23/02/2023
February 23 is Ibaloi Day in Baguio City
The ordinance authored by Councilor Isabelo Cosalan Jr. recognizes that the original and indigenous inhabitants of Baguio City is the Ibaloi Tribe. In line with Resolution 395, series of 1995, Ordinance 9, series of 2013 designated February 23 as Ibaloi Day in the City of Baguio. February 23 is the date when the Supreme Court recognized the legitimacy of the struggle of Mateo Carino, an Ibaloi, for native title over lands in Baguio. The same court recognized the original indigenous inhabitants of the City.
Ibaloi is among the 110 ethno-linguistic groups in the country according to the NCIP.
In addition, the ordinance required that a committee be created composed of the following to coordinate the activities for the celebration of said event:
The City Mayor as chairperson;
Ibaloi Tribe representative as vice chairperson;
Chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Tourism and Special Events;
The City Tourism Officer; and
A representative from the Indigenous Peoples Organization
R.A. 8371 defines Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines as a group of people or homogenous societies identified by self-ascription and ascription by others, who have continuously lived as organized community on communally bounded and defined territory, and who have, under claims of ownership since time immemorial, occupied, possessed and utilized such territories, sharing common bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits, or who have, through resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of colonization, non-indigenous religions and cultures, become historically differentiated from the majority of the Filipinos. ICCs/IPs shall likewise include peoples who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, at the time of conquest or colonization, or at the time of inroads of non-indigenous religions and cultures, or the establishment of present state boundaries, who retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions, but who may have been displaced from their traditional domains or who may have resettled outside their ancestral domains.
Happy happy Ibaloi Day..
