CITY OF ILAGAN, Isabela (PIA) - - After more than two years of restrictions brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, town officials of Delfin Albano were in high spirits as its annual Bangkarera Festival celebration has finally resumed.

Vice Mayor Thomas Pua Jr. said there is a need to celebrate the town’s annual Bangkarera Festival as it reminds them how resilient the residents of the town were even before the construction of the bridge.

Pua said that from 1957 to 2010, the mode of transportation in going in and out of the town was through boats, including the transport of agricultural products to other towns.

He said he experienced how difficult transportation was during those years where there was no bridge connecting to other towns of the province.

“Our celebration of Bangkarera reminds us how resilient our ancestors shown before using boats to traverse the Cagayan River as their mode of transportation,” Pua said.

He said that the Bangkarera shall be a reminder of the young generation from the town that once upon a time, the ancestors of Delfin Albano, used 'bancas' as the main transport facility in the town. (OTB/MGE / PIA Isabela)