U4 L4: GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CORDILLERAS
Cordillera - Spanish term meaning series of mountains/ mountain range
Peoples/ ethnolinguistic groups in Cordillera:
● Kankanaey (Kankanai) - Mt. Province, Benguet
● Ibaloy - Benguet
● Bontok - Mt. Province
● Kalinga - Apayao
● Isneg - Apayao
● Itneg - Abra
● Ifugao -
● Kalanguya
● Iwak - Cordillera, Nueva Viscaya
● pic of tattooed (signifies strength & bravery) Igorot taken in Bontok
History Of Cordillera
Spanish Period ❖ Gold - drew Spanish conquistadores as early as 1572
❖ Expeditions were sent to locate mineral wealth of Cordillera
❖ Reduccion (resettlement) Policy - involves relocating dispersed & inaccessible
settlements to more nucleated groups for the Purpose of:
1. converting the natives
2. facilitate tax collection
➢ strategy to create settlement concentrations
➢ municipal halls/ gov. center (pueblos) in the provinces are located
near churches (Rosario, La Union) - layout of Spanish origin
Spanish missions established in the Cordillera:
❖ Pudtol (1604 & re-established in 1691)
❖ Capinatan (1691)
❖ Tonglo (1755)
➢ due to sustained indigenous resistance
➢ missions in Ifugao & Mt. Province were established around 1800s
➢ Spaniards were able to enter but couldn’t control
Ex: La Trinidad (wife of Guillermo Galvey)
❖ Highland-lowland relations was forbidden
Purpose: annihilate the highlanders & make them realize the need to move downhill
& submit to the colonial order
❖ Lowlanders were recruited for pacification campaigns against the Cordillera
peoples
➢ but still, trade relations continued
Ex: smuggling of tobacco from Cordillera by lowlanders to meet their bandala
❖ Mid 1826 - the Comandancia del Pais de Igorrotes was formed, putting the
unpacified Cordillera under a special administration under the command of
Guillermo Galvey
➢ Cordillera was eventually subdivided to several comandancias
➢ all the efforts to conquer Cordillera were in vain
❖ They were considered savages, barbaric, & uncivilized because they resisted
assimilation (even until now)
❖ William Henry Scott describe the status of the Cordilleran people, tribus
independientes (independent tribe)
➢ American historian that focused on the pre-colonial history of the PH
(Cordillera)
➢ married a Cordilleran, lived in Sagada, & was buried there
Revolutionary Period ❏ Ibaloy oligarchs (Laruan, Carantes, Carino families) provided sanctuary &
assistance to the fleeing revolutionary forces (Aguinaldo)
American Period Systematic Efforts Aimed at Better Understanding Culture: (instead of disregarding it
like the Spaniards)
➔ 1903 - census conducted
Categories: wild & civilized population
➔ “culture zones” were identified to focus on the wild pop.
➔ Bureau of Non-Christian Tribes (created on Oct 2, 1901) conducted survey on
the character of the different culture zones
➔ ethnographies were authored by different writers
➔ encouraged ethnographies to study the culture Cordillera
Purpose: to be able to create more effective policies for pacification
➔ 1907 - establishment of the 1st mission station of the Congregation of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) in Bontoc
➔ Aug 18, 1908 - creation of the Mountain Province (Benguet, Amburayan,
Bontoc, Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga, & Lepanto, noe independent)
➔ Divide & Rule Strategy - tolerated intertribal war to create conflict
➔ both the Catholic & the Protestant Churches (particularly the Episcopal
denomination) became instruments of change in the region
➔ Episcopal Church / St. Mary’s Church
◆ most influential religious inst. during the American administration
◆ established stations in Bontoc & Sagada (most visited)
➔ 1909 - Baguio was established as a colonial hill station
➔ established schools all over Cordillera
➔ Land Laws & Mining Acts - caused long-term impact on the peoples of
Cordillera
◆ Public Lands Act of 1902 & 1905
● required land registration/ titling
○ private property
○ land was communal before
● resulted to Cordilleran peoples’ loss of control over ancestral
land claims
➔ Since the formation of the Philippine State after the American colonial
period, the Cordillera Region has always been regarded as a resource base for
exploitation in the name of “national development”
Result of/ Basis:
➔ legal framework of the State’s ownership of public lands & resources
➔ Revised Forestry Code of 1975 - provides that all lands having a slope of 18
degrees or more are inalienable & non-disposable for agricultural &
settlement purposes (can’t own, public land) & they automatically belong to
the state classified as public forest land (57% of pine forest areas in Cordillera
has a slope greater than 50 degrees)
Resulted to:
➔ ruling elite & foreign capitalists to have access & gain from the plunder of
the indigenous peoples resources
➔ forest areas were leased to commercial logging companies (dispossessed the
IPs depletion of resources, destruction of watersheds, IPs were forced to move
further to the interior or to outlying areas where they were discriminated)
Indigenous Peoples/
Indigenous Cultural ➢ a group of people sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions, &
Communities (IP/ICC) other distinctive cultural traits, & who have, under claims of ownership since
time immemorial, occupied, possessed, & utilized a territory
➢ those who have, through resistance to political, social, & cultural inroads of
colonization, become historically differentiated from the majority of Filipino
○ minority
➢ IPRA/ Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (RA 8371)
➢ were able to preserve their culture & traditions (like communal view on land,
communal rituals, cooperative work exchanges (Bayanihan), peaceful
coexistence, mutual respect, selflessness for the common good, consensus
building in decision-making process)
○ distinct from western oriented culture (individualistic)
➢ most had their council of elders
➢ view land as sacred (evntl. sustainability)
➢ recognize their symbiotic rel. w/ the ecological system
➢ viewed land as granted & entrusted by one Creator for everyone to harness,
cultivate, sustain, & live on
➢ adheres to the spirit of collectivism & rejects the idea of private property
➢ land is of divine origin = sacred (not subject to ownership, sale, purchase, or
lease)
➢ culture, spirituality, & way of life are connected to land
Development Programs
● Ambuklao Dam (1952 - 56) & Binga Dam (1956 - 60) which submerged a
total area of 650 hectares of farmlands & displaced 300 Ibaloi families
● Mining claims were given to mining comps. & inds.
● The Cordillera Region is the first area in the country where corporate mining
started when the mining company, Benguet Corporation started operations in
1902 (American period)
Caused: draining of water, noise pollution, water pollution, toxic waste flowing into
the rice fields
● pic is sinkholes in Mangkayan, Benguet caused by Lepanto Mines
Commercial Agriculture
● resulted to heavy use of pesticides & fertilizers which cause respiratory
infections, skin diseases, & child labor
● Cordillera is one of the biggest market of pesticides in the PH
● areas of traditional farming for rice & local crops have been transformed into
commercial vegetable gardens
