In Pampanga town, cross-dressers are New Year stars

MINALIN, Pampanga—While almost everyone is resting after the New Year revelry, men in this poultry capital of Central Luzon welcome 2012 by parading around town dressed like women, complete with makeup and jewelry.

Their mothers, wives, sisters or daughters accompany them for the three-hour parade, enjoying the once-a-year cross-dressing event.

Called Aguman Sanduk (Fellowship of the Ladle), the tradition is now on its 80th year, said Joseph Dado, a local historian.

Found to be waning because younger men had stopped appreciating the humor behind the activity, the tradition had managed to persist on the support of the local government, said town administrator

Romulo Mandap.

Each participating barangay received a subsidy of P10,000 for decorating a float and spending on costumes for the street dancing, he said. Eleven of 15 barangays in the town joined the event on Sunday.

Aguman Sanduk was started in 1932 by a few men in Minalin who wanted to greet the New Year in a different way. To make women in their families roll in laughter, they wore dusters (house dresses) and paraded around the town proper holding ladles. They ended the event by serving arroz caldo (chicken porridge) to relatives and neighbors.

From a group’s idea of fun, the Aguman Sanduk became a town affair, adopted and organized by the local government.

“[Joining it] was never a requirement for [local] boys. [It] was a voluntary thing,” said Mandap.

The villages’ “queens” are men chosen by their village mates. Tricycle driver Luciano Patawaran, who represented Barangay San Pedro, wore a long golden wig and red lipstick.

The tradition may perhaps live on longer because the likes of Kennedy Doria, 17; Frans Martija, 20; and Mark Jeff Tizon, 20, like the Aguman Sanduk’s concept of community fun.

“This one’s for the community. The Aguman is about clean fun,” said Doria, a civil engineering student who, with his friends, wore pink dresses in the event.

Rico Supremo, Efren Soliman, Eduardo Salangsang, Jeff Sagmit and Tong Agustin said they did not mind being “women” for a day because women are as hardworking as men.

“They represent mothers,” said Pedro Matt Sotto, village chief of Lourdes.

Sotto joined the Aguman in his teens and never regretted joining it. “We honor women by making them smile on New Year’s day,” he said.

Mayor Arturo Naguit said the tradition is unique to Minalin, a town steeped in Catholic traditions.

“It unites us and lifts our disposition. That was the intention of our elders,” Naguit said. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon