''Pagpag'' is the Filipino language, Filipino term for leftover food from restaurants (usually from fast food restaurants) scavenged by Tagalog Filipinos from garbage sites and Landfill, dumps. Preparing and eating ''pagpag'' is practiced in the slums of Metro Manila, -majority areas of Tondo, Manila, Tondo, such as Hapilan. It arose from the challenges of hunger that resulted from extreme poverty in the Philippines, poverty among the slum, urban poor. Pagpag food can also be expired frozen meat, fish, or vegetables discarded by supermarkets and scavenged in garbage trucks where this expired food is collected. The word in the Tagalog language literally means "to shake off the dust or dirt". Pagpag can be eaten immediately after it is found, or can be cooked in a variety of ways. Pagpag is also called batchoy, a euphemism, euphemistic term derived from the batchoy, Filipino dish with the same name. Technically, batchoy is soup-based, though the term batchoy referring to leftover food from the trash may be a meal cooked differently, like fried ''pagpag'' batchoy. and It is also a delicacy for the Tagalog people.

History

Pagpag's origin resulted from extreme poverty, beginning in the History of the Philippines (1965–1986), 1960's during the 21-year dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos. During this period the country was experiencing a severe crisis, which led to the invention of “pagpag” - leftover food scraps. Later on Pagpag spread to other areas in Manila, such as Caloocan, Pasig's at-large congressional district, Pasig, Tondo, Manila, Tondo, and Pasay. Some people even used it as a Filipino cuisine, pulutan (bar snack) when drinking. Over time pagpag became popular in Tagalog areas. Some vendors sold it for 20 pesos per pack in plastic bags. Eventually, it evolved into what is now known as “Monok”. By around the mid-2000s, people from provinces in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao who ended up in Manila's slums also resorted to eating pagpag due to poverty and environmental influences.

Preparation

After dirt and inedible substances are removed then ''pagpag'' can be eaten on site where it is found. It can also be processed further, most commonly by frying it in hot oil depending on the kind of food. Filipino actor and former Manila Mayor of Manila, Mayor Isko Moreno used to scavenge leftover food and calling it ''pagpag'' batchoy, batsoy after frying it. Small cottage industries have arisen around ''pagpag'' with poverty, impoverished people making a living scavenging, collecting, processing, and selling the processed ''pagpag'' to other financially challenged people. A cook in a restaurant in Tondo, Manila, Tondo, Manila prepares ''pagpag'' in traditional Philippine cuisine, Filipino cooking, such as ''pagpag'' à la kaldereta or Philippine adobo, adobo, with the mixture of the leftover chicken from Jollibee and KFC as the main ingredient.

Health concerns

Health risks include ingestion of poisons, toxins, and food-born illnesses. The National Anti-Poverty Commission (Philippines), National Anti-Poverty Commission warns against eating ''pagpag'' because of the threat of malnutrition and diseases such as Hepatitis A, typhoid, diarrhea, and cholera.

Discouragement of consumption

Hunger has been linked to the spread of ''pagpag'' food and the food crisis in 2008 was said to be the cause in the rise of poverty in the Philippines. The Philippine Statistics Authority, National Statistical Coordination Board recommended the administration of President of the Philippines, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III to reduce poverty. Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Dinky Soliman said that the government has been addressing the issue and helping the poor through feeding programs and conditional cash transfers. In 2014, a survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations revealed that incidence of hunger in the Philippines was reduced but the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa attributed the decrease of hunger to the rapid spreading of ''pagpag''. Zero waste management is seen as a viable solution in stopping the proliferation of ''pagpag'' food.

Media coverage

Selling pagpag in a poor neighborhood in Manila

Extreme hunger among the Metro Manila slum, urban poor in the Philippines that features ''pagpag'' has been covered in various television documentaries. In 2003, the episode entitled "''Basurero''" (garbage collector) of the documentary show ''I-Witness'' of GMA Network tells a story of poor people collecting leftovers from the trash of fast food restaurants. In the said episode, those people who scavenged for food in trash are called ''magbabatchoy'', which was derived from the word batchoy, a popular Filipino dish. As shown in ABS-CBN Corporation, ABS-CBN in 2006, ''Probe (Philippine TV series), Probe'', another documentary show, features ''pagpag'' and mentions health risks of eating ''pagpag''. After CNN reported about ''pagpag'' in 2012, the reality about problems of hunger in the Philippines was brought to the world's attention. The ''San Diego Tribune'' also featured an article about residents of Payatas preparing ''pagpag'' in celebration of Pope Francis's visit to the Philippines. In February 2018, BBC News published a 3-minute long mini-documentary showing how ''pagpag'' is made, whereby the team followed a bag of meat from the rubbish dump to the dinner table. Frequent sensationalist media coverage of ''pagpag'', and Tondo, Manila, Tondo poverty in general, has been criticized as an example of poverty porn.

Other uses of the word

In common use, wikt:pagpag, ''pagpag'' means the act of shaking off dust or dirt. ''Pagpag'' is also a Filipino term for a superstition saying one can never go directly to one's home after attending a funeral unless they have done the ''pagpag''. This practice is observed to avoid the following of the dead's soul to the home of the visitor of the Wake (ceremony), wake.

References

External links

* {{Wiktionary-inline Malnutrition Poverty in the Philippines Tagalog words and phrases Food and the environment Meals