City Hall, ancestral land or ancestral domain?

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Roger Sinot

(Last of a series)

 PINSAO, Baguio City - After several talks, revelation of Ibaloy complexes and explanations in these series of articles, one would probably agree or disagree that Baguio should be an ancestral domain. In one university, a professor in philosophy asked her student, "Pedro, will you differentiate the word conclusion from an opinion?"

Before standing up to give his piece, Pedro glanced at the classroom door open and the window closed. He then pointed his finger to the door and said, "kung open yun..." then pointed his finger to the window and said, "kung close yun!" Often times our opinions are as good as our conclusions.

I had a chance to listen to Jackson Chiday's story. He is the incumbent president of the Onjonni Ivadoy, an Ibaloy group that assembles every 23rd of February in an avong at Burnham Park, between the Children’s Park and the Orchidarium. He was teasingly saying that his great grandfather's remains were buried in the site where the city hall building is now located.

I then suggested him to gather his relatives and go to the lobby of the city hall during office hours and lay lighted candles and to also do the ritual to pay respect to their great grandfather. It was just an idea of the moment. Who knows, that site could be his ancestral claim.

Several Ibaloy elders I had met commonly said that when the city hall building was not yet there, the place was where the Ibaloys kept their stocks in a granary. A huge two-story hut was built to store their products and livestock in the basement, especially so because they travelled distant places on foot.

In my previous column, I mentioned the first Igorot claimants of Baguio, the 48 Ibaloys recognized by the supreme court, then came the 782 ancestral claims recognized by the DAO 2-DENR that had met the dead line of filing ancestral claims.

My opinion here is for the claimants or the heirs to apply for an ancestral domain for Baguio and select their Indigenous representative in the city council as provided by law. I guess all have been said.

Besides all the neighboring towns of the city have already applied for their ancestral domain. If the officials in that city on the hill are real in pushing for autonomy then they should leave the City Charter, “water under the bridge” and go with the flow of the BLISTT, then apply for a domain of Baguio.

Let us give autonomy a chance; a genuine autonomy; an autonomy that spells out the Identity of every tribe in the cordillera region, an autonomy that respects and protects the costums and traditions of every tribe in their specific place in the Cordillera. Let us spread the gospel of peace and self-improvement of all the tribes in the Cordillera through development. The financial aspect of autonomy is just a follower in the field of opportunity. Besides, if I am right the autonomy is the IRR of the IPRA.

Farewell to Manong Jaime Panganiban. May your steps on earth be remembered. I know you are heaven bound because heaven is for real...see you soon.

Hail to freedom, hail to self-reliance, hail to autonomy, Happy trails to all fellow Cordillerans!