The Onjon Again

Because of a busy schedule, I am writing just a little for this issue of the Tribune.

Last week’s issue had me writing about the first president of the Onjon ni Ivadoy. It was during his term that the name Onjon ni Ivadoy was chosen as the name of the organization that hoped, and still hopes to have the descendants of the vanishing pure Ibalois in this mountain, and their relatives from the other municipalities to come together and to enjoy being together.

While they thought of what name they will call their organization, they had quite some  discussions as to what they will call their group: Ibalois, Ivadoys?  They decided on the term Ivadoy because that is how they think it should be. When they are asked as to what language or
dialect they speak, they say they are eman ivadoy. They do not say they are eman “Ibaloi”.
Basilio was re-elected president for the second year of the Onjon. To be continued. btpistola

The Ibaloi Day Celebration

It was a happy event for Ibalois from Baguio and its neigboring municipalities. There was dancing, there was singing, there was fun. Of course, there was also eating of the naowik tan nai khedot ta baboy ira. Egkhak et mango amta nu kaong ira, eno burias. Ngaran kari ni Ibaloi ni baboy? Ayo, singen edibkhan da. Say kaong met ket suta eman enak. Say burias ket suta egpay laeng bima’deg dja usto.

Aligwa met ta Ibaloi, eno Ivadoi ima esel la babaoy. Ayayay.

But that’s the aim of the Onjon ni Ivadoy. For the Ibalois today to meet together, not in courtrooms to argue olver rights, and other causes of conflicts. The aim is to give them a place or venue to come together just for camaraderie, and for the preservation of what is left of the Ibaloi culture. From the small number of Ibalois who signed up as membeers of the Onjon in 2009, there are now more than a thousand attending the celebration of Ibaloi day which was set on the day that the United States Supreme Court decided the land registration case filed by the Igorot Mateo Carino whose application for registration with the Philippine Courts have been denied by the Philippine Supreme Court.

It was not a small victory. And it should mean much to the Ibalois. However, due to whatever reasons they had, Filipinos do not like to respect the native title doctrine that the United States Supreme Court did. 

In Baguio, some people for whatever reasons they had, or have, have inserted in the draft of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, and/or its  Implementing Rules and Guidelines that Section 78 which limits the Baguio Ibalois rights to claim their ancestral lands that have been taken over by the government just becausse they did not undeerstand the NEW LAW that the United States Government implemented in the Country as soon as it took over the helm of government from Spain.

That previous government earlier did not allow the people of the Province of Benguet to have their lands registered or titled in their names. When the Americans took over, they also did not like to let the Ibalois have their lands registered in their names. Then, for a little while, they allowed the people of Benguet to have their lands surveyed and registered in their names.

But they had the surveyors survey only those that were devoted to agricultural crops at the time they acceded to the request of Ibaloi leadeers in the first five years of the American rule for the return of their lands as promised by the US President. They did not let them have those lands devoted to animal grazing be surveyed for the Ibalois. Later, laws for the registration of lands were made that allowed other Filipinos to have their lands registered. But not the people of Benguet. And those laws were made, not by Americans and Spaniards but by Filipinos who took over the helm of government from the Americans. 

At this point in time, many of the Ibalois who took over the struggled for  the recoginition of their land rights from their predecessors are no longer around, leaving the unfinished business of having their land rights recognized to their children who are also now being given the run-around in their quest for the titling of their lands.

Ah, cruel world!, 

Do be kind to the Ibalois who are also your brother Filipinos. Let them rest from their quest for the recognition of their land rights which, when they have taken their titles, can have the confidence to negotiate with government for those areas that are needed for the public’s welfare, if public welfare is truly it, but not to the point where they are deprived of their livelihood.

At this point, I would just like to correct some impressions made by some people who reported the events during the Ibaloi day. Mateo Carino was not the first chieftain appointed by the Spaniards because he got baptized as a Christian, or as a Catholic. He was the Capitan of Benguet when the Americans arrived to drive out Gen. Aguinaldo. 

He was not given the land he fought for by the Spaniards. The story he told the Court was that the land, i.e. the 146 hectares reserved for the Camp John Hay was the land of the grandfather of his wife Bayosa. And he fought for it for his daaughter Josefa. btpistola

I'ts Ibaloi Day Again

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

Occupied by a Savage Tribe

I started to read the decision of the United States Supreme Court on the case filed by Mateo Carino against the Insular Government for not recognizing his title over 146 hectares of land in the Province of Benguet.

I have not yet finished reading the same so I will not write much about it, except the following points that I have understood so far.  One, the Spanish government refused to have the land registered during their time because they have not yet determined the areas they need for government purposes.  

Two, the Solicitor General who argued against Carino’s application admitted that Benguet was a Province occupied by a savage tribe that was never brought under control by the civil or military government of the Spanish Crown.

I will tell you more about this next issue.  Until then.  btpistola

IPRA and / its IFF excluded the Ibalois of Baguio?

  Why does the IPRA, and/or its IRR exclude the Ibalois of Baguio from the enjjoyment of their right as Indigenous Peoples as embodied in the  Philippine Constitution?

It is February once again, and on the 23rd of it, Ibalois will be gathering at that portion of the Burnham Park that the City Government allowed them to use as a gathering place as they celebrate Ibaloi day  the date of which is based on the day that the United States Supreme Court decided the land registration case filed by Mateo Carino against the Insular Government.

On the 23rd of February, 1909, the United States Supreme Court decided in favor of Mateo Carino, represented by Metcalfe A. Clark, whne he appealed the decision of the Court of First Instance of the Province of Benguet dismissing his petition for the registration of that land that was reserved for the United States Military which had an area of 146 hectares.

He first  filed his petition for the registration of the land with the Court of Land Registration.  The CLR decided in his favor, but the government opposed his petition.  It appealed the case with the Court of First Instance of Benguet which dismissed Carino’s petition.

Carino  then represented by Clarke appealed to the United States Supreme Court.  The US Supreme Court favored Carino.

From a Syllabus of the Decision written on the 23rd of February, 1909, one can read the following:

“The Organic Act of the Philippines made a bill of rights embodying safeguards of the Constitution, and, like the Constitution, extends all those safeguards to all.

Every presumption of ownership is in favor of one actually occupying land for many years, and against the government which seeks to deprive him of it, for failure to comply with provisions of a subsequently enacted registration act.”

The Philippine Constitution of 1997 provides for the recognition of ancestral lands of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines.

I wonder why the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) or its Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) includes a section which deprived a group of indigenous peoples who are also Filipinos from enjoying a right that is supposed to be enjoyed by all indigenous peoples of the Philippines.

What have the Ibalois of Baguio done to deserve the punishment from their fellow Filipinos? 

Or are they supposed to be not “indigenous”?  

Or, are they just  ‘sloths’ hanging from the branches of pine trees  with no rights to live on their land?  Ae they not also Filipinos who have rights guaranteed by the Philippine Constitution? btpistola