Sibuyas Festival

The first seeds of Sibuyas were introduced and planted onto Bongabon soil in the year 1935, in a homestead in Brgy. Calaanan, by Engineer Lorenzo Ylarde and his wife Maria Cruz. In succeeding years, Ylarde passed away and Maria remarried Dr. Antonio Aves, and together, they continued farming and trading Sibuyas (Gamilla, 2018). This marked the beginning of the town’s onion trade, and soon after, other Bongabon families followed their lead  in cultivating and selling Sibuyas in local and international markets (Giron, 2018). Bongabon became the largest supplier of onions in the Philippines, earning the town its titles as the Onion Capital of the Philippines and the Onion Basket of Asia.

With this, the Sibuyas Festival of Bongabon, Nueva Ecija was created in 2004, through the collaboration of local culture and arts advocate Armando C. Giron, and then mayor of Bongabon, Hon. Amelia “Beth” A. Gamilla. Gamilla, the daughter of Dr. Antonio and Maria Aves, and Giron, the son of Faustino Giron and Eufrocina Cunanan, also onion traders, believed in the need to create a celebration that paid homage to their ancestors and to the industry that continues to serve as the lifeblood of their beloved town.

Sibuyas Festival is a celebration of thanksgiving that showcase the ingenuity of the people of Bongabon, Nueva Ecija. It depicts the people’s hardworking skills in growing the famous “Sibuyas” that abundantly survive in the fertile soil of the countryside.

In a festival mood, the celebration manifests with the grave the rituals of soil preparation, plating, harvesting, and trading their Sibuyas product which is a cycle practice handed down from generation to generation. Through the various activities that are participated in by all walks of life, the weeklong SIBUYAS FESTIVAL displays an array of captivating cultural delight that strengthens the bond of the town leaders anf their constituents.