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UB-UBBO: Indigenous cooperative system practice by Lamag villagers

By Dominga Macyon

QUIRINO, Ilocos Sur – Ub-ubbo is a cooperative system continuously practiced by the people of Lamag village in this municipality. It is customarily utilized when a member of the village dies or is sick, during weddings, and agricultural activities. The system is developed and incorporated as a practice in their community organizations.

Ub-ubbo is a system of helping one another in any aspect without expecting anything, especially cash, in return. Sometimes they call it “labor without payment” because the spirit or essence is the more important aspect. The system is also practiced in order to make the work easier and faster, to be able to cope up with the agricultural calendar, and to help community members in need.

This has been the practice since time immemorial.

Ub-ubbo on death, sickness

The ub-ubbo is practiced during the death of a community member. Villagers contribute labor, food, and moral support to the family of the bereaved. Family members and relatives provide the indigenous ritual needs like animals, clothing for the dead, rice among others. Community members attend the wake and work during the wake up to the burial of their dead. Work in the field is suspended until the dead is buried and appropriate ritual is performed to signal the continuation of work.

The same help is extended when a member of the community is sick or meets an accident. Villagers visit the sick and express support tothe family, up to the point of extending material and financial support when the concerned person needs to be brought to the hospital.

Ub-ubbo on wedding

Indigenous wedding is another social occasion where community unity is shown. Everybody participates in the preparation until the wedding has ended.

Baket (elder woman) Payya Songaben, 70 years old, an elder of Lamag, explained that during the preparation, the community members have defined tasks to perform. Men are responsible for the taking and butchering of animals; women ensure the materials and other needs for the cooking; the youth are responsible for firewood gathering, hauling of the needed materials, including purchasing of food and materials, added Baket Songaben.

During the wedding proper, serving food is collectively done specially by the youth, and administered by some adult women. I learned that it is also during the wedding proper that the “supon,” gift in the form of cash or in kind is given to the newly weds. The gifts are listed because the newly weds will return the same amount or more when a family member of the donor perform a future wedding.

The community members collectively help in any required work after the wedding, including, the distribution of raw chopped meat, which symbolizes appreciation to those who participated in the preparation, claimed Lakay Addug, 75 years elder of the community.

Ub-ubbo in agricultural activities

As I mentioned earlier, ub-ubbo is a practice of helping one another in any way. It is applicable even in agricultural activities. By group, either by family affiliation or age, they will tend to the field of one among the group. The work can either be weeding, planting, harvesting or other agricultural activities. They perform the task from one member’s field to another. This system lessens the burden of the field owner and enables him to catch up with the agricultural calendar, which is being followed by the community. Here, cash and not labor is exchanged which help in the unity and in solidifying the relationship of those involved.

I came to know from my interview that the growing population and the slow penetration of the cash crop economy threatens the ub-ubbo and other indigenous self-sufficient systems. The elders’ sources from Lamag, namely, Lakay Agustin Silot (71), Lakay Addug, Lakay Diwayan (68), and Lakay Degay (66), are unanimous in this point of view. Despite this, the system still persists.

Ub-ubbo in community organizations

The villagers of Lamag want to preserve the system and they will do it by instituting it in their organization. In the year 2000, the youth put up the Lamag Agtutubo Organization (LAO), or Lamag youth organization, to preserve the system. “Instead of playing cards, we organized ourselves to learn from an organization and at the same time help the community,” revealed Dionisio Tamayo, 27 years old, and LAO chairperson.

In 2001 the youth initiated the founding of the Lamag Ub-ubbo Association (LUA), which served to tighten the community peoples’ relation and the ub-ubbo practice.

Since the establishment of the LUA and LAO, they had implemented projects based on the ub-ubbo system. They finished their basketball court, which was sourced from NGOs, for basket ball games and as an area where the community members dry their rice grains.

If one member of their organizations gets sick, they work together to find ways to help the member. They use some of their organizational funds to extend help through cash or they help their member to work his/her field.

Commitment for the persistence of ub-ubbo

Cash may have influenced or threatened the ub-ubbo and other indigenous systems in Lamag. But the community found ways to remedy the situation. Establishing community organizations and instituting the noble practice nurtured by their ancestors assured them of their community unity. Seasons may change, which will either facilitate the preservation or disintegration of the indigenous system, including ub-ubbo, but the people of Lamag are ready to face this challenge through their community organization and armed with a legacy from their ancestors - the ub-ubbo or collective cooperation. #

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