Bowing heads

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March Fianza

Last week, I read a letter by a cousin, ancestral land claimant Roger Dalisdis Sinot of Guisad and Pinsao, addressed to NCIP chair Atty. Leonor T. Oralde-Quintayo. “Ka” Roger who represents the heirs of Wisley Sinot said in his letter that the moratorium on the processing of ancestral lands as instructed in a memorandum order last December has further delayed the process and has therefore made ancestral land claimants suffer further as they have been waiting and waiting for the issuance of their land certificates.

 “Ka” Roger said the issuance of the moratorium has practically contradicted the mandate of the NCIP to “protect and promote the interests of the IPs.” As such, it leaves ancestral lands open to squatters who “group themselves into associations that can easily overpower the defense put up by the outnumbered ancestral land claimants.” Some of them have even applied for the titling of the lots they have squatted on.

The heirs of Wisley Sinot hoped that with the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, they can recover their ancestral land from the squatters, but this was not the case because their application was never acted upon since it was turned over by the DENR to the NCIP   in 2000.

“Four of my siblings have died without seeing the fruit of their struggle for their ancestral land,” Roger’s letter read. In addition, he hopes that the recent Vallejo Hotel land issue will not be used as a reason to stop the processing of valid ancestral land claims.

Lastly, it asked the NCIP to “not shirk its mandate because squatters are occupying ancestral lands but rather make the squatting problem as the more compelling reason to be more resolute in bringing back the ancestral lands to their rightful owners as the mandate in the IPRA is to protect the rights of IPs.”

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Everytime I met anyone of them, even while the informal party has yet to end, I observed that they stepped back as they enriched each meeting with a greeting and a smile. All the time I thought the Japanese were the only Asians who bowed their heads as a sign of respect to people they met. I found out I was wrong during a recent visit to La Trinidad by Phichit Governor WacharaTippilar and Lamrung Sub-district Mayor Phong sakon Khong charoen of Thailand who came with a delegation of teachers and members of the school board. La Trinidad Administrator Paul Cuyopan, in behalf of Mayor Edna Tabanda, was always quick in inviting us as the mayor does not fail to entertain her visitors with live music at dinner time.

Mayor Tabanda explained, the visit of the Thai delegation was the municipality’s way of returning the hospitality they showed us when we were invited to Thailand last year. It was also in preparation to a possible establishment of sisterhood ties between La Trinidad and the Thai sub-district. Some municipal councillors were at the farewell party to entertain the Thai delegation. Among them, councillors Jun Ramos, John Botiwey and Francis Lee, along with Vice mayor Romy Salda. When asked, all of them agreed with the observation that Thais were very courteous even to the regular workers at the municipal hall.

Bowing the head as a sign of respect is not the exclusive gesture by a certain race in the Asian region. The Koreans, especially when formally introduced, bow their heads to new acquaintances too. It is also true with the Chinese in general, although I was told that there are places in China, particularly in metropolitan districts, whose inhabitants no longer execute the gesture. Perhaps, busy schedules and the heavy workload in the cities have pulled them away from pausing for a moment to greet people along their way.

 I remember too that during a short stint at the Refugee Processing Center in Bataan in the early 80s, the Vietnamese, both young and old, did the same gesture of bowing their heads to people they meet within and outside the camps. Though there are instances when people just passed you by, maybe due to the effect of modernization, the old bow greeting has become customary in some in places in the Cordillera. I have met people in Ifugao, in Tinglayan, Bontoc, in Buguias and many towns in Benguet where folks greet others with the famous bow capped with a smile, especially when they know that the person is new to the place. People welcome you by bowing their heads.