Short Detours

Funded by a Japanese Non-governemnt Organization, several groups joined a tree planting activity as part of a 3-year project to create Baguio Artists Forrest Park at Km. 4 Asin last Monday, September 17, 2012. Lead by Baguio Artists and the Lagud School of Living Traditions, the group composed of the Philippine National Police, One Nature One Community (ONOC), Katribu, Dap-ayan ti Kultura ti Kordilyera, Save 182, La Trinidad Shutterbugs, students from SLU Laboratory Elementary School and several online groups planted about 2,000 assorted seedlings. The park is a project of the Greenfields Network Philippines and funded by National Land Afforestation Promotion Organization, a Japanese non-government organization. The Baguio City Police Office also contributed about 400 assorted seedlings to the project. The 1 hectare area is owned by Baguio Artist Kidlat Tahimik and was believed to be a Japanese camp during World War two from the war relics previously dug on the site. Leading the pro...

One of the unique innovations during the Strawberry festival is the Strawberry Lane which offers variety of strawberry inspired products from donuts to facial scrub. What was removed from the Baguio Panagbenga Festival which was the flower inspired foods fair, La Trinidad picked up. Chairperson Municipal Agriculturist Fely Ticbaen said that “the trade fair is to showcase different entrepreneurs producing strawberry based products.” Many who participated continued the product that won a Guinness World Record in 2004 when La Trinidad showcased the biggest strawberry shortcake. Different versions had been competed against each other for the best strawberry shortcake since then and some are currently offered at the Strawberry Lane. Normancita Obar also known as Menchi, an entrepreneur of Menchie’s did not only offer cakes but it also produced its unique version of strawberry donuts. One of the sponsors of the activities, she operates her business at home and her cakes can be ordere...

Lead by Baguio born international artist Kawayan de Guia, 4 Baguio artists and 7 Ifugao carvers joined forces to give new life to Baguio’s oldest tree and became one of the sights to see in Mines View. Alfonso Bucalen Jr., Jayson Domling, Ashley Velasco, and Kawayan’s father Kidlat Tahimik worked with Ifugao carvers for 2 weeks to give new face to the celebrated century old tree that was declared dead a year ago. The woodcarvers all hailed from Ifugao are Christopher, Derick & Ceasar Atiwon, Totoy Butic and Apiles Mahiwo, all from Hapao, Hungduan. Their leader Santos Bayucca is from Banaue. A simple ceremony was held last Monday to inaugurate the project where some tourists stopped by to get a photo of the once celebrated century old pine tree now turned totem pole.  Following a Cordilleran tradition, a chicken and a pig were butchered as sacrifices to the spirits to continue protecting the tree. Eighty-four-year old Kalanguya “Mambunong” Gabino Bandao interpreted t...

Lunch are served in banana trunk plates. Photo and story by: Carl C. Taawan Kapangan, Benguet has recently concluded its second Anitap Festival on March 17, 2009. The community activity was attended by the 15 different barangays of the municipality. Councilor Bentres, the tourism officer of the municipality explained that “the Anitap tree is the source of the indigenous musical instrument called the “tallak” which is used in the performance of the Tallak dance.” Anitap, scientifically known as Macaranga Cumingii, is abundant in Kapangan. Bentres said that “Tallak was not only used by the people of Kapangan but the whole of Benguet in celebrating the canao long before the coming of the metal gongs.” “The municipality decided to name its cultural celebration in recognition of this old age plant that has been part of the heritage of the people of Kapangan and of Benguet” said Bentres. Mayor Canuto thanked the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) as the “major contributor in br...

They were once mighty people of the earth and mountains. They carved the mountainsides to create big stairways of rice fields reaching up to the skies. They have braved the rough terrains and adjusted to the kind of living the mountains have to offer. They protected the treasures from invaders. When their efforts failed and their trees were harvested by invaders, they changed the sculpture of the bald mountains by creating vegetable farms that can supply the needs of the national capital region. They were called by their lowland brothers in the outskirts of the mountains Igolots. According to early 20th century historian Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, golot is an old Bago tribe word meaning “mountain chain” or “mountain ranges” and the prefix “i” means “people of” or “dwellers in.” Igolot was the term the early people of the lowlands describe these mountain dwellers that came to trade goods with them. When the Spaniards came, the name was anglicized into Ygorrotte, to be spelled later a...

In many parts of the country, the word Igorot is used as a derogatory term for idiots. In 1958, Even the former representative Luis Hora of the Third District of the Old Mountain sought to prohibit the use of Igorot in a house bill he presented. But what does the word really mean and who are these people who are proud to be called as one. Dr. Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, a Tagalog scholar in the early 1900s, stated that it was composed of the root word golot, meaning “mountain chain” or “mountain ranges” and the prefix i, meaning “people of” or “dwellers in.” The fact that golot is a place has still survived in the speech of those “Bagos” living in the outskirts of the Ilocos provinces who are believed to be related to the Igorots. We still hear people say “Nagapodad Golot” (They came from golot) when people arrive from the mountains. "The word Igolot, therefore, appears to be perfectly indigenous Filipino origin, and it is in this form that it first appeared in Spanish reco...

By Carl Cariño Taawan Deep gorges separating and isolating many sitios and barangays, rocky cliffs formed as human faces, and pine covered mountains that is said to resemble those of Switzerland. A place named after a primate. In the mountains of Kibungan dwelt monkeys that are believed to have vanished because of the degradation of the forests and hunted for food. These monkeys were bigger than their common families found in the area today. The Americans named this municipality after these primates. They were called by the locals “Kibengan”. One of the people who saw the said monkeys was Bernabe Wance. “It was probably in 1932 that they still roamed these mountains, “he said. “As the population grows, the monkeys were hunted for food. The monkeys eventually run away or have been wiped out.” Increase of population in Kibunga escalated when the logging and mining industry expanded in the area. Bigger communities like those from Sagpat and Lobo were formed during the gold mines that clos...