Baguio Rep. Mauricio Domogan, himself a member of the Bago tribe, has filed a House bill proposing the creation of a Bago province to accommodate what he calls the "in-between tribes" of lowlanders and highlanders.
Domogan said his fellow Bago tribal folk or the "Bag-bag-o," descendants of inter-marriages between Ilocanos and Igorots, have longed for their own domain.
The tribal folk, who subsist on farming, live at the foot of the Cordillera mountains but are geo-politically covered by the Ilocos region.
Domogan said the Bago natives populate four towns in La Union, five in the Ilocos provinces and two in Pangasinan.
But David Donrique, Region 1 director of the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP), has questioned the legitimacy of the Bag-bag-o’s claim as an ethnic group, which the National Commission on Culture and Arts has reportedly turned down, based on the recommendation of anthropologist Jesus Peralta.
"How can I recognize them when the law says (they are not an ethnic group)?" he asked.
He said the NCIP assists all ethnic groups provided they are fully recognized by the law.
Last Monday, more than 1,000 Bago tribal folk picketed the NCIP Region 1 office but the police later prevailed on them to instead hold their protest action at the grounds of the Don Mariano Marcos State University in San Fernando City, La Union.
The Bago National Cultural Society of the Philippines earlier had petitioned President Arroyo to replace Donrique if he would not resign immediately.