Close encounters with historian William Henry Scott in Sagada

agada, Mountain Province—i lost count of the number of times i have been travelling to sagada since 1991, usually during the yuletide season.

Approximately 5,000 feet above sea level, Sagada is a small and tranquil town of Mountain Province in the highland Cordilleras, which is approximately 396 kilometers from Manila via Halsema Highway.

With a land area of 8,396 hectares, Sagada is a popular tourist destination with activities like trekking, exploring caves (spelunking) and waterfalls, bonfires, picnics, rappelling, visiting historical sites (like hanging coffins), and participating in tribal celebrations.

In the early 1990s, I remember taking the buses from Baguio that we call as “chicken express” because chickens were literally placed along the aisle of the bus.

As most buses were non-aircon then, one will arrive in Sagada from Baguio after almost six hours as “mestizo”—one’s hair color turns grey due to the dust from the narrow and unpaved rugged roads.

“Top-load ” adds more thrill as one sits on top of the jeepney or bus for a better view of the mountain ranges.

Spelunking is one of the reasons that tourists come to Sagada as there are more or less 60 caves here. Sumaguing Cave has the biggest chamber, earning its nickname “The Big Cave” with its countless rock formations slowly shaped by nature over thousands of years.

Historian William Henry Scott said in one of his works that when a person dies, his soul does not die but becomes a spirit (anito) that then lives in the village, especially in the caves or rocky places where its former body is entombed.

This spirit, he added, has the power to inflict injury, sickness or death upon the living. Nature spirits, meanwhile, inhabit stones, watercourses and trees, and are generally beneficial or neutral, doing misfortune only to those who do physical violence to their dwelling place.

Sagada is the place that allowed Scott the solitude he needed to write about pre-colonial Philippine society, ethnology, linguistics, and the history of the Cordilleras as well as theological discourses. He was initially assigned as a lay missionary of the Episcopal Church in 1954. He served as a teacher of English and history at St. Mary’s School and later as the school principal for many years. He also taught at various educational institutions like the University of the Philippines.

Fondly called “Scotty”, I had the privilege to meet him in 1991 in Sagada. I told him that one of his works I read in my History classes in UP Diliman was “The Igorot Defense of Northern Luzon,” a book about

Sagada is the place that allowed Scott the solitude he needed to write about pre-colonial Philippine society, ethnology, linguistics, and the history of the Cordilleras as well as theological discourses. He was initially assigned as a lay missionary of the Episcopal Church in 1954. He served as a teacher of English and history at St. Mary’s School and later as the school principal for many years. He also taught at various educational institutions like the University of the Philippines.

Igorot resistance against Spanish colonial rule.

“They were never slaves to the Spaniards nor did they play the role of slaves. Quite the contrary, Spanish records make it clear that they fought for their independence with every means at their disposal for three centuries, and that this resistance to invasion was deliberate, selfconscious, and continuous,” Scotty said in the book.

Scotty added: “The Spaniards did not consider this resistance a fight for independence. They considered the Igorots to be bandits and savages and lawbreakers because they did not submit to Spanish rule like the lowlanders. And they explained the Igorot defense of their liberty as the instincts of uncivilized tribes who had always been at war with their more peaceloving neighbors.”

Ironically, this same work was used against him as one of the “evidence” (along with Mao Zedong’s “red book”) after he was arrested a month after Martial Law was imposed in 1972.

The book was often tagged as “subversive” by the military although it was actually about incidents that took place from 1576 to 1896, the Spanish colonial era.

As a political prisoner, Scott was accused of being a communist sympathizer involved in “seditious activities” and an “undesirable alien” subject to deportation “because his presence has been and will always be inimical to the peace, security and tranquility of the community”.

Perhaps this was due to the fact that many of his students have joined the anti-marcos opposition, especially in view of the controversial Chico River hydroelectric project, a Marcos project that would have flooded and submerged Sagada and many other places in the Mountain Province. Many of the arrested youth in the north were generally queried about his book.

Scott defended himself in a public trial, with scholars testifying on his vast contribution to Philippine historiography and ethnography. All charges against him were eventually dropped.

It is unfortunate that I was not able to have a photo taken with him during our encounters in Sagada when he was still alive.

Scott left behind 14 foster sons at the time of his death on October 4, 1993 at the age of 72.

On December 8, 2021, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines unveiled a historical marker in memory of Scott at St. Mary’s School, which is part of the celebration of his centennial birth anniversary.