BACOLOD City – The famous “Bacolod chicken inasal” is now officially a cultural property. The city council approved a proposed ordinance for it on third and final reading.
The National Cultural Heritage Act (Republic Act No. 10066) defines “cultural property” as “all products of human creativity by which a people and a nation reveal their identity, including churches, mosques and other places of religious worship, schools and natural history specimens and sites, whether public or privately-owned, movable or immovable, and tangible or intangible.”
The new city ordinance also called for the registration of the Bacolod chicken inasal to the Philippine Registry of Cultural Properties (PRECUP), the repository of all information pertaining to cultural properties that are deemed significant to our heritage.
It further said that the Inasal na Manok received 4.6 out of 5 stars from TasteAtlas, an experiential travel guide to traditional food that compiles authentic recipes, food critic reviews, and research articles about popular ingredients and dishes, in its annual list of the 50 Best Chicken Dishes in the World, which was released last October.
TasteAtlas described Bacolod City’s chicken inasal as “a unique Filipino grilled chicken dish” and “the signature dish of the entire Visayas region,” stated the ordinance which was proposed by Councilor Em Ang.
Related to this ordinance is an existing one designating every fourth week of the month of May as Bacolod Chicken Inasal Festival, following the amendment of City Ordinance No. 482, Series of 2009, known as the Manokan Country Inasal Festival.
Based on the amended ordinance, the festival aims to establish the ownership of the intangible cultural heritage of the chicken inasal as a Bacolod original./PN
