Office of the President moves to save terraces

The UNESCO has declared the Year 2002 as The International Year of Mountains. We have 12 mountains in the Philippines: Kanlaon, Pinatubo, Halcon, Apo, Pulog, Makulot, Banahaw, Guiting-guiting, Bulosan, Isarog, Kalatingan and Hibok. In 1965, the UNESCO recognized the Banaue Rice Terraces as a World Heritage. Now, they are so damaged that if drastic measures are not taken for their preservation, they will be lost forever.

We are glad that the Office of the President has organized the Ifugao Rice Terraces Commission that already has a six-year master plan for the restoration and preservation of the Ifugao Rice Terraces. The cost will be P1.3 billion, but we cannot lose our greatest heritage. The existence of the rice terraces was not known during Rizal’s time. It was only after the coming of the Americans that people knew of its existence and this explains why it was not included among the Wonders of the World. In our opinion, it is the main wonder of the world if only because of the fact that it is the only world wonder that still serves its original purpose. That certainly cannot be said of the other wonders of the ancient world. People who have studied the terraces cannot comprehend how a primitive group like the Ifugaos could have built the terraces without the help of modern engineers, foresters and agriculturists.

In the six-year master plan, "the rice terraces are viewed as an expression of the Ifugao’s mastery of the watershed ecology and terrace engineering, with its complex farming system consisting not only of terrace ponds but also of swidden farms and the muyongs which are privately-owned and inherited but clan-protected and preserved."

Mariano Dumia summed up the contemporary Ifugao’s outlook on the terraces. He said: "The Ifugao himself, however, gives little thought to the grandeur of his people’s achievement. He may not even realize that they have accomplished a task that would have baffled lesser men. But he is keenly aware of the toil and the sacrifices that went into the creation of each terrace – of his ancestor’s faith in the future generations. These man-carved, rice-yielding mountainsides are the everlasting link between the ancient past and the present, the epitome of everything Ifugao. Thus, to him, the terraces are a sacred trust, a constant reminder of the veneration due to his forbears.... Untutored and untraveled, he is not moved by their symmetry and beauty. It is the proud knowledge of having inherited these payon di a-ammond (fields of our forefathers) that counts. They are his invaluable treasure. Hence, he tries to maintain and preserve them at all costs. When death approaches, he is happy if he can pass on to his descendants the family’s ricefields intact. Then, and only then, has he lived up to his duties as a responsible and dignified Ifugao."