Benguet and the Philippine Government

Relations between the people of Benguet and the Philippine state began to deteriorate in the 1950s and 1960s, and by the depression years of the mid-1970s crisis was fermenting. The 1950s brought

territorial dispossessions; several whole villages were displaced by two hydroelectric dams constructed on the Agno River, while other communities lost their lands in the 1960s and 1970s to the Loakan airport near Baguio, to the "Marcos Park" (infamous for its giant hollow-headed bust of the former dictator) in Tuba, and to the Baguio Special Export Processing Zone. The national government lost credibility as entire communities were summarily deprived of land and livelihood (Anti-Slavery Society 1983; Cordillera Consultative Committee 1984).

The increasingly poor quality of government services also disturbed Benguet residents (Solang 1984). The foremost issue here was the condition of the roadways, lifelines of the vegetable economy. While the Marcos government laid extravagant concrete highways throughout the Ilocano-speaking lowlands, the Mountain Trail remained a rough dirt track. The Buguias people were also galled by their lack of electricity, despite the high-voltage lines passing through the municipality, and by the minimal attention given to irrigation development.

The state agency overseeing indigenous groups has been another major irritant. This bureau, known in 1986 as OMACC (Office of Muslim Affairs and Cultural Communities), has been reformed every few years, but state policies toward "national minorities" or "cultural communities" have changed little. Several scholars have accused the bureau of intentionally undermining traditional cultures (Roccamora 1979; Anti-Slavery Society 1983) or, at best, of "preserving" them only for the tourist trade. Indeed, in earlier years state agents readily admitted their desire to submerge the "non-Christian" peoples into the single "Philippine Nation" (see Tadaoan 1969:247). In Buguias, a relatively powerful community, such policies have been ineffectual, but they have added another level of bureaucratic interference. If a Buguias farmer seeks a bank loan, for example, he or she must first obtain OMACC permission. Even the charitable OMACC projects are often considered fraudulent.