Its No Longer There

ONLINE GROUP HUG, EVERYONE?

Yesterday, Splasher forwarded me a letter from Philian Weygan of the Association of Young Igorot Professionals (AYIP) which states thus: “I just got a text message from Mr. Gorospe, the Manager of Barrio Fiesta, Baguio that they have removed the statue of the urinating Igorot. (He called me “Sir”). So that means Jerome and other AYIP followed up on the letter we sent to the Board thru Mr. Gorospe. Sent by email and by hard copy. We still want an audience, but it may come some other time.”

Friends, that was really fast no? Its been a week since we initially blogged about this statue and this immediate and favorable reaction by the restaurant management is a testament to how the efforts of separate yet inter-connected groups of people can help change things for the better.

Here’s a review of how the events happened: We blogged about it expressing our concern, we then sent our love letter to NCIP officials, Bugan sent a copy of the letter to the Bibaknets yahoogroup which is probably the most extensive community of Igorots in the internet, AYIP got involved and sent letters to Barrio Fiesta Baguio Branch, Cheryl Daytec-Yangot informed Inquirer’s Vince Cabreza of the “furor” happening online and he wrote a story about it, Barrio Fiesta somehow became aware that its statue is drawing much criticism and so decided to take it down.

Didn’t we say here (4th paragraph onwards) that Cordillera activists, no matter their political orientation, usually produce results. I’m sure there are other people who also did their part in making this happen. In a future post, we will analyze why our collective efforts succeeded. In the meantime, let’s have an online group hug.

RELATED POSTS: Man Oh Man; Let’s Have Fun; More on That Barrio Fiesta Peeing Igorot Man; Let’s Have More Fun. PHOTO CREDIT: EBSQart.

11 thoughts on “Its No Longer There”

  1. Who knows if they removed it because they really understood why some people find it offensive. I think the owners just realized that bad publicity is bad for business. It’s all about the $… or the peso. 😉 But it looks like blogging about something leads to results. Hmmm… maybe I should blog about winning the lottery. hehe

  2. Hi Wil,
    I think its the bad publicity that they are afraid of. Bonus na lang if they became sensitive to our indigenous/ethnic concerns. Ha ha sama ako diyan about winning the lottery.

    Hi Ferri,
    Good job to all of us who raged and ranted against this statue. Siyempre kasama ka na doon 🙂

  3. kudos for a job that’s being done very well, bill. (there should be more to come.):-)

  4. congrats bill! That’s the prize of your effort, kala ko pa nga nun 50-50 ka sa iyong decision kung itutuloy mo o hindi..blogging and the internet is still becoming more powerful, baka maging issue pa yan sa Imbestigador or XXX hehehe kung walang action..pero natapos na ang lahat…
    (off Topic) sa mga kababayan nating mga taga Kalinga bakit naman ganun ang ginawa natin sa mga bisita natin na delegates ng Mt. Province (Swimming Team) We should feel ashame kahit konti lang ang involved it still carries the name of our province..sya nga pala ninakawan ang Mt. Province delegates sa kanilang quarters sa Kalinga,cellphones etc….Bukas na ang CARAA meet..maybe i will write a blog about it also hehehe

  5. Bill Bilig,

    I received word from Vince Cabreza that Baguio’s Acting Mayor Peter Ray Bautista also called the attention of Barrio Fiesta to our righteous indignation. I presume that Ray acted after reading Vince’s Inquirer article.

    It is really amazing what lighting a candle can do. Thanks, Bill for igniting that spark.

  6. This is also aplicable to the principles of war if i am right a, “If the territory you are diggin in is within the teritory of a friend, don’t make any move that makes him your enemy”….

  7. How about this one?

    Theofrenz Cayambas posted on Bibaknets:

    “One down.

    How about this:

    http://splasher.halukay.com/2007/02/12/asian-treasures-disappointment/

    Since the shows of GMA Pinoy TV are aired two weeks late, those in the US
    may still be able to catch the four episodes

    “Ginawang katawa-tawa ang mga Igorot. Again. GMA-7 disappointed me bigtime. Four episodes of it. At best, the story arc is inaccurate.
    From there it can even get offensive.”

    That’s Theofrenz speaking.

    Why are they doing this to the descendants of valiant women and men who did not allow themselves to be subjugated by the Spanish colonizers? A chapter in Philippine history should be about the bravery of the Igorots. I have yet to read it. Of course. No one wrote it yet on the pages of the mainstream books.

    Must they add to the unfairness of it all by perpetually downgrading our ethnicity and feeding the public false information that villify the Igorots?

    It was GMA 7 that catapulted our talented Marky Cielo to fame and stardom. Does its reported recent Igorot-bashing make any sense to you?

  8. I CAN’t say anything about that..as i have said i am not watching telenovela etc…only news and documentary…maybe bill have so much knowledge on that…

  9. I’m still glad they took it off. It’s good to voice out our concerns, and it means that opinion matters. Bill, I guess they did the work for me – don’t need to take out that statue anymore.

  10. Hi Pagano,
    Thanks but we all did it. It is a collective effort, wika nga. I’m sure if we continue to work together there will be more to come 🙂

    Hi Nats,
    Yes the internet is very powerful in bringing people together and uniting them. Amazing,no? And blogs have the potential of making people more accountable particularly those in government and the business sector.

    Your quote is very appropriate in this case, no.

    Hi Chyz,
    That Inquirer article really helped. I have my quibbles with the paper but it has the best regional correspondents 🙂

    You’re welcome. Thanks for doing the work there in Baguio. Actually the bulk of the work happened there in Baguio because you have the direct contacts. If Baguio folks didn’t do anything, I don’t if something would have happened other than bloggers ranting in the internet he he he.

    Yes, that Asian Treasures thing is something that we should also look into further. I think Splasher is raising very valid points. Unfortunately I do not watch TV at all so I’m quite clueless on this one. Splasher says that they will soon upload episodes at Youtube so that’s something we can look forward to and then act accordingly.

    Hi Kayni,
    Oo nga, akala ko pa naman you will really have to go there and kick some butt. Pero, I think you can still go and tell them that you appreciate the fact that they listened to our concerns. I guess that’s a good way of turning former “enemies” into allies 🙂

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