Philouise’s Weblog

The second San Diego Grand Canao will be held on July 18 to 20, 2014 hosted by BIBAK San Diego. There is going to be a welcome party at the St. Matthews Episcopal Church on the evening of the first day, followed the canao at the Golden Pacific Ballroom of the Town and Country Hotel and Resort. The farewell party will be at the ROHR park at Sweetwater, which was where the dance practices and rehearsals were usually held.

The First San Diego Grand Canao was held in 2008 “the beat goes on” where they were able to gather more than 700 Igorots coming from the different states of the United States, the other continents and from the Philippines in a celebration at the Sheraton Hotel and Marina, at the park and several homes, including that of then SD Bibak President Robby Mina of Baguio City.
Similarly, another expected gathering will be in 10th Igorot International Consultation (IIC) at Vienna, Austria on August 7 to 10, 2014 coordinated by Alan and Margie Akistoy. In the Philippines one major contact is Virginia Tamiing Doligas of Easter Weaving Room. At this time we extend our condolences to her and the family as her husband was one of those who died in the recent vehicular accident in Aguinaldo, Ifugao and laid to rest last Saturday, July 5.

Going back to IIC, the Philippines first hosted it in 2000 in Green Valley, followed by the 7th IIC in Banaue and the 9th IIC in Baguio Country Club where it was agreed that the IIC will be held every after a biennium. Other IICs were held first in Los Angeles then in Arlington Virginia for the 2nd , the 4rth in London, 6th in Melbourne, 8th in Vancouver. These consultations always have dancing, talks on care and posterity of Igorots as a people. It has always been a complete regard for preservation of culture, traditions and environment.

The only exception for bringing the consultation to the Philippines after London was to coincide with the Centennial of the World Fair which included the Igorot Exposition the 5th IIC was held in St Louis, Missouri. Lifted from the website of Igorot Global Organization, that momentous affair was described by Martha Clevenger of the Missouri Historical Society described the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri in a book, “Diaries and Letters From The 1904 World’s Fair,” which she edited. “Indescribably Grand” is also a fitting description of the 5th Igorot International Consultation in St. Louis, Missouri on July 1 – 4, 2004. One hundred years ago, a group of indigenous tribes from North Central Philippines called Igorots, were on display at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. One hundred years later, descendants of these Igorots return to St. Louis to participate in the centennial celebration of the 1904 World’s Fair and to attend the 5th Igorot International Consultation. This is an historic event. In attendance will be people from all over the globe and from all walks of life. They will come to participate and experience an Igorot cultural and education extravaganza – workshops, seminars, exhibits, trade booths, an ecumenical memorial service, a grand reunion; a showcase of Igorot pride, intelligence, simplicity, and vision for the future.”

The Igorots worldwide are fostering a spirit of care and a vision for posterity and yet sadly we have some of our present city leaders have displayed complete disregard for the care towards posterity and confused and deceived people. Take the Mount Cabuyao “rape of the bowels of the mountains and the forest” presently there are politicians and supposedly environmentalist believing in lies like “bulldozing is going on because they are protecting the road so it will not slide down to the water reservoir, avoid contamination “ in the first place why protect a road when in the first place it should not be there. When tree lovers propose that they will plant trees to cover the road, why do the leaders say planting to rehabilitate the bulldozed road will take years and they are willing to plant trees not on the road but somewhere else.” And yet people believed them, how gullible can the electorate be, why destroy the forest in the first place and they say that “it will take years to rehabilitate” of course it will take ages to do that so why massacre 740 trees and clear the underbrush that sustains the habitation needed for the other living creatures like the birds that fly the sky, the crawling and jumping creatures that traverse through the forest. Are we so deceived we cannot even see realities and perceived and analyze situations and motives. Who has seen the master plan of the Eco tourist center, for all we know there may even be a gambling den. For all we know, it would be a forest too- but who really knows? How unfortunate is this generation and the next.