Isabela, Philippines – the Queen Province of the North; a land with rolling hills, thickly forested mountains, and sprawling fertile valley straddled by the northern section of the country’s longest mountain range, the Sierra Madre, and the Philippines’ longest and largest river, the 505-kilometer Cagayan River or Rio Grande de Cagayan, which traverses the provinces of Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino, and Nueva Viscaya.
Now approaching its second of a premier location where almost 1.5 million Isabelenos reap the benefits of land abundant in natural wealth as it is rich in human capital. The Provincial Government of Isabela was a recipient of the DILG 2011 Seal of Good Housekeeping for practicing transparency and efficient fiscal management, and the Award for Best Anti-Red Tape Act Implementer.
The Bambanti Festival the official festival of the Province of Isabela, was institutionalized on March 14, 1997, during the incumbency by Former Governor Benjamin Dy and his wife Cecil, is a stately symbol for the Isabela farmer’s diligence and resoluteness to earn his keep, feed his family and produce for his community. “Bambanti” is an Ilocano term for ‘scarecrow’ referring to the stick figures or bust hoisted in the fields to fend off birds, pests, and other threats and colourful hand-me-downs, the Bambanti exhibits the best about Isabela: its imposing beginnings, intense growth, and imminent dazzling future.
Isabela is a naturally beautiful as it is richly endowed in human as well as natural capital. Investment opportunities abound in corn oil production, woodcraft and furniture making, meat processing, and in the tourism and recreation industries with the development of its Pacific Coast into a beach paradise bursting with world-class hospitality and tourism facilities. With a remarkable 95.98% literacy rate and a people in possession of multiple positive attributes, Isabela certainly has a claim to a dazzling finish in the race for agro-industrial domination.
As inviting as the thrill of adventures like cave exploration, beachcombing, trekking, and culinary excursions like Ilagan’s “Binallay” and “Patupat” rice concoctions, Cauayan City’s mushroom products, and “Pancit Cabagan,” is the reassuring presence of Kapampangans, Visayans, Pangalatok, Bicolano and even foreign migrants like the Chinese, Indians, and Caucasians of American, Swiss, and Italian nationalities who found Isabela ideal for their business or retirement. The trusty Bambanti, by no small measure, is helping Isabela recreate its cultural identity.
The trusty Bambanti Festival, by no small measure, is helping Isabela recreate its cultural identity. It is here to walk visitors through the leisure side. It is here to stay and carry the ideals of a worthy and grateful people, and reveal Isabela as the country’s cultural and industrial mecca, here in the sunniest region of the Philippines.
