Height of fowl play puts Negros sitio in Guinness Book

THE CHICKEN THAT LETS YOU CHECK IN Resort owner Ricardo “Cano” Tan and family show the Guinness World Records plaque they received on Saturday for the cocky feat of architecture behind them. —Carla P. Gomez

BACOLOD CITY, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL — A new world record has been achieved in Negros Occidental, a province known for its fighting cock industry.

The Guinness World Record on Saturday officially recognized the “Manok ni Cano Gwapo Tan” in Talisay City as the largest building in the shape of a chicken.

The building, located at Campuestohan Highland Resort, measures 34.931 meters (114 feet 7 inches) in height, 12.127 m (39 ft 9 in) in width and 28.172 m (92 ft 5 in) in length.

“After careful review of the evidence, I am pleased to announce that Ricardo ‘Cano Guapo’ Tan has achieved a Guinness World Records title for the largest building in the shape of a chicken,” said Mai McMillan, Guinness World Records adjudicator.

“You are officially amazing,” she added.

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Newest Negrense icon

According to McMillan, Tan’s entry was just one of the 5,000 new world records approved out of more than 55,000 applications last year.

Tan, the resort owner who also designed the building, said the structure took 465 days to build—and hopefully would be considered one of the icons of the province.

“Today, the once lonely and sleepy Sitio Campuestohan is not only a tourist landmark of the Philippines but also home to … the largest building in the shape of a chicken,” he said.

Now hard to miss inside the 11-hectare resort, the six-story chicken building offers 15 rooms for guests and a viewing deck, with wider family rooms.

The site for the resort was acquired by Tan, a former Bacolod City councilor and assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications, for his wife, Nita, at the time she was looking forward to their retirement home.

Retirement can wait

Tan first bought just a 5-hectare lot at Campuestohan in 2010 before he actually even saw it. It was his wife who found the place and fell in love with it.

But the couple eventually forgot about retirement when they saw the area’s business potential.

Today, the resort offers several other attractions aside from the towering fowl. It now hosts the “second tallest dinosaur” in the world, a four-lane stretch for skybikes, as well as the only hamster wheel ride and longest rope course in the Philippines.

Second only to sugar

It also has the only two-wave pools and “biggest gorilla and octopus” in the country, among others.

“The resort has its own ambulance, a tunnel of lights at night, and the biggest playground in the Philippines,” Tan added.

The businessman said he thought of building a giant chicken in homage to the local fighting cock industry, which is only “second to our sugar” in terms of local economic significance.

“When the sugar industry experienced a slump and it threatened our livelihood, it was the fighting cock industry that rose above the challenge. It gave us millions of pesos in revenue and taxes, and employed thousands of people directly and indirectly,” Tan said.

“And just like a rooster that is imposing and commanding, we Filipinos are just like that. Proud and free and willing to stand up to any challenge that comes our way,” he added.

Tan, however is far from done: he now aims for another Guinness to add to his resort’s feats, this time for the longest “chasing slide.”