Angeles City villagers celebrate Salakot Festival

• Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/pampanga/local-news/2017/12/05/angeles-city-villagers-celebrate-salakot-festival-578301
• Wednesday, December 6, 2017

By Reynaldo G. Navales

ANGELES CITY -- Residents of this city’s entertainment village, Barangay Balibago, are celebrating their week-long Salakot Festival.

Balibago village chief Tony Mamac said the celebration, which started last December 1, will culminate on December 8 during the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Mamac said that December 8 is a non-working holiday in Angeles City as residents commemorate its 188th Foundation Day.

Republic Act 8315 declares December 8 of every year a special non-working holiday in the city.

In 1796, Don Angel Pantaleon De Miranda, then the town head of San Fernando and his wife, Dona Rosalia De Jesus found a new settlement North of Pampanga province which they named Culiat, an endemic vines in the area, according to Mamac.

On January 1, 1964 Angeles was inaugurated as a chartered city under Republic Act 3700 as it entered a period of tremendous growth making it the premier city in Central Luzon, the village chief said.

Aside from these, Mamac said he organized the Salakot Festival in 2008 to celebrate the friendship of the Filipinos and the Americans.

“A huge steel salakot sits at the main entrance of Clark Air Base, a former US military facility, during the time of the Americans. It became a symbol of Clark and Angeles City particularly Barangay Balibago,” Mamac said.

Students from various public and private schools in Barangay Balibago participated in the street dancing and parade yesterday.

Mamac disclosed that their Salakot street dancers bagged several awards in the Sinukwan Festival.