GMA spends first day at work in Sagada

SAGADA, Mountain Province — President Arroyo’s first day at work in 2006 was a rather busy day for Igorots, the indigenous people of Mountain Province.

Landing at the heart of Sagada poblacion instead of a previously-arranged landing in Barangay Bangaan, the President motored along the newly constructed P17.348-million Nangonogan to Aguid farm-to-market road, a 6.7-kilometer cemented pavement that Igorot farmers here had long been dreaming of.

Mountain Province Gov. Maximo Dalog personally thanked Mrs. Arroyo in behalf of the thousands of farmers and gardeners of the northern barangays of Sagada town for "the best gift they had for Christmas and the New Year from the President."

Dalog also made Mrs. Arroyo an "adopted sister" of Igorotlandia whom they "baptized" as Kaplaan, a strong-willed woman. The President readily accepted the honor, promising more government programs against poverty, unemployment and good governance.

"This is the first time that a sitting Philippine President comes to visit us yearly," Dalog said, rousing Sagada residents to cheers and applause at the St. Mary’s School grounds.

"We feel very happy and very special," he added. 

The President and First Gentleman Mike Arroyo also took time to view the rice terraces in Madongo, another village north of Sagada before proceeding to the poblacion where she signed a memorandum of agreement with the local governments of Mountain Province, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, allowing indigenous peoples to legally utilize (under certain conditions) pine trees planted and protected by these people. She also distributed certificates of land ownership to long time land claimants here.

Dalog hailed the President’s resolve to finish the Halsema Highway (Baguio-Bontoc Road), which according to the public works and highways is now almost 90 percent complete. 

"Now, we again appeal for the national government to reconsider the re-opening of the historic Mt. Data Hotel (in Bauko town, also in Mountain Province), which was closed last February by the PTA," Dalog said.

The hotel, he said, is an important historical landmark for the Igorots not only because no other than the President’s father, former President Diosdado Macapagal, built the edifice but it is where the 1986 peace pact between the national government and the rebel group Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army was forged.

Mrs. Arroyo, in very fluent Iluko (Igorotlandia’s dialect), roused Sagada residents and guests more when she promised full government support and assistance to improving infrastructure like the Halsema Highway to spur tourism in the province. It is not government’s task to build resorts, but to provide access to these, she affirmed.

In response to the Mt. Data re-opening, the President said she is giving authority to the local government of Mountain Province to run the historic landmark.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo visited the Cordillera mountain range tourist spot last weekend and was alarmed by the number of houses put up by settlers which block the view of the centuries-old rice terraces, a presidential palace statement said.

Mrs. Arroyo said she would set up a resettlement site in the region to keep squatters out of the terraced mountain slopes, which were built and tended by the headhunting Igorot tribe and watered by mountain streams.

Regional tourism chief Purificacion Molintas told Mrs. Arroyo that the number of squatters in the area had doubled. — With AFP