Dagupan City celebrated its Bangus Festival 2026 with a Bangus Rodeo event that showcased skills, speed, and prized milkfish from local farmers.

Participants competed in several categories, including fastest deboning, eating, classification, and longest, heaviest, and “prettiest” bangus contests.

In the fastest deboning category, Joemari Paryaoan won with a record time of one minute and 12.95 seconds. In the eating contest, Ruben Fernandez finished a whole grilled bangus in two minutes and 21.31 seconds.

Ryan Doria was named fastest bangus classifier with a time of two minutes and three seconds.

For fish size competitions, Alexander Melendez’s entry was declared the longest bangus at 71 centimeters, while Dominic Camacho’s fish won the heaviest category at 2.67 kilograms.

The prettiest bangus award went to the entry of Adela Caguioa, judged based on eye quality, scale condition, head size, gills freshness, and standard weight range between half a kilogram and one kilogram.

Organizers said the event aimed to highlight the strength of Dagupan’s bangus industry and its role in the city’s identity as the Bangus Capital.

Dagupan Mayor Belen Fernandez said the title was built through the work of local fish farmers and workers.

“The title of the Bangus Capital was not handed to us but build. Harvest by harvest through the discipline of our fishpond operators, the early morning of our workers,” she said.