As requested by the late Cecille Carino Okubo – Afable, February 23, the day the United States Supreme Court decided in favor of Mateo Carino in the case he fbrought to that Court against the Insular Government regarding the land that the United States Government made a U.S. Military Reservation, be marked as Ibaloi day in Baguio.
And so, by virtue of a City Council Resolution, the day has been celebrated by the Ibalois of Baguio, and friom other parts of Benguet celebrated, and continue to celebrate the same.
This year, they started their celebrations Saturday, February 21 with a parade from the Baguio Convention Center, led by their re-elected president, Jackson P. Chiday, and other officers.
With the women wearing their divit, the men their chalicos, and others wearing Igorotak printed shirts, they converged at the Ibaloi Heritage Garden on the east side of the City
Auditorium for their Adivay shi Avong.
This is the eighth time that the Ibalois in Baguio and Benguet are celebrating Ibaloi day in Baguio, and showing the world that they are still existing in the land of their birth. They have been deprived of most of their lands, but they are still existing although they may not be as brave as the “savage tribe that never was brought under the civil or military government of the Spanish Crown” as characterized by the Solicitor General of the Philippines who argued against Carino’s claim of ownership.
The Ibalois now are of mixed bloods wth some bearing a lter, more or less of Ibaloi, Ivontoc, Isagada, imainit, ispanyol, americano, hapon, ibisaya, imindanao, I-pugao, I-pangasinan,
Idoho, and other bloods from other lands. But they are still Ibalois and proud to be so. Except of course some who see only bad in the ibaloi.
There are also bad sides of other people, but sometimes, they see only the bad side of the Ibaloi and are blind to the bad sides of their tribes. The quotation re the people of Benguet who were mostly Ibalois at the time the statement quoted was made proves that Benguet was never really a part of the Spanish lands that the Spaniards ceded to the United States. Although they included it in their map, the fact is that they have never really colonized it.
That follows that it should not have been a part of the land that the United States took over, and which the Filipinos also took over from the Americans. The much disliked statement of the late Carlos P. Romulo about the Igorots not being Filipinos was because the Igorots have not been subjugated by Spain, even as the statement of the Solicitor General of the early 1900s supports.
The Ibalois are also Igorots, and the ones referred to as Igorots in the Charter of Baguio that George Malcolm wrote in the early 1900s, and the ones referred to as the people of the Province of Benguet as the Solicitor General stated.
There should be no arguments about who are the Igorots to be considered when choosing an Igorot to be put in the Council of Igorots as provided in the Old City Charter of Baguio; or a representative of the Indigenous peoples in the City Council as provided in the local government Code. The Igorots of Baguio City are the Ibalois. The indigenous peoples in the City of Baguio are the ibaloi Igorots.
The Igortos from the Mountain Province, Ifugao, and Kalinga-Apayao, even though members of their younger generations were born here are not indigenous here, and they are not the Igorots referred to by Mr. Malcolm.
There should be no arguments about this truth. And there should be no arguments about the Ibalois owning the lands that are now part of what has been chartered as the City of Baguio. It has been chartered as a City. The lands have been reserved for various purposes. But that does not mean that the lands were not Ibaloi lands. They have just been deprived of them, and mostly without just compensation.
The Ibalois of Baguio have been refered to by some as squatters. They have been made so by the unjust proclamation of their lands for various purposes without just compensation. btpistola
