Chapter 2
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERARTURE AND STUDIES
This chapter shows the literature and studies related
after that through and in-depth search done by the
researches. It was reviewed and provided the researchers
with the necessary background and served as basis in
formulating and conceptualizing the research. These studies
guided the researchers in the construction of their own
gathering instrument.
Local Literature
Before analyzing the effect of modernization to cultures
specifically Ybanag culture, it is important to understand
the Ybanag people and what has been their culture for the
past decades.
Tolay: Ethnography of the Ibanag People
Manuel Castells (2010:6) argues that by identity,
there is a process of construction of meaning on the basis
of cultural attribute, or a related set of cultural
attributes, that is given priority over other sources of
meaning. For a given individual, or for a collective actor,
there may be plurality of identities. Yet such a plurality
is a source of stress and contradiction in both self-
representation and social action.
Scholars (Richard Jenkins, 1997), (John Ikenberry
1999), and (Howard Adelman, 2000) say that anthropologists
and sociologists trace back ethnicity from its ancient
origins which means ethnos, referring to a range of
situations in which collectivity of humans lived and acted
together, hitherto, typically translated as people or
nation. Others collectively agree that ethnicity can be
lost, discovered, or simply invented, since ethnicity and
ethnic identity are social constructs and identity is
subjective based on beliefs about common ancestry of shared
historical past.
There are also those who say that an ethnic community
consists of people who identify themselves or identified by
others in cultural terms, such as language, religion,
tribe, nationality, and possibly race.
Ibanag nak: an embedded ethnic identity
The Ibanags belong to an original ethnic group that
occupied the northeastern portion of Luzon. The name came
from “bannag” meaning “river” as they lived along the banks
of the Cagayan River. In other words, they were the people
who lived on or from the banks of Cagayan River (Talla
1999, Wein 1987, Gatan 1981, and Llamzon 1978). Based from
ethnographic accounts, documents provide that they belong
to the lowland Christian groups according to the
Ethnological Survey of the Philippines Office, the Summer
Institute of Linguistics (SIL) during the American period,
and based from today’s National Commission on Indigenous
Peoples (NCIP).
More so, (Manuel Castells,2010) deems that the
construction of identities uses building materials from
history, from geography, from biology, from productive and
reproductive institutions, from collective memory and from
personal fantasies, from power apparatuses and religious
revelations. But individuals, social groups, and societies
process all these materials, and rearrange their meanings,
according to social determinations and cultural projects
are rooted in their social structure, and in space/time
framework.
From Ibanag riverine community
The original homeland of the Ibanag is an ideal
coastal maritime trading center and inland secondary
trading center locations. Wernsdent and Spencer (1967)
believe that the Ibanags used to occupy the Babuyan channel
coast before venturing to the lower half of Cagayan Valley
in the late sixteenth century. The Cagayan Valley mirrors a
general pattern seen all over the Philippine archipelago
wherein we see plural societies with upland people bringing
down forest products and ores to river delta coastal
maritime trading centers which has maritime trade links
overseas (Junker 1999).
The Cagayan River, also tagged as the Rio Grande de
Cagayan, is the longest and largest existing river in the
entire Philippine archipelago. This mighty river proudly
flows through the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino,
Isabela, and Cagayan. Along the Cagayan River, whose waters
drain originally from the heights of the Casecnan watershed
in Quirino, as well as its larger tributaries in Magat in
Isabela, and then accumulate larger deposits of sediments
level enough to become a flood plain. It is along this
plain that the Ibanags have settled and do agriculture
because the fertile soil is good for raising all kinds of
crops such as paddy rice, corn, tobacco, beans, and peanuts
(Valdapeñas, 2008).
The legendary river is surrounded by a valley as the
homeland of many Ibanags which is bordered to the east by
Sierra Madre Mountains, to the west by the Cordillera, and
to the south by the Caraballo Mountains.
Early settlements in Cagayan bordered by thick forest
on the side, and a body of water either the river or sea,
on the other side. The barangay refers to plank-built boats
with outriggers. Larger vessels were called biray or
biwong, dug-out canoes from a single tree trunk were
takuli, a raft referred to as dalakit, and bamboo tied
together were called gakit. This shows the role of water
carriers in Ibanag community and it is no surprise then the
strong maritime culture of Ibanags is alluded to in its
literature (Scott, 1994)
Based from beliefs of elderly Ibanags, the bannag
(river) is sacred to them because their daily dose of
activities revolves around the Cagayan River. For many
Ibanags, after they catch fish from the river or toil hard
from their farm, they would say nababannag nak (I’m so
tired) in reference to the river.
While I was traversing the river, according to my
parents (both Ibanags) and based from folklore, our
ancestors thought that langi (sky) is regarded as heaven
representing the place of all-powerful God called
Makapangngua. For the Ibanag when he gazes up to the langi
his disposition makes him at peace and happy. Oftentimes,
the Ibanag exclaims kagitta na langi (it is like heaven)
referring to the state of happiness.
Ibanag language as forms of identity and speech community:
One can easily identify an Ibanag when he speaks the
Ibanag language. According to linguists, the Ibanag
language is distinct in that it features phonemes and
double consonants which are not present in many other
languages in the country. The Ibanag language is using all
the complete letters in the adopted Roman alphabets in
Filipino since Ibanag words have embedded y / f / v / z /j
/ in its phonemes.
Based from ethnographic studies, the Ibanag language
is the lingua franca of Cagayan Valley and the mother
language of other indigenous peoples (IPs) in the region
such as Itawes, Gaddang, Yogad, and Iraya. It is spoken
from Pamplona to Gattaran up to Tuguegarao City in Cagayan.
