"Kahit walang ibinigay na cheke, basta may mensahe (We would’ve appreciated a message from her more than the cheque she brought)," sighed David Pasigian of the Bugkalot Confederation, apparently slighted with the way Mrs. Arroyo treated their affair they considered a historic one.
The Bugkalots were obviously frustrated when the President appeared in a hurry to leave Barangay Talbec, an extremely remote mountain village here which is the heartland of the Bugkalot culture.
It is nestled on a mountain top about 2,900 feet above sea-level between the neighboring Bugkalot communities in Kasibu, Dupax del Norte, Dupax del Sur, and Alfonso Castañeda in Nueva Vizcaya; in Nagtipunan, Quirino; and in Ma. Aurora in Aurora province.
The President stayed here for only about 30 minutes, including an exclusive get-together with some of the local officials. The President did not deliver even a single word to the Bugkalot audience during her very brief appearance onstage. What the President did was only to hand over several cheques for various projects here, including P1 million each for the province’s 15 towns.
"Bilang Presidente, mensahe niya para sa amin ang aming hinihintay. Saka na lang sana yung pera," said 66-year-old Bugkalot leader Rudy Caanawan.
"We prepared this supposed historic visit for several months. Unfortunately she was in a hurry to leave us. Parang pakunsuwelo lang ang ibinigay na oras ng Presidente sa amin," sighed Sacdal Caanawan, a Bugkalot chieftain.
He said that it took them several months to prepare the festivity for the President’s visit, which he said had been postponed three times.
Because of the President’s being in a hurry, they even failed to confer her the declaration naming her as adopted daughter of the Bugkalots, an indigenous community here who was once called Ilongots during their headhunting days.
What also aggravated the Bugkalot’s frustration was the failure of the President to declare them "Millennium Tribe." Tribal leaders were expecting her to confer the honor to them in recognition of their suport for the realization of the multibillion-peso Casecnan Multi-Purpose Irrigation and Power Project.
The Bugkalots played a significant role in the construction of the Casecnan project when after initially displaying hostility towards the project to the extent of threatening to go back to their headhunting days, they eventually gave way to the project’s continuation.
The tribe’s vast forest in Casecnan area, considered as the last bastion of virgin forest in Northern Luzon, is the major source of water to be siphoned by a 36-km diversion tunnel going to Pantabangan dam.
When the Casecnan project is fully utilized with water coming from the Bugkalot watershed, it will be able to irrigate additional 50,000 hectares of farmlands in Nueva Ecija and western Pangasinan. It can also generate additional 500 megawatts of electricity for the entire Luzon grid.
"Without putting down the other indigenous communities, it’s just fitting that we accord them the honor in recognition of their tremendous contribution to the country’s development," said Gov. Rodolfo Agbayani, one of the authors for the declaration of the Bugkalot as "Millennium Tribe." — Charlie Lagasca