BAGUIO CITY, Philippines —- Garbed in white g-strings or native blouses and skirts, close to a thousand Ibaloys danced to the beat of gongs along downtown Baguio on Saturday (Feb. 23), the 9th Ibaloy Day. Baguio Ibaloys, and Ibaloys from neighboring Benguet towns, proceeded to the Ibaloy Heritage Park inside the almost a century-old Burnham Park, where elders performed a thanksgiving ritual called “Owik.”ADVERTISEMENTThe Saturday celebrations showcased Ibaloy culture. In October last year, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Commission on Filipino Languages) installed a 10-foot-tall steel marker at the Ibaloy Park, recognizing Ibaloy as a key Filipino language that needed to be preserved. Ibaloy Day was established, through a city council resolution on September 2009, to commemorate the American Supreme Court decision that recognizes the land rights of Ibaloy herdsman Mateo Cariño in 1909. Most of Baguio served a local cattle industry, which was pushed to the outskirts after the American colonial government built the summer capital.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer February 23, 2019 05:53 UTC