Ifugao rice terraces mainly for agriculture

BAGUIO CITY. Philippines – The Ifugao Rice Terraces, though more popularly known as a tourism destination, is foremost an agricultural wonder, the Department of Agriculture said amid the stir created by the wakeskating stunt by extreme sportsmen purportedly to get “free” international attention.

Director Danilo Daguio, assistant regional director for operations of the DA-Cordillera,  said the rice terraces is for rice production.   The tourism wonder of the more than 2,000 year old gargantuan stone-walled edifice straddling Hungduan, Kiangan, Mayaoyao and Banaue towns comes after its agricultural value.

It is said if the steps were put end to end, it would encircle half the globe because of the wide expanse.

Ifugao Rep. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. is seeking a probe on the event while the Tourism department here sees nothing wrong with it.

Videos of professional wakeskaters Brian Grubb of the United States and Dominik Preisner of Germany that went viral all over the worldwide web  received both approval and criticisms.

Baguilat, a Kiangan and formerly deeply involved in the preservation of the rice terraces while in the private sector, has called for an investigation.

The Tourism department, meanwhile, said the area where the wakeskating happened is a private property-terraces and not within the preservation site . It added that the activity is a publicity stint of the cash-strapped town that cannot afford a centavo for promotion.

Wakeskating is similar to the popular water sport wakeboarding but users are not bound to the board.

In the video, Grubb said the rice terraces are "a wakeskate paradise but no one even knew (they were) here."

The centuries-old terraces were created for food production and all other uses are secondary and must be appropriate to the ecosystem of the terraces, Baguilat  said.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) placed the terraces in the list of endangered heritage sites because of its rapid deterioration. - Artemio A. Dumlao