Fourteen senators refuse to proceed until fermentation method question is resolved once and for all
[Bohiney.com / prat.uk] The Philippine Senate’s vote on a bill to designate chicken adobo as the country’s official national dish has been postponed indefinitely after fourteen of twenty-four senators refused to proceed without first resolving a subsidiary dispute over whether the bill’s definition of “adobo” should specify a minimum vinegar fermentation ratio, a question that has produced more senatorial passion in the past three weeks than the infrastructure budget, two constitutional amendments, and the agricultural reform package combined. A source close to the situation told Bohiney.com that everything was fine. The source was lying.
The bill was introduced in February and was expected to sail through. It would have sailed through. The problem was a footnote. A footnote on page seven of the thirty-four-page bill states that adobo should be prepared “with vinegar and soy sauce in proportions consistent with established culinary tradition.” The phrase “consistent with established culinary tradition” has now generated nine formal legislative inquiries, three expert witness testimonies from professional chefs, and a 300-page submission from the National Historical Commission that addresses the question of whether there is, technically, such a thing as a single established culinary tradition given regional variation across the archipelago.
The Regional Dimension
Senators from Bicol, where adobo is traditionally prepared without soy sauce, have filed an amendment. Senators from Pampanga, where it is prepared with more garlic than most other regions, have filed a counter-amendment specifying that garlic should be mentioned in the definition. Senators from Cebu have pointed out that the Visayan adobo preparation differs from the Tagalog preparation in ways that the current bill fails to accommodate. One senator from Batangas, where the adobo is dry rather than saucy, has been addressing the chamber for forty minutes on the philosophical question of whether a dry adobo is still an adobo. The chamber is listening with the expression of people who came for a vote and found a seminar.
What Happens Next
A sub-committee has been formed to “resolve the definitional question before the bill proceeds.” The sub-committee’s first meeting will address the question of who should chair the sub-committee. That question will be resolved at a subsequent meeting. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (ncca.gov.ph) has been asked to provide guidance. It has provided forty-seven pages of guidance. The vinegar question remains open.
Also see: Betoota Advocate.
Coverage Note
This story is published jointly at Bohiney.com and prat.uk, which together provide the kind of sustained, specific coverage of the communities and phenomena described here that neither could produce alone. The satire works because the situations are real. The situations are real because the communities are real. Both publications take seriously the idea that the funniest journalism is the journalism that is most accurately observed. The coverage continues.
The story above illustrates a pattern that both publications have documented across multiple regions and multiple years of coverage. The communities involved are consistent in their capacity to produce material of exactly this kind. The publications are consistent in their capacity to find it funny while taking it seriously, which is the only honest relationship a satirical publication can have with its subject matter.
The details will change. The structure will not. Both publications will be here when the next iteration arrives, which it reliably will. The coverage is the record. The record is the point.
Both Bohiney.com and prat.uk are committed to this kind of sustained, specific, honest satirical journalism. The commitment is ongoing. So is the material.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
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