Calling to Mind Sitio Agpalay



The other alternative to Bag-ot Landing is Sitio Agpalay located downstream of the Jal-o, 7 kms southeast of the poblacion of Balete. From there one could get fresh shell foods such as oyster (taeaba), clams (tuway), mussel (tahong) and some other varieties. As the scanned document above shows, Sitio Agpalay in the 1950s has already have a public market. By all means, it is the better alternative to Bag-ot as it rests beside the National Road. Its only minus factor is that when the Jal-o swells most of the area is flooded and motorists got stranded while the water is rising up. Even then, that one is blessings in disguise, both for the vendors and the stranded seafood lovers.

These days, people in Balete are oblivious of Sitio Agpalay. It is not because it ceased to cater Jal-o's and the Tinagong Dagat's bounty but due the fact that the local officials of 1957 set the day of Sitio Agpalay's market day every Wednesday. Slowly as the years went by, Agpalay gave way to Miercolesan, as people would refer to it after the activity which takes place there every Wednesday. Miercolesan, i.e., something that happens every Wednesday (Miercoles in Spanish and Filipino).

Motorists from all over Panay as they passed by the area on their way either to Kalibo or Iloilo would drop by for some oysters or mussels to bring home. A local oyster farmer ventured into hauling his and his friends harvest to as far as Iloilo and got lucky. Such is the gift of Jal-o River and the Tinagong Dagat to innovative people. Perhaps, they also need to return the favor as what the oyster farmers on Kasennuma Bay in Japan did.

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