Every annual celebration of Tatusan Festival, this isolated island municipality literally suspends its isolation in the three days it takes to gather together migrant natives, local and foreign tourists to its white-sand shoreline. Caluya is now the fifth largest seaweed producer in the country. Needling no fertilizer, it takes only about three to four weeks to harvest the seaweed. Compradors buy it at more or less P200 per kilo and send it to Cebu where it is processed into carrageenan, a gum that is used as stabilizer or thickener in jellies and dairy products, processed meat, toothpaste and pharmaceutical products.

Vego, H. (2015, April 26). Caluya's Tatusan Festival reels off May 22. Panay News, pp. 15, 16.