Open letter to the i-Benguets

I’m writing this unorganized letter to implore our igorot brothers and sisters from Benguet not to hate us (from Mountain Province) and, more importantly, not teach your children to hate us. Loving us may be asking too much, but if you can tolerate our co-existence, you will still be much more Scriptural as “there is neither Jew nor Greek…for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

I was born at the then old BeGH in La Trinidad, grew up in Twin Peaks, Tuba, Benguet (0-5yo), then continued being raised in Tabangaoen, Balili, La Trinidad, Benguet (5-19yo). The story goes that when my grandfather died in Agawa when my Dad was in elementary, he opted to come to study high school in the then MAC in La Trinidad as a working student. And to cut a long story short, from that time on, he lived in La Trinidad and later chose to sell his tiny inherited land in Agawa for him to continue his tertiary education. Similar story with my mother, whose place of origin is Bangnin. Anyway, after college graduation, I worked and lived in Nueva Ecija for more than 20 years (19-41). By God’s sovereignty, I married someone based and working in La Trinidad, Benguet, plus I owe my dear old mother to be near, so I chose to come home to La Trinidad.

Now I ask you, dearest brethren: was it my fault that my place of origin is Mountain Province?; Was it my fault that I was born to parents from Mountain Province? Was it my fault that they chose not to go back and settle in Mountain Province? If you put your feet on my shoes, what will you do? (I did tell my Mom not to sell that tiny rice field she inherited, but she did anyway). Should I get your ire for something that I was born with? Well, I still thank God that I was born to a resilient lot supportive of their kin and tribesmen.

From another perspective, was it your choice that you come from Benguet? Was it your choice that you came from your respective tribes?

In economics, one assumes or models a simple world to be able to analyze it. If we then uphold the credo “Benguet is for Benguet,” then for it to work, it has to be “Nueva Ecija is for Nueva Ecija”, “Mountain province is for mountain province”, “Ifugao is for ifugao”, “Davao is for Davao”, “Italy is for Italy”, “Japan is for Japan” etc. So should I then try and go back to Agawa or Bangnin? Should those children born in Kapangan village in Laur, Nueva Ecija, then go back to Kapangan? Should the Warays born in Manila go back to Samar, or the Ibalois from Chagao now working in Italy go back and work in Chagao? Can one even imagine how we can make the model work? I think about that DevCom graduate from Benguet who excelled at PhilRice and won some award from some international competition. If "Nueva Ecija was for Nueva Ecija", I wonder if he achieved that much.

In the story of Tarzan, Jane fell in love with Tarzan and Tarzan with Jane and they settled in the jungles of wherever. For the model to work, Jane cannot marry Tarzan. By God’s sovereignty, I married someone from Benguet, so how will the model work in my case? Just how many annulments will have to be filed to make the model work?

Oh well, I am exaggerating. But really, it’s the only way to analyze things. There are really no autarkic economies, but we assume them to be able to understand international economics. If only I am that good in modelling, I would try to model the impact of non-Benguets (Americans, Japanese, Spanish, Ilocanos, Pangasinenses, Ifugaos, Applais (Northern Kankanaeys), Bontocs, Tagalogs, Chinese, etc.) in the economic development of Benguet. For me to do that, I would need a counterfactual of what would have happened in the absence of non-Benguets.

But that is beside the point. Point is extreme nationalism caused world wars. Extreme regionalism is unhealthy and will impede development. Now I understand why one of my lowlander teachers before never answered the question "from where are you?" She just said, "it divides." A friend from Nueva Ecija who stayed with an Ibaloi for quite some time told me, "grabe rin pala pagkaregionalistic ninyo hano."

Okay, okay, let us keep our culture, be proud of it, preserve the good parts, and drop the really unhelpful parts. At least we have an indigenous culture, not a borrowed lot. 

I’ve been singing the Benguet hymn since Grade 1.

I never wondered, but now I do, does it have a version in vernacular?

Dear land of mine/underneath a starry sky/so close to God where peace and love reign forever/up in the clouds float her breast that heave and sigh/her golden crown dazzles the mist in the air/This is Benguet rose of the northern mountains/May God keep her safe and forever free/Land of the brave where no evil foot could wander/Home of the free where brotherhood is sown/Hail to thee! Province of Benguet...My own.

Because of the yearly reunion on my mother’s side, I also learned the Bangnin hymn:

Nagapu kami isnan ili ay baey di liboo/Uminom kami isnan danum ay kaneg dalalo/Wen mangmangan kami isnan ubi tay siya nan sibu mi/Wen daydayawen mi ili mid Bangnin.

According to the National Council of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), however, born and raised in La Trinidad, which I call my home, my place of origin (POO) is Mountain Province by virtue of the place of origin of my parents. So that my indigenous tribal certificate bears the tribe “applai”. I have no problem with that. In fact, I am proud that most of my people are wired to get education; my parents prioritized education so that they sacrificed, leaving their place of origin only to be educated and schooled. The story goes that my father was being asked to apply as president of the MPSPC, but declined because he thought about our (his children) future. Maybe that was such a tough decision. I do not know what could have been the turn of events had he decided to go back. But he didn’t. For the sake of theory, maybe it would have been good for him to have gone back and helped his province. But I understand his decision, now that I have kids of my own. And I think he did his best at Benguet State University, contributing to its development in little ways. The same way, Dr. Bruno Santos, Dr. Cipriano Consolacion, Dr. Fortunato Battad, and the rest of the non-Benguet employees served BSU. Well, it's quite difficult to think of the counterfactual.

