This Week’s Milestones: Dec. 1-7, 2019

Dec. 2, 2015

The “punnuk” tugging ritual, part of the postharvest ritual in Hungduan town in Ifugao province, was inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The inscription is the third for the Philippines on the list after the “Darangen” epic of the Maranao of Lake Lanao in 2005 and the “Hudhud” chant of the Ifugao in 2008.

Practiced in the villages of Baang, Hapao and Nungulunan in Hungduan, punnuk marks the end of the rice harvest and the start of a new agricultural cycle.

The ritual, where two teams on either end of a rope try to tug it from the other, is noncompetitive and strengthens community solidarity.

According to Unesco, the municipal government of Hungduan and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts shall continue to enact measures to safeguard punnuk as a living tradition.

Dec. 7, 1959

The US government relinquished control of a portion of the American naval base at Subic Bay, creating an independent municipality in Zambales province known as Olongapo, by virtue of Executive Order No. 366 signed by then President Carlos Garcia.

Olongapo was formerly controlled by the US government as a naval reservation.

It became a city in June 1966 through Republic Act No. 4645 and was elevated to the status of highly urbanized city in December 1983.

The city generated an income of P1.59 billion in 2018.

Compiled by Kathleen de Villa, Inquirer Research