The irony that is Mountain Province

G-SPAT
Grace Bandoy

Current statistics from the Regional Development Council, National Economic |Development Authority and the National Statistical Coordination Board lists four provinces in the Cordillera Administrative Region as belonging to the country’s poorest provinces. Among them are Ifugao, Apayao, Kalinga and Mountain Province, with Ifugao and Mountain Province always belonging to the Top 20 poorest.

They have been in the list for years and years and years. It’s shocking because Ifugao is known for the Banaue Rice Terraces around the world as one of this planet’s man-made wonders. And it is one of the poorest provinces in Philippines.

Mountain Province aside from Sagada’s caves boast of having the richest politicians in the country. But this province has been one of the poorest in our country for the past decades.

And these politicians (with the exception of the richest of them all, the late Victor Dominguez) again spent some unaccounted millions during the past elections campaigning. They had the millions spent campaigning but never the money to make Mountain Province a centavo richer. Umegyat kayo met ah.

My father hails from Besao in Mountain Province and it’s sad to think that it’s one of the poorest towns in this country. Belonging to that shameful Poorest List means that people living in those poor provinces have very little to eat.

Most don’t have jobs or have enough access to modern amenities, their children are not able to complete their education, they are overly populated and their homes are not built to give them enough shelter for protection.

This is quite hard to believe or even imagine. But being one of the poorest provinces in this third world country of ours simply means that life’s basic needs – food, clothing, shelter – are lacking in that province.

I believe that is the very reason why residents there escaped and chose to live new lives someplace else, in Baguio, Pangasinan and Benguet. And with their wit and hard work, they found better living outside of the province.

They are successful businessmen, lawyers, government officials and employees, doctors, engineers or professionals in some other fields and these people whose roots are from Mountain Province make up majority of the population in Baguio now with a great many of them successful and rich.

This, while the province where their forebears hail from remains poor. I blame those who ruled Mountain Province for making it poor. They made themselves richer while our beloved Mt. Prov. and its inhabitants wallowed in poverty for countless years already.

The politicos who recently spent loads of money to rule over there should do something to uplift the lives of our kailians. During Marcos’ time, Mountain Province, and Ifugao were nowhere near the list of the country’s poorest. They were among the progressing provinces.

Mountain Province has all the needed reserves for progress - natural resources and hardworking people but never the right political leaders who recognize those resources. They only recognize the smell and color of money for their personal use. They don’t give a damn if Mountain Province is the poorest as long as they are the richest.

My heart goes out to the people of that land, may God help you all!