Having said all these, I do understand why you hate us (from Mountain Province). Maybe it is because of the issue of claiming public lands. I have to admit that is something I am not proud of. But mind you, dear brethren, there are also the many very legal transactions where you did sell your better lots and properties to those whose POO is not here. On my Dad’s dying months, one of his regrets was that his name was tainted, having built a house, half of which was eventually surveyed to be sitting on part of government land. Squatting is maybe how others who were not present during those times will brand it, but from the story, I would say it was an honest costly mistake. Yet it was his i-Benguet colleague and bestfriend who pointed where the land he supposedly paid a Tabangaoen Ibaloi landowner was located, and no more than the i-Benguet BSU land reservation officer at that time cleared it, accordingly, even saying “Nu madim, ket siak ngarud agpatakder." Yet looking back, he was glad he was the one who kept the place, otherwise, the place would have continued to be a dumpsite, or BSU would have lost it forever unrecovered. It was also an i-Benguet who sold to him, as I recall, the presidential decreed land where his house now sits. I can’t be more proud that, while he was laughed at by some of the i-Benguet claimants for not signing the petition for another presidential decree releasing a prime lot owned by the university in Central Balili, he stood his ground and rallied behind the university. He probably could have easily also claimed some lot my brothers used to till near the dam site, adjacent to the small creek, but he thought it was supposed to be university property.

Maybe it is because you think you are being overtaken by people from the rest of the world, and you start becoming sidelined. Again, I don’t know how that can be helped if you keep selling your prime lots. Just recently, ex-governor Dangwa sold some wide hectares of his land in Tawang to allow for a PNP subdivision. I also hear about some Ibaloi old rich landowner siblings suing each other in the name of land conflicts, selling them like hotcakes. But these are decisions you hold, and not in the hand of buyers.

These are just my random, unedited unorganized thoughts. You may disagree, but I’m entitled to them. My only purpose is so that you can understand what I feel. And I am probably speaking for the many of us not so young, the younger ones and the generations to come whose place of origin is not Benguet but born and raised in Baguio and Benguet. We who are from our places of origin but who might not have even seen our place of origin, know nobody there and have no property there. Yet we keep hanging on to our clan reunions, where we start becoming connected and feel we are indeed originals from there. We who have lived all our life here and will be buried here but can never be considered from here by virtue of our place of origin, but who contribute somehow in terms of services, taxes, and development.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying you all think alike. Just as you should not think my tribesmen think all alike. Some of my close friends are i-Benguets and I never felt discriminated by them. Maybe I am really just hurt after some isolated bad experiences and now talking out loud to myself. I remember one time I was treated very rudely by my hubby's distant relative probably just because he says I am "i-Bontok." I couldn't lecture him that morning that Bontoc is different from Bangnin or Agawa, or that Bontoc was the old name of Mountain Province because I am not sure if he was already sober, or if he will even understand because as my husband would explain later, they were taught that if you are from Mountain Province, you are iBontok.

Anyway, I will teach my children and let them know that their mother comes from Mountain Province, and their father comes from Benguet. But I will teach them not to worry because, in death, they will not be asked to answer the question “from where are you?." I will teach them that they ultimately came from Adam and therefore, have inherited the original sin and now would need to be regenerated and converted in order to enter the kingdom of God. I will teach them that while Jesus was a Jew, he was not just tolerant but loved the Gentiles. I will teach them about the culture of “linapet” from Agawa, and about Ibalois being mostly shy and peace-loving when sober, and will encourage them to attend the annual reunions of all sides. But I will teach them that not all Applai Kankanaeys are public land claimants but are actually generous givers to their family and society; not all Ibalois are kind and shy, but some can be politely discriminatory; not all Ilocanos and Tagalogs are boastful, but many are humble and modest; not all Igorots are dirty… the list can go on and on. 

I will try and teach them that the real culture that they should aim to be identified with is the culture of Christ’s grace; however, difficult to follow (it is only by grace so that no one will boast). I will teach them that all Ibalois, Bontoks, Applais, Kankanaeys, Ifugaos, Kalingas, Tinguians are equalized as sinners and equalized by death so that while it is good for them to learn and be proud of their cultural roots, their life is only in the hands of the one true God who caused the confusion of language, and scattered us all over the earth (Gen. 11).

Nelson Mandela was right. No one was born hating another person because of his skin color, or his background or religion. No one was born hating another person because of his tribal origin. People must learn to hate, or learn to love. He was wrong, however, in that love does not come naturally in the heart. Human beings are wired to sin by virtue of the original sin. “Even our best deeds are but filthy rags…” This truth will help point us to Christ who is the only one capable of love. This truth will help us be more tolerant of others regardless of their place of origin, because we know it is not culture that ultimately governs our lives and hearts. It is the regeneration afforded us by the one true originator of culture.

(my writing this was triggered after a hopeful deal for a technical internship program for BSU with Japan was nipped in the bud "I assume" because of the fact that I (not from Benguet) was the one negotiating for it (and that BSU is not Benguet, but a national organization), even while I defended to the best of my ability that the program can actually be easily implemented in a way that only Benguet students from BSU can avail of the program. Well I am a part of the BSU International Relations Office and was just trying my best to find international linkage programs that can hopefully benefit not only the degree programs but the students as well. Anyway, as they say, "kung para sa iyo, sa iyo" so it was not probably for BSU.)