CARMONA, Cavite — This town is celebrating its 153rd founding anniversary with the traditional week-long Sorteo (Lottery) Festival.

Mayor Roy Loyola, other town officials and Governor Ayong S. Maliksi led the ceremonial opening of the festival last Tuesday at the packed town hall gym. The festival is one of a kind in the country, if not in Asia.

The festival’s highlight is the three-day and four-night “Sorteo ng Bukid ng Bayan” (Lottery of Town Land Parcels) set from midnight on Friday (February 19) until Tuesday (Feb. 22).

Loyola said that during the Sorteo, 109 land parcels will be given to raffle winners who will return the land to the local government after three years so that others may have a chance to get the farm lot, also through draws, and earn from it.

A total of 9,738 residents are taking part in the Sorteo this year, said the mayor.

The festival formally started Tuesday morning with the "Ani ng Kinabukasan" (Harvest of the Future) event, parade of floats and dances and band-playing, among others, at the town hall area.

Sorteo is a Spanish word which means raffle or draw. The original event gave qualified town folk a chance to win the right to cultivate farmlands rent-free for three years.

Loyola, citing history, said the Sorteo was first done in the town in 1861 or four years after Carmona, then called Barrio Latag, was separated from its mother town of Silang on February 20, 1857, through a decree approved by the Spanish monarch.