Isabela observes 155th year

ILAGAN, Isabela, Philippines - – The province of Isabela commemorates its 155th founding anniversary today, which will be succeeded by a week long celebration of “Bambanti” festival starting Thursday.

Mary Ann Dy, wife of Gov. Faustino Dy III, heads the Bambanti festival organized by the provincial culture and the arts committee.

Bambanti, the ilocano word for scarecrow, was the committee’s choice to symbolize this year’s festivities as a thanksgiving to the bountiful agricultural yield realized in Isabela despite the successive calamities that affected the province last year.

Gov. Dy said the festival kicks off at the Isabela Sports Complex followed by an agricultural exhibit and a food festival at the provincial capitol grounds here. A thanksgiving Mass will also be celebrated at the St. Ferdinand Cathedral in Barangay Upi at Gamu town.

The organizers also slated a street party at the provincial capitol grounds on May 8.

Isabela became a province through a Royal Decree proclaimed by Queen Isabella II de Bourbon of Spain in May 1, 1856. Though still an unpacified territory, Isabela existed under a military protectorate while the Spanish Clergy was still establishing “pueblos” or settlements out of Gaddang and Kalinga natives whom they converted to Christianity.

Ilagan, the most populous area due to its thriving tobacco plantation during the years of the tobacco monopoly, was made the capital.

It was on Aug. 4, 1901 when the American regime established the first civil government under the United States-Philippine Commission.

The commission enacted Provincial Government Act 210 re-establishing Isabela and other provinces in the Philippines. Rafael Maramag, an ilustrado from this town was appointed first governor.

The act upheld in Ilagan as the provincial capital.

Queen Isabella II, whom the province was named after, has introduced radical changes in Philippine society. It was during her reign that the islands began to progress by the turn of the 19th Century.

The Vice Royalty of Mexico ceased administration of the archipelago upon receiving the grant of independence from Spain in 1821. From thereon, Philippines was under the direct rule of the Queen.

The institution of education was the most prominent and important legacy during the reign of Queen Isabella II to the country. She has initiated a system of free, compulsory primary education through a decree she issued on Dec. 20, 1863. Spanish was the medium of instruction.

With the opening of the Suez Canal in Panama on 1869, days of travel by ship to Europe were cut short. This saw the influx of natives gaining access to education abroad and thus, gave rise to the class of the ilustrados, the most prominent among them is our national hero Dr. Jose Rizal.

By 1898, during the height of the Philippine Revolution, enrollment in schools at all levels exceeded to 200,000 students. It was also in this period that saw the execution of Rizal that ushered the eventual departure of Spanish colonization of over three centuries.