UN representative baptized as princess of Bontoc’s Chico River
GMA Network
BONTOC, Mountain Province - Suneeta Mukherjee, the representative of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) in the Philippines, was baptized as “wagchas” or the “Princess of Chico River” by local government officials in an elaborate ceremony here.
Does that mean that Mukherjee, an Indian national and a strict vegetarian, would be able to partake of pork, the favorite food in Bontoc?
“No,” said Gov. Maximo Dalog. “But this is our way of saying that we are serious in our thrust for population management and development.”
Mountain Province and nearby Ifugao were among the few provinces in Northern Philippines that passed a code for comprehensive reproductive health.
Dalog said that the implementing rules and regulations of the code, as well as the Gender and Development Code were approved recently.
Mukherjee said local government units should not wait for the House and Senate to pass the National Reproductive Health Code.
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OUR TAKE: Hmmm. Princess of Chico River? What a title. Hindi kaya magalit ang mga bading sa Bontoc because that title should be bestowed to one of them not to some “interloper”. Hehe. Joke lang, UNFPA Representative.
Anyways, it’s good that Cordi local government units (LGU) view reproductive health as an important issue. Kudos goes to Ifugao for being the first province in the entire country to pass a reproductive health ordinance. Mt. Province followed and is the second province in the Cordilleras to do so.
Now, after passing their ordinances, the officials of Ifugao and Mt. Province should now buckle down to work to make their ordinance a reality. Let’s hope they won’t back down if the Catholic Bishops threaten them with excommunication, deny them communion, or anything like that.
Ito naman kasing mga obispo sa Pilipinas, biro mo ba namang they equate using condoms or other birth control methods with killing life daw. How very 19th century, ano?
Here’s a photo collection (in video format) of the recently concluded Lang-ay 2008 festival in Bontoc. Video courtesy of Rafael Manuel Jr.
Since, you will be watching a lot of the peoples of Mt. Province in the video, maybe this is a good time to talk a little bit about them. According to the National Statistics Office the population of Mt. Province is broken down as follows:
Applai: 2,947
Balangao/Baliwon:18,886
Bontok/Binontok: 2,510
Ibontoc: 17,234
Ilocano: 6,968
Kalinga: 2,468
Kankanai/Kankaney/Kankanaey: 72,694
Other Local Ethnicity: 16,197
Other Foreign Ethnicity: 22
Not Reported: 413Total Mountain Province Population (Year 2000): 140,339
Apparently, because Kankanaeys compose a slight majority of the population, the NSO ridiculously dubbed Mt. Province as “Home of the Kankanais”. Hah, maybe we should encourage our Bontoc and Baliwon/Balangao activist-friends to make “sugod” the NSO to change their ill-advised title/description for Mt. Province. What you think, Layad?
Anyways, Applai is a Kankanaey sub-tribe so they should be included in the Kankanaey total. The Bontok/Binontok and Ibontoc are, of course, one group and should not have a separate count. Meanwhile, in case you are wondering, the Balangaos/Baliwons are from the eastern part of Mt. Province particularly Natonin and Paracelis.
I hope the NSO made a breakdown of the 16,197 who are listed as “other local ethnicity” but maybe they’re busy spending all their time coming up with trying-to-be-catchy-but-actually-silly titles like “Home of the Kankanais”.
Hala, let’s make sugod na the NSO so it will change that ridiculous title with an inclusive one.
Here’s an interesting story about the packaging of Bontoc as a tourism destination. Just some quick comments for the one who wrote the story hehe.
* Bontoc is part of the highlands. It may be lower in elevation than Sagada or Banaue but it is very much a part of the Cordillera highlands.
* People of Bontoc are iBontocs/iFontoks and not Ifugaos. Ifugao is a separate province so its not correct to say that Bontoc has an “Ifugao heritage”.
* What exactly does “descendants of old tribes” mean?
Anyways, according to this report, there is a plan to build an airport on top of one of them thar mountains and iFontoks are resisting the idea.
If I am from Bontoc, I would also resist it. Well, I’m from neighboring Sagada so maybe I should also join the resistance hehe. The problem with tourist-oriented projects like this is that they are conceived to please the tourist.
Nothing wrong really with trying to attract tourists but if the primary reason for planning an airport is to make it easy for them to go traipse in the boondocks for a day then I’d say it is a bad idea. And those who resist this idea, i.e., “the descendants of old tribes”, should not be portrayed, as this article (or its source) slightly does, as anti-development.
Anyways, in our bid to attract tourists we should also be mindful of the social costs of tourism. I believe that sacrificing the ancestral domains of the “descendants of old tribes” for an airport designed for tourists is, at the end of the day, going to be more costly than the income we’ll get from tourism.
Now, if the people of Bontoc themselves are clamoring for an airport then maybe you can justify an airport.
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