Pagadian Lechon, The Best in the Entire Country

By Pingping Deliverio

Pagadian City Mayor Sammy Co at the center with City Councilor Sam Tayra Co (left)in their first Lechon taste

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur (June 19, 2021) - One of the highlights of the  celebration of the 52^nd Araw ng Pagadian is the 1^st Lechon Festival held at the Pagadian Baywalk, today. It was purposely held at the windy boulevard considering of the pandemic, of course.

A total of 30 entries with two categories, the first is the Traditional category with first prize Php35K, 2^nd prize Php20K and 3^rd prized is Php10K plus 15 consolation prizes with Php5K each. The 2^nd category is the Unique/Innovative with whole native chicken and sea foods inside the Lechon like king crabs, shrimps and squids with the same prizes except the 15 consolation prizes that increases to Php5,500 each. 

But that is beside my story. A good friend of mine narrated this to me years ago that made me proud that Pagadian was once considered as the best lechon maker in the country. My friend works at the Solicitor General's Office in Manila but is a native of Pagadian, He told me this.

His chief, the SolGen at that time, was Ricardo Galvez. Solicitor General Galvez also happened to be the Grandmaster of the Freemasons in the country.

As a grandmaster, he gets to be invited during installation rites of lodges or chapters across the country. So, the grandmaster/solgen went practically to all cities in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao to install new sets of Freemason officers of lodges. Traditionally, this happened during the month of December where new sets of officers are elected and installed to serve the ensuing year.

Of course, Freemasons in every lodge give their best foot forward during installations especially if the Grandmaster is around. So, they give the best food during the banquets which are highlighted by the lechon. All this time, the SolGen was accompanied by his son who served as his personal assistant.

The son simply said to my friend, "Sa lahat na lugar na napuntahan namin, sa Pagadian lang talaga ang pinakamasarap na lechon."

Imagine, you ate the lechon in almost every city in the country yet single out Pagadian's as the best?

True enough, when the SolGen retired a year or two after, all the lechons served during his retirement party were delivered by plane from Pagadian City 

As a journalist, I wanted to validate the claim or better yet, give the story more in-depth. I wanted to know what makes our lechon different from the rest. Is it the ingredients? Is it the quality of the pig? Or is it  because of  our slanted topography?

So, when I happened to come home in Pagadian, (I worked in Sibugay province and this was in the early 2000s) I endeavored to look for the best lechon maker in the city. I was brought to a man named Peping who lived near the banks of the Balangasan river in Barangay Dumagoc.

He was a legend in his own right. His neighbors told me that he is at all times half-naked from the waist up. "He'll get sick when he wears even a shirt," said one.

Nong Peping told me that he came from a family of lechon makers in Oroquieta City. In the 1970s and 1980s, Oroquieta was touted as the best lechon makers in this part of the country.

"Akong lechon, bisan pa ug maugmaan sa ref, ang panit crispy gihapon," he declared 

Then he told me his simple secret: It takes him 4 to 5 hours of slow roasting compared to commercial ones where they roast it in 2 to 3 hours. That's it. No special ingredients, no pig quality and no bakilid-bakilid thing. Just the simple old-school roasting.

I wonder if our lechons are still made this way. Happy lechon eating anyway. (Photos grabbed from Asenso Pagadian fb page)

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