Disciplined pigs

During our Tirad Pass climb, one of our guides told us an extraordinary story about the disciplined pigs in their town, Gregorio del Pilar, Ilocos Sur.

According to him, residents of a barangay in the said town place their pigs in a common area. Here they all clean and feed their pigs—mostly “native” ones.

Keeping all their pigs in one place is unusual. People’s practice is to put their animals in their own backyard or in a farm which they privately own.

But what is more unusual—or is it?—is that their pigs are “disciplined”.

During feeding time, these pigs only approach their respective owners. They don’t run toward other pig-owners to grab food. Also, they only eat the food given to them by their owners. They won’t touch anything given to them by other people. As if they know that the food belongs to other pigs—that they must not consume what is not theirs.

Considering the usual impressions on pigs, truly they are amazingly disciplined.

Asked if he is telling us a true story, the guide dared us to go to the place right after our descent from Tirad Pass. But due to exhaustion, we unanimously begged off.

But despite the fact that we were not able to personally see these “disciplined pigs”, other residents of Del Pilar confirmed the veracity of the story. Like our guide, they offered to accompany us to the place to witness how disciplined the pigs are.

However, they were unable to explain how these pigs develop such discipline. Theories were given though. Maybe they were trained by their owners. Maybe they were forced to trust only their owners. Maybe, discipline is truly in their nature.

The last one, of course, is expected to raise a myriad of issues—issues extending even to the nature of “pigs” in the human race.

Anyway, the lesson from the disciplined pigs is clear: we must learn to respect the needs of others—pigs, humans and all other species.

As these pigs teach us discipline, may we also be reminded of Luke 6:31: “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”

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BARD NOTES: Happy bard-reading to Governor Imee Marcos, Laoag City Mayor Chevylle Farinas, Laoag City Vice Mayor Michael Farinas, Provincial Treasurer Josephine Calajate, Dr. Castor Bumanglag, Dr. Miramar Bumanglag and PNB Laoag Manager Metty Guerrero.

Happy reading also to the members of the Bad Circle Runners and to the employees of AMA Laoag, PNB Laoag, DEPED Laoag and Vertext.