On March 13, 2025, the Provincial Tourism and Culture Office (PTCO) invited fashion designers from all fifteen municipalities on a familiarization tour to the Mun-abol Weavers of Sitio Alayan in Capisaan, Kasibu, and to the Museo Dupax souvenir shop in Dupax del Sur, current host to the carabao-horn jewelry line made by renowned designer Enida P. Danao. This tour set the stage for the first-time collaboration of the different creative sectors of Nueva Vizcaya, as this meeting between the weaving artisans of Capisaan and Vizcaya fashion designers marks an innovative first for the Grand Ammungan festival, according to PTCO Chief Marichelle O. Costales.
The designers are set to incorporate the products of the Mun-Abol weavers of Capisaan into the sashes for the Saniata ti Nueva Vizcaya 2025 candidates, with the event itself a highly anticipated focal point of the Grand Ammungan Festival. The familiarization tour was also joined by reigning Saniata ti Nueva Vizcaya 2024 Melar Claire D. Romero, renowned designer and pageant director Michael Barassi, and international photographer and Nueva Vizcaya native Francis Gumayagay. In the messages given by PTCO Aides Aedam Elizaga and Hussain Sumaling, and Pageant Director Michael Barassi, they thanked the Mun-Abol weavers for their warm reception of the tour participants and their participation in the forthcoming Grand Ammungan Festival.
Mun-Abol weaver Editha Belingon expressed her own gratitude for the sponsorship of Alayan Pag-Asa Abot Palad Association and Didipio Mine of the OceanaGold corporation for making the Mun-Abol Weavers what it is today. This partnership stemmed from a desire to preserve the traditional ‘abol’ weaving indigenous to Capisaan, and is characterized by the manual use of a loom by the weavers of Sitio Alayan. In a later interview, Editha Belingon said that as the use of their patterns and methods are not as encumbered by closed practices and traditions particular to other indigenous tribes, the use of Mun-Abol weaves in the Grand Ammungan Festival will be beneficial.
The tour’s next stop was the St. Vincent Ferrer Parish Church, a national landmark in Dupax del Sur where the soon-to-be-opened Museo Dupax and its attached café and souvenir shop hosts the work of jewelry artisan Enida P. Danao. Formerly branded under Silnag Horn Jewelry and now branded as Enida, the main medium of the jewelry is hand-carved carabao horn, and has been worn by public figures such as Karen Davila. Tentative plans were proposed by Director Barassi to Ma’am Enida Danao about incorporating the jewelry into the Saniata ti Nueva Vizcaya pageant.
With the Grand Ammungan Festival merely two months away, the innovations planned for the event continue to serve Governor Jose V. Gambito’s aims for the tourism of Nueva Vizcaya to be highlighted not only for the natural beauty of the province, but its economic potential. This innovation may prove to showcase the fashionable talents of our own Novo Vizcayanos. /igmb
[This article was initially created on Facebook – Vizcaya Reporter. For PLGU-Nueva Vizcaya updates, visit: https://www.facebook.com/vizcayareporter]
