September 30th, 2007 — Ifugao, Kalinga
UPDATE: Related story from the Inquirer.
From GMA News:
Eight people died while one remains missing as of 2 p.m. Sunday, following a landslide that hit Ifugao province Saturday night amid heavy rains brought by tropical depression “Hanna,” the Cordillera Region Office of Civil Defense (OCD) said.
September 28th, 2007 — Activism, Government, Mt. Province
Joel Fagsao, who blogs at Mountain Life and who maintains the mountainprovince.net website has a sad letter about a truck driver who died when boulders fell on his truck while driving on the Halsema Road. Some excerpts from Joel’s letter:
On September 14, 2007 at about 9:00 PM, Winston Sili Pawid, a native of Lesseb, Bauko was driving home towards Bontoc. He is a truck driver of Ranee Enterprises, the San Miguel Beer products dealer here in Mountain Province owned by Mrs. Eugenia Manao. When his truck passed by within the vicinity of Lukib, boulders and all fell down on his truck. The landslide carried with it his truck down below. It was only in the morning of September 15, 2007 that the incident was discovered. Winston leaves behind 1.6 year old son and his wife, Geraldine Cabiadan Pawid who is my employee.
September 28th, 2007 — Activism, Government, Igorot Achievers
NOTE: We are re-printing this statement by Vicky Tauli-Corpuz on the rights of indigenous peoples; it’s a bit long but is a very interesting read.
Statement of Victoria Tauli-Corpus, Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on the Occasion of the Adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
September 27th, 2007 — Apayao
Who says you can’t grow durian, the best-tasting but worst-smelling fruit ever, in Apayao? The above photo courtesy of the Philippine Information Agency/Cordillera is proof that you can. Delmar Carino has a related story at the Inquirer.
PHOTO CREDIT: Redgie Cawis/PIA-CAR.
September 27th, 2007 — Politics
This video is dedicated to all Cordillera politicians 
VIDEO CREDIT: devilgol12.
September 27th, 2007 — Baguio, Education, Mt. Province
Congratulations to Benigno Lingan Borja of St. Louis University (SLU) for making it to the top ten (8th place) in the geodetic engineering board examination held this month, September 2007. Borja obtained an 82.80% score.
How did the Cordillera schools do in this exam? Bad except for SLU. The schools’ passing rates are as follows:
Continue reading →
September 26th, 2007 — Baguio
Baguio brooms. Totally not made in Baguio. They’re most likely from La-Union although I also read somewhere that some of them are imported from Batangas.
PHOTO CREDIT: sonnyleon.
September 26th, 2007 — Government, Mt. Province
Let’s continue our By the Numbers series which we first started with Benguet. This time, here are some interesting statistical figures from Mt. Province.
87%: Current literacy rate of Mt. Province, it dropped by five-percentage points from the 92.44% literacy rate recorded in the 1990s.
September 25th, 2007 — Art/Entertainment, Folk tales/Stories, Igorot Achievers, Mt. Province
Aside from answering our questions Rosita Pinkerton, author of An Igorot’s Journey, generously sent us a copy of her book which we really enjoyed reading. Here is what we wrote Rosita after reading the book:
I hope more Igorots will be able to read it because it is a thoroughly enjoyable read. I felt like I was part of the journey. I laughed at the humorous parts, felt bad at the tough parts, and kept turning the page to see what happens next.
September 23rd, 2007 — Art/Entertainment, Culture and Tradition, Folk tales/Stories, Igorot Achievers, Mt. Province
While we were googling the internets, we came across this website about An Igorot’s Journey, a book written by Rosita Pinkerton.
Timidly (yes we can be quite timid) and praying that she will say “Yes”, we wrote the author to ask whether it would be okay if we interview her about her book.
