Discourse

IGOROT: Its Meaning Behind the Discrimination

The word  "Igorot" refers to inhabitants of the highland mountains of northern region in the Philippines. These highlanders have their own ethnic grouping based on the region they occupy and dialect they used: the Ibaloi (Province of Benguet), Kankanaey (Mountain Province), Itneg/Isneg (Abra), Ifugao (Province of Ifugao), and the Tingians (of Kalinga and Apayao). These ethnic grouping is similar to the ethnic and regional classification of the mainstream inhabitants like Ilokano who belong to Ilocos, Pampangenos from Pampanga, Ilongo of Iloilo, and many others. 

So the question is, how come that there is a word 'Igorot' pertaining to people who lives in northern part of the Philippines when in fact they have their own ethnic identity? Is there any story behind the name? 

The word "Igorot", according to encyclopaedias and dictionaries, was derived from old Filipino prefix "i", meaning "dwellers", and old tagalog "gulod", meaning "top of a hill" or in other words a mountain. Hence the word "Igorot" has the literal meaning of "mountain dwellers". When the Spaniards came, somehow, they adopted those local words and came up with Spanish word "Ygollotes", then later on evolved to "Ygorrotes". But there was a mystery about the pronunciation of  "ll" to "rr" in the said word in later Hispanic records, when in fact, the Spaniards didn't had any changes to the way they speak in Spanish throughout the centuries they stayed in the Philippines.

Other authors had come up with certainty that the word 'Ygollotes' had another transformation as time passes by due to numerous attempt of Spanish invasion towards the mountainous region of Luzon, and this somehow attributed to the Ilocano word "gerret", meaning "to slash, to cut", pertaining to a primitive tradition of the 'mountain dwellers' in head-hunting, or cutting the head of enemies. This is understandable as the most notable people to be hired by Spaniards in helping them to  invade and conquer  the 'mountain dwellers' are the Ilokanos, who lived near and around the region of the 'Cordillera', from Ilocos region down to Pangasinan, then to Viscaya up to Isabella, encircling the mountainous region of Luzon. And this endeavor had been going on for 300 years in trying to subjugate the mountain dwellers, but to no avail. The Spaniards tried to conquer the 'Ygollotes' for centuries but they where defeated, time and time again, by the fierceness of the local inhabitants, particularly from the barbaric practices of head-hunting towards their enemies. Hence, the word "Ygorrotes" was born, a word mashed from the Ilocano word 'gerret' (to cut) into 'Ygollotes', brought by the Spaniard's exasperation and desdain against the inhabitants, and adopted by the local lowlanders, resulted to its modern word "Igorot"'.

Such word had lived on with centuries of local wars involving Spanish invaders helped by the locals who live in the lowland as paid soldiers, primarily due to destitution. And these centuries of local wars against the 'Igorots' had become fearsome to many, and a derision (ridicule and desdain) from others, specially from the losing side. This had resulted even to the myth that a mountain dweller will come down from the mountain to collect heads, calling out 'pugot-ulo' ( headhunter ), just to pacify a misbehaving child among the lowland locals. This derision, ridicule, and desdain had lived on to become the discrimination that is seen today  from among 'non-Igorots', which are products of hatred and ill-feeling from the primitive past of Cordilleran history.

So in a sense, the word 'Igorot' is a derivative of two separate words, evolved overtime and a by-product of prolong wars that resulted to infamy from the winning side and abject derision from the losing side, as expected from any outcome of war.

CONCLUSION

I was born in that said mountainous region of Luzon, and had an ethnic origin of being a Kankanaey. So if you will asked me if I am proud to be an 'Igorot', I will say 'No', but I will say I am proud to be a Kankanaey. The word 'Igorot' was borne out of ignorance, from centuries of war, bloodshed, and hatred. A product of Spanish colonial era, from their hatred and derision, uttered from the mouth of Spaniards whose desire is to conquer and amassed wealth, which has nothing to do with being a Filipino. It is a word of segregation among Filipino ethnicity, similar to the word 'nigger' from the era of American slavery, that should be abolished and outlawed, and confined to the textbooks of history. 

It is a word of discrimination, from an innocent ignorant coming from the mouth of a 'non-Igorot'.

