Arroyo's dinner talk in Baguio City turns to canine cuisine (article)

[Guest guest]

BAGUIO CITY - Expect 2006, designated as the Year of the Dog in the Chinese

calendar, to draw interesting discussions about the morality of eating man's

best friend. Here in the Cordilleras, where culture and lifestyle have long

settled that argument, President Macapagal-Arroyo finally found the chance to

ask about dog meat during a dinner she hosted on Tuesday at The Mansion, her

official residence in Baguio City. Ms Arroyo did not ask to be served dog meat

nor did she pass judgment on people who eat dog meat dishes.

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Streak for exotic food

 

But conversation at dinner did reveal the First Family's adventurous streak-they

enjoy exotic food.

 

Ms Arroyo traces her roots to Pampanga, equally known for its fine culinary

tradition and line of exotic dishes made from the most unusual ingredients,

among them frogs (tugak), mole crickets (kamaru), snakes, field rats and monitor

lizards (bayawak).

 

" Dog meat keeps you warm, does it not? " Ms Arroyo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

said, turning to Baguio Mayor Braulio Yaranon.

 

She said she was no stranger to unusual cuisine, relating how her Pampanga

childhood had introduced her to toasted or grilled balang (locust).

 

When the President visits Pampanga, she is usually served the local exotic

cuisine, including adobong kamaru and bayawak, and stuffed tugak.

 

She is also known for her fondness for buro (fermented rice with fish and

shrimp) which she uses as a dip for fresh vegetables and burong talangka (salted

fresh crablets).

 

Ms Arroyo's interest was picked by Yaranon's talk of grilled fruit bats with

meter-wide wingspans, a delicacy of La Union province.

 

But she said her knowledge of dog meat was rudimentary. Dog meat is popular

because it keeps the human temperature high in cold weather, she told her dinner

companions which included Yaranon, First Gentleman Jose Miguel " Mike " Arroyo,

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye and four local reporters.

 

Ms Arroyo's observations about the attractions of dog meat were characteristic

of lowlanders, said photographer Tommy Hafalla, who has made a career of

documenting ancient Cordillera rituals.

 

" Many come [to Baguio] to eat dog because they were told it has chemical

properties that keep the eater warm in a cold climate, " Hafalla said in a phone

interview.

 

Not on menu

 

Dog meat is served as a spicy stew or or sold in grilled slabs in food stalls in

Baguio and Benguet, but is rarely put on the menu of the establishments that

serve it.

 

Republic Act No. 8485, or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998, makes it a crime to

sell dog meat, although it makes an exception of the Cordillera communities that

use dogs as ritual offerings.

 

Section 6 of RA 8485 allows the slaughter of dogs " when it is done as part of

the religious rituals of an established religion or sect or a ritual required by

tribal or ethnic custom of indigenous cultural communities. "

 

But animal rights activists are seeking to have that provision deleted,

according to one of Ms Arroyo's dinner guests, who is a dog breeder.

 

He told the President that Baguio's dog meat trade was being closely monitored

by authorities because of pressure from foreign animal rights groups.

 

Animal rights groups

 

A London-based animal rights group actually hired anthropologists in 2001 to

prove that Benguet was disqualified from serving dog meat because its indigenous

rituals did not reveal any evidence of it having a " dog culture, " according to

one of the group's former employees.

 

The same group hires agents to spy on eateries serving dog meat so the group and

animal control officials to track down their suppliers.

 

Police has intercepted Baguio-bound jeepneys and trucks from Southern Luzon that

transport dogs packed into small cages.

 

But Hafalla maintains that all Cordillera tribes have remnants of a dog culture,

even if rituals involving dogs are rarely performed.

 

Dog sacrifices are more common in Sagada and other Mt. Province villages that

perform the daw-es, a cleansing ritual that requires the sacrifice of a black

dog to ward off an anito (ancestral spirit) that is out to do harm. With a

report from Tonette Orejas, PDI Central Luzon Desk

 

 

 

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