STA. RITA, Pampanga—The ArtiSta.Rita Foundation has sustained the revival of the “duman” (glutinous rice) festival on its 10th year now, but the sweet native rice cereal that is the center of the event has turned more scarce.
Ricky Galang, 39, a third-generation duman maker, blamed the heavy rains, strong winds and the floods triggered by Typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel” in September and October for the drop in the harvest of “malutu” (red husked glutinous rice) in November.
Shelled by red husk, this glutinous rice variety is made sweet by the “amyam” (also known as “amihan,” “amianan” or northeasterly wind), farmers said.
“The supply of malutu comes few and far between, Galang said in Kapampangan.
He bought grains from growers in Barangay San Matias here and in Barangays Dau and Lambak in nearby Guagua town.
To show the drop in production, Galang said his team of 28 people produced only 18 “pati,” a wooden box than can contain more than a kilogram of duman. Half of the 18 pati went as shares of the growers.
During the festival on Saturday, Galang divided the sales of the nine pati among him and his co-workers. Each pati of duman sold at P2,200.
It should fetch higher. The local cereal production is not only labor intensive but also time-consuming. The team worked from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. or 15 hours of mainly pounding the grain. In the team was a guitarist who set the tempo of the work by playing in a timing ritual called “babage.”
But while young men are trained by their male elders to make duman when they reached 18 (in Galang’s case, from his grandfather, Policarpio, and his father, Jesus), young women are not learning to clean the grain.
Dominga Guanzon, 79, and Teodora Santos, 80, said their younger kin prefer earning money from doing manicure and pedicure. Because this was so, Galang said the two women have become a rare breed.
Sifting the husks (“mumu”) is painful on one’s back, Guanzon said.
Galang said they all keep up to continue the tradition.
Andy Alviz, ArtiSta. Rita executive director, said duman makers and rice growers need the help of the Department of Agriculture to ensure the continuous production of the native rice variety.
Aside from Galang, other duman makers in the town are Marcelo Piyaya and Francis Galang of Barangay San Agustin, and Victor Galang and Digo Cuenco of Barangay Sta. Monica.