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Innabuyog: bayanihan system at work in Ngibat

TINGLAYAN, Kalinga (June 7) — One of the most enduring images of Philippine culture is that of a community helping a family transfer a whole bahay kubo to a better location. This has always illustrated the bayanihan system, a practice of helping each other without expecting anything, especially money, in return. Bayanihan signifies a strong sense of community and aims at seeking the welfare not only of one’s self but that of the larger community.

People in the Cordillera also practice the bayanihan system that takes the form as ub-ubbo in the Mt. Province and innabuyog in Kalinga. But these practices go beyond the transfer of a house to a better location. These systems play a very significant role in the community, making its way into all aspects of community life. A visitor in Ngibat observes these especially during the cycle of agricultural activities. As a group, community folk take turns in helping members prepare their fields for planting, harvesting and other activities. In doing so, they lessen the burden on the farmer and the community does the tasks in a shorter period, leaving the farmers ample time to attend to other activities. Aside from agricultural practices, innabuyog is also demonstrated in the completion of projects that benefit the whole community.

This is what we saw during our community immersion in Barangay Ngibat in Tinglayan, Kalinga.

Ngibat is one of the five barangays peopled by the Butbut tribe of Tinglayan, Kalinga. To reach the community, one takes a 2 and a half hours jeepney ride from Bontoc proper to Barangay Maswa (Lower Basao) which is the nearest entry point to the community. From Barangay Maswa, one must hike for another one and a half hours through cogon grasslands and rice fields to reach the village, situated on a mountain slope with a view of the Sleeping Beauty Mountains. It has a population of 270 in 2004 and was adjudged as the cleanest barangay in the municipality’s clean and green contest.

One of the projects that the community is currently undertaking is the cementing of their irrigation canals. The project is a partnership between the community and the Montañosa Research and Development Center (MRDC), a non-government organization based in Sagada, Mt Province. The project funding was facilitated by the MRDC while the community’s counterpart is manpower for the hauling of materials and actual construction. The project was started last April 14, 2005 and is slated to be completed after six months.

On the day that we helped in the project, we observed very high community participation. Children, youth, women and men all contributed in the work. Children, teenagers and women helped in hauling sand from the river banks while the men were in charge of mixing and pouring the cement mixture into moulds. About 80 -100 people worked during that day. The day started with a heavy breakfast at about 7 o’clock in the morning. We were encouraged to eat a lot since the work would be very heavy and the break for lunch would be late. A short walk from the village brought us to the project site where children, women and men had already started to work. Girls among us took turns hauling sand from the riverbanks while the boys helped in hauling cement and sand and mixing them with water to produce the mixture for concrete pavements. Some community youth were on school vacation and they helped in the project to help their community and to save up for the opening of classes.

If for the children, it all seemed like play, hauling a basin full of sand up the steep hill and racing to go back to the river, we were catching our breath, resting at the middle of the trail. We left the site after hauling two loads of sand.

Lunch was at 2:30 in the afternoon, as we had expected. We partook of the food prepared by the community women. We later found out that during regular days, people went home for lunch and returned to the site later. Some of the men played musical instruments while resting.

While we in Baguio suffer from water shortage, Ngibat has sufficient supply of it. However, food shortage is evident in every household in these areas. Peasants depend on the foodstuff, mainly beans and some rice, which they stored from the last harvest.

The community’s innabuyog is paying off. According to Barangay Captain Pedro Bumon-as, there is a big possibility that at the rate that they are working, the project could be completed by the end of May or the first half of June, way ahead of the six-month target for completion. This would mean that they could spend the remaining time tending to their fields and homes. Since the sand for the project could be sourced for free, the funding allotted for the sand and its hauling was used by the community to buy rice and other basic commodities to check food insufficiency.

We left Ngibat with a high regard for its people. That with the influx of modem influences, they continue to practice a culture, which looks at the welfare and development of the community and not just of the individual. # Mayette Iniguid for NORDIS

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