SUN-STAR PAMPANGA (Philippines) 08 October 07 The fellowship of the frog baiters
Ingkung Hipolito Mangiliman is 60 years old and has arthritis during cold weather. Apung Lucing Tiamson is 79, frail, and complains of the usual maladies of old age. Darang Martha Serrano is 46 and rich but has nothing much to do with her life.
Ordinary old folks with ordinary complaints but all of these seem to vanish during specific days of the week.
Because during Saturday and Thursday mornings, these "senior citizens" resist the lure of a long sleep and would wake up at dawn to uphold a "tradition" that have been in existence for as long as they could remember. They would troop to Candaba to catch, well, frogs.
Frog baiting (mamaduas tugak) was practiced by their forbears and they still continue it even to this day. They wake up just before 4 a.m. They stand near the silent road, as everybody in the obscure barrio is still asleep, and wait for the service jeep that would pick them up and others along the way.
Soon enough, the jeep would be filled with men and women with gray hair and receding hairlines. Armed with long fishing poles (padwas) and a tin can of freshly unearthed worms (bulati) as bait (apan), they talk of the possibility of a big catch in between chats about their children, grandchildren, and their bygone youth.
They are ready to crisscross four towns, brave the hot noonday sun (or rain), and walk for long hours in the swamp (pinac) just to catch a four-legged amphibian. They follow the old Kapampangan saying, "Ing masakit kuwanan, iyang manyaman kanan (What is difficult to get, is delicious to eat)."
After the long travel and a short stopover at Sta. Ana public market for food provisions, they finally arrive at their destination. They would prepare their baits, insert the worms into the pole string using the hard part of a coconut leaf (the one used as walis tinting) bended in the middle to resemble the letter "V" where the string would be placed in the center and both ends of the coconut leaf contraption would be joined together to act as the "needle".
The head of the worm would then be inserted halfway into the needle and one hand would press the body to dislodge the innards of the worm. They would repeat this process and place the worms across the string in a compact fashion. They would later loop these into a ring.
Then, the long brisk walking begins; some of them keep to themselves while the others would walk in groups. The sun is hot during ordinary months and there is scarcely available shade across their game area, but these old folks ignore all these.
They would skillfully play the bait in a patch of grass with stagnant water and from nowhere a gray creature is lured to swallow the bait. Most of the time the frog catcher does not see what is happening and relies only on his senses for guidance.
Once the frog had taken the bait, the catcher would lift the fishing pole from the water bringing the frog out in the open. The frog would remain attached to the bait and it would take sometime for the animal to dislodge the bait from its belly.
This is where the real test of a frog baiter begins. He needs to wait for the frog to fall and catch it with a piece of ring, not bigger than a saucer, attached to a cloth resembling a pillowcase.
Some expert frog catchers are so skillful in this that they do not even look at the frog when it falls from the pole. This process would be repeated until they have gathered enough that they could carry.
Break time is during lunch when everyone would troop back to the jeep to eat and brag about the initial catch. Some are not so lucky; others end up with ample catch at the end of the day.
"There are more frogs after Candaba is visited by flooding. They would be easier to catch then since there is only little available land, they need to go on land once in a while you know," Ingkung Hipolito said.
However, Ingkung Hipolito added that catching frog involves a lot of patience and getting intoned with one's senses. He also those with ample catch would donate to those with a little catch. Ingkung Hipolito is considered the best frog catcher among the group.
"There was a time that I had to put the frogs in a raft because I could not carry them back to the jeep," he said.
Four pieces of the average-sized frog sells at P20, not bad for something you would go lengths to catch. These would later be cooked as "betute" (stuffed frog) where smaller frogs are chopped and minced and stuffed into the belly of a bigger frog. Today, betute is cooked and stuffed with ground meat and finds its way into the table of local and Manila restaurants proclaiming to offer authentic "exotic" Pampango cooking.
However, these oldies prefer to save the frogs for personal consumption. Novice eyes watching them do their "silent art" couldn't help but be amazed at the skill and endurance that these old folks project.
They have transformed an old practice of catching "exotic food" into a rare art that they have mastered since youth.
"We do not really catch frogs to sell them. My friends and I go to Candaba because it reminds us of the time when life was simple. Even though what we do is tiring, still there is that satisfaction in our hearts when we feel the weight of the frog tagging at the bait and it just makes us feel young again," said Apung Lucing, with an obvious glow in her eyes.
As the sun sets, these old folks would board again their service jeep with a weary face wearing a contented smile. They would go home and dream of the next trip to the swamps and the prospect of an abundant catch.
For no hot sun or torrential rain could dampen their spirits. And they would continue doing their silent art as long as there is a glow of light in their eyes.
PHL Press: The fellowship of the frog baiters