Knowing the Bago or Bagbag-o as indigenous people (part 1)
ON our travel to some of the areas known as the seat of the indigenous communities referred to as Bago or Bagbag-o, we went to Salcedo, Suyo and Alilem of Ilocos Sur and set Sudipen La Union as our destination base.
We wanted to find out whether there are age old customary practices akin to the Bagos that are still being observed these days amidst the changing times. Further, the aim of our research is to find out if there are taboos and culturally sensitive matters that can help us educate people including the millennials so that they’ll not end up being scorned and disgraced like comedienne and TV actress Candy Pangilinan who was declared “persona-non-grata" in Baguio for her unsavory, unmindful, insensitive and sarcastic remarks towards Igorots in one of the programs that she appeared in the upland city.
I was joined by three communication students currently undertaking internship with the Cordillera News Agency and together with my 82year-old mother who is herself a Bago, we set out to these Bago places to understand certain things about their customary practices. Since I belong to this ethno-linguistic group, let me refer to the subject in a third person approach. First, we went to Salcedo as suggested by a contact and we drove to Sitio Sorioan first to visit my aunt and cousins. I have been there as a young child and it truly pleases me to re-visit a place that was part of my childhood. My mother noticed the dried up Buaya River which apparently is due to effects of climate change and the human activities around the place.
We dropped by at the Bago Resort of Salcedo hoping to meet the owner however the caretaker named Andoy filled the gap and narrated several instances in the past saying that if a guest is too intoxicated and becomes rowdy and troublesome, customs dictate that they can admonish and pacify the offender. However if a person not belonging to the place is already creating trouble, the locals can usher the person out of the place after the second warning. The good advice to strangers in the bago areas is that all are welcome for as long as they observe proper decorum and by not acting as if they are a know-all city folk entering a shopping mall without letting people about their intentions of being there. In my chat with one of the elders in Suyo, he advised that one should seek the village chieftain or informal leader to guide and lead them to their destinations or ask someone familiar to the place who can assist them for their purpose. But, if you are being obnoxious, overly drunk and acting like mad dog set on the loose, you will be admonished by the locals to behave or you will be asked to leave. One of the village folks that I interviewed even said that the unwanted visitor will even be escorted by the village folks and provided a torch when expelled or driven away at night.
Having been to many places in the Cordillera uplands where customary practices is really a thing to contend with by practically all, I heard from the Bago interviewees similar practices being observed by them like “tongtongan” for the settling of issues and concerns, the “ub-ubbo” for village community effort likened to the bayanihan system and the “begnas” for social gatherings.
Our initial interviews generally conforms to what I experienced in the uplands especially when I was once told.. "saan ka nga agdurdursok" or don't be unmindful of things around you to put it mildly. As one who has absorbed, documented and practiced Igorot way of life myself, I make it a point to be at peace with the unseen by offering a drink through a “pitik” or food “atang” whenever appropriate and observe the sanctity of rituals by the elders. I still have a lot to learn in as far as the Bago customary practices are concerned and the three student interns who joined me learned a lot from