‘Tugak’ fest to focus less on frog as food

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO --- With the population of the native frog, known to Kapampangans as “tugak”, diminishing, the city government here is planning to celebrate its annual frog festival with less focus on the kitchen usage of the high-leaping amphibean.
“We want to focus more on the importance of the frog other than its being a delicacy,” City Mayor Oscar Rodriguez said in a recent press conference.
This year’s “Piyestang Tugak” is slated from October 7-9 with events like frog exhibits, frog mascot costume competition, street dance competition, frog catching and “lundag tugak (frog leap),” among others.
In the past frog festivals, one of the events was the frog cooking contest, which earned the ire of animal-rights activists.
This year, however, Rodriguez said the city government is veering away from featuring the frog as a delicacy, though he admits that frog dishes are among those that make San Fernando and the whole Pampanga famous all over the world.
Rodriguez said they are seriously looking at the possibility of establishing a frog-culture program to preserve the frogs.
Through the program, only cultured frogs would be allowed to be cooked and sold in restaurants.
Marni Castro, this year’s Piyestang Tugak chairman, said private firms have collaborated with the city government to make the festival successful. SM City Pampanga donated P60,000 to the committee and vowed to host some of the activities of the festival.