I am proud for being a Kankanaey, a Filipino, whose ancestors had repelled foreign invasion in their own territory. I am proud, in a way, that I belong to an ancestry who kept an unbroken line in cultural history away from foreign influence, and such identity is still palpable in current times. I am proud, that I could say, I am a Filipino... in a more stronger sense.

Reference: The Bontoc Igorot,

                   By Albert Ernest Jenks

                   Manila 1905

(I wish this essay will bolster a long awaited debate among Cordillerans in the hope of abolishing this word 'Igorot' from its use, and relegate it to history, where should had been as its proper place- Ed Madio)

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THE FILIPINO

Filipinos had plenty of positive attributes compared to its neighboring countries, we are family-loving people that's why our old folks stays with us throughout the difficult ordeal, we are hard-working people that's why we chose to leave our love ones just to earn money, and we are smart people and the world can attest to our professionalism, but why why why, there are still millions of us living in shanties, scouring food in dumps, and dying in disease unnecessarily?, millions?,...

The other country that has poor people living in shanties is India, but their situation can be explained with their caste system, whereby they acknowledge a lower caste of people that is ingrained into their culture for centuries, but the Philippines has no caste system, so where does the problem lie?, its the social psyche that had developed overtime since the colonial era, it was the problem tackled by Dr. Jose Rizal since his time, and it is still lingering amongts our social structure, the middle class, the rich people, and our poorest class of society.

1. When Spain colonized the Philippines for 300 years there are 2 type of society that emerged, the 'Indios' and the ruling class spaniards. Among the spanish ruling class there are 'Indios' who collaborate with them for power and wealth, these collaborators became families through inter-marriage, and amassed wealth through landholdings and farms, and before the spanish colonisation ends they are already in the position of power, not in the government but in the wealth that they possessed. When the americans took over, they sustained this type of capitalism, and even used this wealth to strip the philippine of its natural resources (large percentage of gold in the federal reserve came from the Philippines, from Philex mines, Balatoc, etc.). So why are we still the poorest country in asia?, it is because for 300 yrs the Filipinos where stripped of their birth right of owning the land, in a gradual manner, and the 'collaborators' took advantage on the situation, and then galvanized their ownership within the american system, and until this day they are still the holders of wealth in the Philippines. And where are they now, you see them in Malacanang, congress, and in the Senate, they are the third generation of the 'collaborators', who doesn't want to stoop down to the level of the 'Indios', subconsciously they feel they are a 'different' class, and to sustained that notion they have to keep the population poor (but they are not aware of this, because if they do, there should be no more political dynasty in the Philippines, government of the wealthy and by the wealth.

   
    There is this popular phrase "crab mentality" that had been used and abused in referring to Filipino character, the truth is that the simple living creature "crab" has nothing to do with the Filipinos, surely it is a creation of God and hence cannot have a bad attribute to it, but why Filipinos likes to use it in allegory for Filipino bad traits?, because they only see the 'short' story of it, not the longer one, or the whole picture. Actually, when you put a bunch of crab into a bucket you will notice that they are trying to climb out of it, and each one is trying to grab the one that is already on the top (hence the allegory on Filipinos who are trying to pull down their fellow Filipinos), but try to leave the crab for at least an hour, when you come back, all of them disappeared, except one. How is this happened?, the crabs has an instinct to follow the lead, it is not that they are trying to pull down their own, they are trying to reach the top by building a ladder using their body so that the rest can escape, and the one who is in the top, who cannot lift himself up because he doesn't have anything to grab on, as everybody already escaped, had sacrificed himself so that the others can be free. 
2. We had been using an allegory that is wrong in essence. There's nothing wrong with crabs, it is the way we perceive things that is wrong. We can correct this, we can use the 'crab mentality' allegory in a positive way - that Filipinos can group themselves together, help each other, to become a 'ladder', for others to be set 'free', even though how long will it take.
3. This comparison to 'crabs' on Filipinos is seen among OFW's, wherein they try to reach the top, so that their families will be uplifted from hardship, and most of them, in the end, fall victim to their own making by giving up their hard earned money just to provide for their families, but do they complained? They don't, they are happy enough to lose everything for the sake of their families - a true 'crab mentality'.