WebWatch: An Igorot princess? And Someone Wants to See More of Her Flesh!

If anyone ever claims that she is an Igorot princess, it is very likely that a) she is not actually an Igorot but is just posing as one or b) maybe she is an Igorot but is using the term “princess” very loosely.

For the record, there is no such thing as an Igorot king or an Igorot queen. And so it follows that there is no such thing as an Igorot princess. Igorots are egalitarian people. They bow to no royalty and kiss no monarch’s ass. [Okay, some may be richer than others but the rich know that they are not above the community. At the end of the day, the rich also poo in the pig pen or in Kankanai tumakki da gedan sin lomeng.] Anyone born and raised as an Igorot knows this and I’m sure they don’t go about seriously claiming to be princesses from a royal bloodline.

Anyways, when I searched for Igorot pictures in Google Images, several pictures of an Igorot princess popped out. The princess was wearing a gateng and posing in ways that can only be described as a mockery of the Igorot culture. You can see the pictures at this site. But here’s a sample.

Picture caption at the original site:
Looking for a big bird or a boar

If this woman is indeed an Igorot, then she is not right in the head. To add insult to injury, Art Tibaldo (or someone posing as him) wrote a comment that goes:

art 13-Mar-2006 05:14 nice images!! It can be more appealing if you show more flesh like in my site at: http://tibaldoarts.tripod.com

I clicked on the link and it does look like a site owned by Art Tibaldo. I don’t know Art Tibaldo personally but I vaguely recall hearing some good things about him. If you visit his website, I’m sure you will agree that he takes great pictures of the Cordilleras — pictures that are sensitive to the culture and which appear to have been taken by someone who understands the Igorot cultural dynamics.

That’s why I’m quite baffled by his comment. He was asking the Igorot princess to show more flesh. Why, Mr. Tibaldo? You see pictures of an Igorot princess posing in ways that are definitely un-Igorot and you encourage it with, “Show more flesh!”

My hope is that Mr. Tibaldo (or whoever was posing as him) was being sarcastic. But I read the comment several times and I don’t get a sense of sarcasm in there. But even if he was being sarcastic, I can’t still erase the feeling of being offended.

UPDATE: I have corresponded with Mr. Art Tibaldo on this matter and he made it very clear that he was not mocking our Igorot culture when he wrote the comment. An Igorot himself, Art has been, and continues to be, very active in the works of the International Igorot Consultation and the Igorot Global Organization. The comment he wrote can be understood in its proper context if you visit this page in his website where he proudly wears his G-String without an underwear. Art, you are a worthy rival of Apo Domogan 🙂 My apologies if I was kinda hard on you but as we both admitted, we are both trying to do the same thing, i.e., promoting our Igorot culture.