• ANDREW ALTAREJOS
The City of Bayawan City, known as the Agriculture Capital of Negros Oriental, celebrated its annual Tawo-Tawo Festival, with several activities during the highlight of the festivities.
This year’s theme is “25 years of Celebrating Life’s Harvests”. One of the province’s grandest festivals, the Tawo-Tawo Festival street and showdown competition returned in a competition on February 16.
This year, 10 barangays participated in the street dance competition from Bayawan Boulevard going to Bayawan City-NORSU Sports Stadium for the showdown competition. The contingent barangays paraded on a 2-kilometer route together with their respective identification arches and Higanteng Tawo-Tawo.
Barangay Tayawan was declared grand champion during the Tawo-Tawo Festival 2026 showdown competition. The contingent received a championship trophy and P200,000 cash prize. They also received several minor awards including Best in Choreography, Best Choreographer, Best in Costume, Best in Musicality, Best Tawo-Tawo Festival Queen, and Effective Use of Indigenous Materials in Costume and Props.
Barangay Dawis, was first runner-up and received a runner-up trophy and P150,000 cash prize. Barangay Tinago, was second runner-up and received P100,000 cash and runner-up trophy. The contingent also won the Best in Street Dancing and received P20,000 cash prize.
A grand civic parade was held on February 17 from the city plaza towards the Bayawan National High School grounds. For the first time a Tawo-Tawo float competition was held together with the Tawo-Tawo headdress competition during the parade. About 10 floats and 22 groups participated in the parade wearing their creative and colorful headdress.
The parade was led by Bayawan City Mayor John Raymond Jr. and City Vice Mayor Rusmar Ian Tijing.
Bayawan Water District won first place in the float competition, while barangays Villareal and Tabuan were second and third places, respectively.
The headdress competition winners are the Human Resource Management Office and City Budget Office that was awarded the first place honors. Second place was awarded to the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, and Bayawan Water District was third place.
Right after the civic parade, a marching band competition was held at Bayawan National High School covered court.
The winners in the elementary category were Bayawan City East Central School which bagged the first place honors, Dawis Elementary School was second place and also won the Best in Uniform as a special award, while Villareal Elementary School was third place and also won the Best Band Major award. Magsulay Elementary School was fourth place, and Bayawan City Inclusive Education Center was fifth place.
In the secondary category, Saint Augustine Academy of Bayawan Inc., once again bagged the first place honors and also won the Best in Uniform award. Basay National High School was second place, Andres V. Fortugaleza National High School was third place, Bal-os National High School was fourth place and also received the Best Band Major award, and Dawis National High School was fifth place.
It was a night to remember for the eight lovely ladies who competed for the title of Miss Bayawan 2026 at Bayawan-NORSU Arena.
Angela Temperatura bested seven other candidates and was crowned Miss Bayawan 2026. Completing her court were Maurice Valor as first runner-up, and Rubie Val Torres as second runner-up.
Miss Bayawan 2025 Richelle Emos Sumondong, alongside with Mayor John Raymond Jr., crowned the new queen during the grand coronation night.*
