The Cordillera Review Volume 1 Issue 2

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72 The Cordillera ReviewMayor, there is something I would like to explain to you,something which hurts me and hurts my heart. Now we have aprogram for having our land titled… It’s in your hands too, Mayor,because you are here as a government official. If for example this(claim to our) territory is not fulfilled, and you do not see what isright, the people that are here on this side will be hurt. And thesehard feelings will be planted inside and it will not end. It will bepassed on until the next generations. We are here now so we canall understand each other.At dusk a decision was finally reached. The disputed area was tobe excluded from the claims of both Kabayan and Kayapa until thehearing officer of the NCIP would reach a decision. The municipal mayormuttered bitterly that the hearing officer was an Ibaloy, implying thathe did not trust the officer to be objective in his decision. Similarexclusions were made in subsequent boundary negotiations betweenKabayan and other neighboring municipalities. The pressure of textualdiscipline also came to bear on this ADBR. The end result of thisnegotiation was a written document attesting to the sought-aftertemporary agreement and signed by the indigenous peoples present,including the municipal mayor and other government officials.The claims to Kalanguya unity bring us back to the question ofidentity as a key factor in the interface between indigenous governmentrepresentatives and ili-based indigenous people. When does it countand how is it brought to the fore during interactions? The case of theKalanguya in Kabayan also brings to the fore the ways in whichindigenous government representatives and intelligentsia influence theshape of claims, and how processes unfold at the level of the ili. In thislight, I will describe the background and nuances of the Kalanguyaclaim.Whither the Kalanguya ancestral domain?The foregoing discussion on the ADBR concerns the Kalanguya villageof Lusod, Kabayan municipality. Tawangan, the main field site for mystudy, is another Kalanguya village adjacent to Lusod, and also withinthe political-administrative boundaries of Kabayan. Like the people ofLusod, the Tawangan Kalanguya have been at the center of a tug-ofwarof boundaries, this time between the municipality of Kabayan andthe municipality of Tinoc, Ifugao Province. It took many negotiationsbetween Tinoc and Tawangan before the boundaries were settled.Another event in the process of titling Kabayan’s ancestral domaindemonstrates the tensions between Kalanguya communities caught upperez 53-86.pmd721/27/2010, 2:39 PM
Governing Indigenous People 73in these negotiations. In August 2004, engineers of the NCIP had traveledto Tawangan to set down the first boundary monument for Kabayan. Acontingent from Tinoc walked to Tawangan to protest on the groundsthat the people who really mattered, both government officials andcertain elders from Tinoc, were not present when a memorandum ofagreement had been drafted, thereby allowing the monumenting toproceed. Therefore, by their account, the memorandum was not validand the monumenting should be stopped.When they arrived, the engineers and a few Tawangan men hadalready set out to find the correct spot for the first marker. The Tinoccontingent and the leaders in Tawangan gathered in the house of thebarangay chairperson. Time and again, during this meeting, the localgovernment officials from Tinoc warned that the Kalanguyas would bea minority once more in the ancestral domain of the Kabayan Ibaloys.One leader from Tinoc asked why Tawangan and Lusod wanted to bepart of Kabayan, when on the other hand, they would call for an elderfrom Tinoc if they needed them to officiate traditional Kalanguya ritualsor to mediate in tongtongan? Did it not make more sense then for them tobe part of the Tinoc ancestral domain, with their fellow Kalanguya? Mt.Pulag was also brought into the discussion again. Local governmentofficials from Tinoc insisted that Mt. Pulag should belong to theKalanguyas, because they lived closest to it. According to them, whoevercould manage Mt. Pulag would become rich. For once Kalanguya couldbe wealthy in their own territory, they said. As they debated back andforth, the engineers completed the first marker, not knowing of theconfrontation that was taking place in the village.The Kalanguya of Tawangan admit that they are closely related byconsanguinity and affinity with the Kalanguya of Tinoc. One barangayofficial from Tawangan has land and a house in Tinoc, where herchildren go to school. One of the municipal officers of Tinoc is the son ofone of the respected elders of Tawangan. In turn, his father tends hislivestock in pasturelands on the boundary between Tinoc andTawangan. Several such relationships exist between the Kalanguyaresidents of each village.However, the Tawangan and Lusod Kalanguya explain that theychose to be part of Kabayan because, according to them, it was theIbaloys from Kabayan that extended basic services and development tothem, and not their fellow Kalanguyas from Tinoc. The Kalanguya areknown among politicians to be block voters, meaning that they agreeamong themselves to vote for the same candidate. Because of thisreputation, local Ibaloy politicians from Kabayan have nurtured patronclientrelationships with the Kalanguya in the outlying villages of theirmunicipality. Therefore, while indigenous identity was a major factorin negotiations, it was politics and matters of governance that played adecisive role and not kinship or common ancestry.perez 53-86.pmd731/27/2010, 2:39 PM
Page 1 and 2: THE CORDILLERA REVIEWJourna l of Ph
Page 3 and 4: Po licy Inno va tio ns a nd Effe c
Page 31 and 32: Governing Indigenous People 53Gover
Page 33 and 34: Governing Indigenous People 55Bound
Page 35 and 36: Governing Indigenous People 59The c
Page 37 and 38: Governing Indigenous People 63ances
Page 39 and 40: Governing Indigenous People 65had s
Page 41 and 42: Governing Indigenous People 67back
Page 43 and 44: Governing Indigenous People 69At th
Page 45: Governing Indigenous People 71to co
Page 49 and 50: Governing Indigenous People 75becau
Page 51 and 52: Governing Indigenous People 77The p
Page 53 and 54: Governing Indigenous People 79How i
Page 55 and 56: Governing Indigenous People 81NOTES
Page 57 and 58: Governing Indigenous People 83their
Page 59: Governing Indigenous People 85North

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