Ubi Festival ’23tentatively sets

After the successful conduct of the 3-day Sandugo Agri-Fair last July 17-19, 2023 at the Old Tagbilaran City
Airport, the Provincial Government of Bohol through the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) is now in
preparation for the coming Ubi Festival tentatively scheduled on December 11-13, 2023 still at the Old City Airport.
This could be the first ever that in a year there would be two festivals to be conducted as the first one was done
last January 26-30, 2023 after the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Bohol passed an ordinance sponsored by 3rd
District Board Member Nathaniel Binlod who is the member of the SP Committee on Agriculture declaring that the
Ubi Festival be conducted on every second week of December of the year.

The passage of the ordinance superseding the SP resolution mandating that the Ubi Fest be conducted on every
3 rd week of January of the year is an offshoot of the assessment that was conducted after the festival of which BM
Binlod had attended and personally heard the suggestions from among the Municipal Agriculturists/Municipal
Agricultural Officers (MAs/MAOs) and Ubi Growers stating that the festival is ideally be done on every December
or earlier than January because that would be the harvesting time.

According to them, we could not expect volume of Ubi products to be displayed and sold on January Festival
considering that during the yuletide season Ubi product is highly demanded in the market.

The festival this coming December has allocated a big budget in the amount of P2 million pesos a little bit bigger
compared to last January which had P700, 000.

Provincial Agriculturist Liza M. Quirog said that we will be adopting the real essence of a festival this coming
December that there would be Ubi Street Dancing, Miss Ubi among others which still to be crafted by the Technical
Working Group (TWG) from OPA.

Quirog said the additional budget would entice more Municipal Local Government Units (MLGUs) to participate
as she said that the formal letters will be sent to them momentarily informing them about the development so as to
prepare necessary supplemental budget purposely needed on that activity.

Bohol Ubi Growers Association (BUGA) President Esmeraldo Maligsa said that the 50 active members of the
association from the different municipalities in the province have been elated on the development after so many
years of waiting that the dates of the festival would be changed earlier than January to ensure more Ubi products to
be displayed or sold and if unsold in the festival there are still more activities like Christmas and New Year that
demand more supplies.

Maligsa said that most of the BUGA members have planted Ubi of different variety such as: Kinampay,
Baligonhon, Kabus-ok, Binanag, Gimnay, Binato, and Tam-isan.

The Ubi KIinampay in Bohol is recognized by the Bureau of Plant Industry as “Queen of the Purple Yam in the
Philippines”. (Atoy Cosap)