Abatan, Buguias, April 15, 1986

Five long hours by bus from the highland resort city of Baguio lies the unremarkable town of Abatan, a cluster of colorless storefronts of corrugated iron. Perched on a narrow ridge between the headwaters of the Agno and Abra rivers, the huddled buildings of this unpretentious town belie its importance as the marketing headquarters of the northern Benguet vegetable district, centered here in the municipality of Buguias. Where the ridge drops sharply away on both sides, metal sheeting gives way to terraced gardens of cabbages and potatoes extending hundreds of meters down the mountain slopes.

Abatan on most days presents a stark townscape, but a traveler passing through on April 15, 1986, would have witnessed a remarkable sight. On that day, dozens of vegetable trucks packed with villagers converged from miles around on the center of town. Some five thousand persons, representing over forty villages, had come to receive meat and rice beer, to dance and sing, and, most importantly, to worship their ancestors. Of the many prestige feasts celebrated in the Buguias region every year, this event was extraordinary. The celebrants had laid out a repast worth over 300,000 pesos, or $15,000 U.S., including twenty-seven water buffalo and cattle, scores of hogs, heaps of rice, and countless jugs of rice beer. The purpose of the staggering expense was to enlist supernatural assistance for accumulating further wealth.