Rodriguez said he saw the decreasing number of the native and edible frogs whenever he visited farms around the city.

“Pakonti ng konti ang mga palaka. Wala na kong nakikitang palaka sa
paligid. I think we should also emphasize the culturing of frogs and how we can preserve them best,” Rodriguez said.

The frog has become the city’s icon for its giant leap to progress.

This is the sixth time the city will hold the frog festival. The festival will start on October 7 and will culminate on October 9.

And for Rodriguez, the city has not yet reached the highest level of effort the city can do for frogs, which is their preservation.

“The City Government will focus on this and I will ask City Administrator Fer Caylao and the City Council to allocate some funds for the preservation and culturing of frogs if need be,” he added.

Ching Pangilinan, city tourism officer, said they have started culturing frogs since last year in a nursery in St. Jude village.

“But we do not have a full blast frog farm yet,” Pangilinan said.

Aside from preservation efforts, other activities during the frog festival include frog mascot competition, street dance competition, lundag tugak, paduasan, KOKAKtober Fest/frog jam and Kapampangan cuisine exhibit.

Marco Antonio Jimenez, chairperson of the Tugak Festival 2010, said the unique activity for this year is the Frog Chorale.

The competition allows participants to choose any song but they will have to replace all its lyrics with “kokak” or the frog’s sound.

The Tugak Festival 2010 will carry the theme “Kokak, kokak, Sisigpo la reng tugak, Kayantabe ya ing Syudad.”

“Sisigpo” is the Kapampangan term for “leap.” (Charlene Cayabyab/with Jovi T. De Leon)