BARANGAY CAMANSE, Carigara, Leyte – It was a Black Saturday and yet this farming village is very much alive with an air of festivity.

People coming from various parts of Carigara and those coming from other places like Tacloban troop to this village every Black Saturday to enjoy and watch their bull-fight version called “torugpo”(loosely translated, match-making).

The “torugpo” involves the lock of horns among carabaos though there were fights involving horses. The fight lasts for only a few minutes with the losing animal running away, which result for the people witnessing the fight scampering for safety. Part of the thrill, they say.

Aside from the main attraction, visitors could expect to taste local dishes being sold at the various stalls that sprout within the site of bullfight, which is actually the barangay plaza.

And ten years later, from being just a pure entertainment, it became a sort of a vice as prizes were offered to the winners.

In 1982, the giving of prize for the winner of Turugpo started, according to Rañin, through the initiative of the Jacila family with the support of the provincial government and the Department of Tourism.

With the involvement of money in the competition, Rañin said that they enforce limitation of contenders from the former free to all, to the limiting them to 10 pairs of carabao to three pairs of horses.