ILOCANDIA RUMBLINGS

I'm not an Igorot, but I've worked with and lived in Igorot communities, especially those ravaged by destructive corporate projects and businesses. I’m not an Igorot, but I fell in love with one, who is fierce in struggle as she is gentle to her love ones. I’m not an Igorot, but I appreciate and respect them, their culture, the landscape, and the struggles by which these noble group of people identify themselves. I’m not an Igorot, but I wish someday to wear their colorful attire which I’ve seen them wear in different occasions, events and situations - in weddings, tribal occasions, the Panagbenga, while speaking before the UN and of course, in the parliament of the street. Since the photos of G-string clad protesters from the Cordillera, beating their gongs and marching the streets of the National Capital Region hugged the headlines this month, there have been widespread criticism about the use of the traditional Igorot attire during militant actions. People, including ...

(The original article was published by Northern Dispatch in September 2015. Photo grab from http://planetphilippines.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/headline.jpg) My mother and father have not yet bumped  to each other when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, so I can never claim firsthand experience on the matter. I rarely tell my friends that I grew in family who are fervent Marcos loyalist (especially my mother’s side), usually eaves dropping with conversations regarding the benefits from the declaration – the order it brought, the supposed development, and many more. In high school, I even choose to be part of the group who favored the declaration of martial law during a classroom discussion on the issue. This is the only instance that I can remember where the topic was deliberated with a certain degree of importance. I learned the extent and depth of martial law’s meaning and result when I attended a forum organized by the student council in a university I once attended....