This language is also widely spoken in Cabagan, Tumauini,
Ilagan, Gamu, Echague, and Santiago City in Isabela.
According to Valdapeñas, 2008, he originally cited
chronicles of Dominican friar Pedro Salgado, writing that
the Spaniards crossed to their minds that having a common
language would help the conquistadores in their governance.
Therefore, they adopted and enforced the use of Ibanag as
the official language for the rest of Cagayan Valley.
Online facts about the Ibanags recount that we
originated in the region around the mouth of the mighty
Cagayan River. The group gradually dispersed southward
within the last 200 years influencing other languages in
the region. Based from Ethnologue, a database of languages
throughout the world, there are half a million speakers of
Ibanag. It is not a small number although the figure dates
back to 1990. But somehow there might be a decreased number
of Ibanag speakers now.
Manuel Castells, believes that identities can also be
originated from dominant institutions; they become
identities only when and if social actors internalize them,
and construct their meanings around this
internationalization.
Recently, the Department of Education (DepEd) used 12
major languages when it introduced the Mother-Tongue-Based
Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-MLE) program last year.
Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Iloko, Bikol, Cebuano,
Hiligaynon, Waray, Tausug, Maguindanaoan, Maranao, and
Chabacano include the first batch. To enrich and widen the
program, seven new mother tongues embedded in the program
including Ibanag, Ivatan, Sambal, Akianon, and Kinaray-a,
Yakan, and Surigaonon. These Philippine languages are
currently used or will be used as a medium of instruction
from Kindergarten to Grade 3. Since Ibanag language has now
been successfully included in the second batch of the
vernacular languages to be used in public schools under the
K to 12 reform program of the DepEd, it is expected that
Ibanag native speakers will increase and its community will
be bigger in the future.
However, John Gumperz (2009) cautions that language
loyalty may become a political issue in a modernizing
society when socially isolated minority groups become
mobilized. Their demands for closer participation in
political affairs are often accompanied by demands for
language reform or for the rewriting of the older, official
code in their own literary idiom. The replacement of an
older official code by another literary idiom in a
modernizing society may represent the displacement of
established elite by a rising group.
Global Ibanag community
Diaspora has led many Ibanags to Metro Manila and in
different world cities as students, professionals,
migrants, and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Because of
deterritorializing world, the Ibanag Heritage Foundation
Incorporated (IHFI) was organized by a group of Ibanags
headed by the Founding Chairman Jejomar C Binay, a half-
Ibanag through his matrilineal descent, who primarily wants
to preserve and enhance the cultural heritage of the
Ibanags, their way of life, and their Valley. The vision of
the organization is to aspire for a close-knit global
community of Ibanags who share immense pride in their
history and strong kinship, bound together by a rich
cultural heritage that serves as their wellspring of
empowerment. And the mission is to foster unity among
Filipinos of Ibanag descent or affiliation and harness
their combined power and resources to lay the cornerstones
of a lasting legacy that sustains their growth as a
community of outstanding citizens, making their mark on the
global map as professionals, entrepreneurs, artists,
peacekeepers, community leaders, and public servants.
Among the famous and successful personalities in
different fields that has Ibanag lineage who may influence
ordinary Ibanags to love their distinct identity and Ibanag
community are Vice President Jejomar Binay; Kontra-Gapi
founder and retired UP professor Edru Abraham; singer
Freddie Aguilar; actors Derek Ramsey, Coney Reyes, Michael
V and Maja Salvador; basketball icons Jerry Codiñera and
Rommel Adducul; Juan Ponce Enrile.
However, the Ibanag Heritage Foundation Incorporated
encourages our members to search for a global Ibanag that
would embody the Ibanag culture, language, and community in
a global scale. In our search, we have found Diosdado
Banatao – philanthropist and computer engineer – a.k.a the
Bill Gates of the Philippines. From his very humble
beginnings from Iguig Cagayan Valley and going big time to
Silicon Valley in the US, he never forgot his roots as an
Ibanag. He pursued his secondary education in a Jesuit run
school, the now defunct Ateneo de Tuguegarao. After
finishing high school, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in
Electrical Engineering at Mapua Institute of Technology and
graduated cum laude. He later completed an MS Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science from Stanford University
in 1972 in order to enhance his craft as design engineer
for Boeing in the United States. According to
([Link] he is the founder and has been
Managing Partner of Tallwood Venture Capital (Tallwood)
since July 2000. From April 2008 to June 2009, he served as
Interim Chief Executive Officer of SiRF Technology
Holdings, Inc. (SiRF), a publicly-traded company that was
acquired by CSR plc in June 2009 (SiRF). From October 2006
to August 2007, he served as Interim President and Chief
Executive Officer of Inphi Corporation. Prior to forming
Tallwood, he was a venture partner at the Mayfield Fund, a
venture capital firm, from January 1998 to May 2000. Among
his achievements, he co-founded three technology startups:
S3 Graphics Ltd in 1989, Chips & Technologies, Inc. in 1985
and Mostron, Inc. in 1984. In his comeback to the
Philippines, he continues to offer scholarships to bright
students in Cagayan Valley and is willing to donate
millions of dollars to resurrect his defunct alma mater
Ateneo de Tuguegarao.
([Link]
[Link])
Ibanag, a dying language?
(Purita S. Licas, 2011) TUGUEGARAO CITY, Undated — The
language that used to be the dominant minority language in
the Cagayan Valley Region is now being threatened and is on
its way to extinction, according to a local study.
Joseph Dayag, publications coordinator of the St. Paul
University Philippines (SPUP) here, in his dissertation
paper for a doctoral degree, cited language preference
among the Ybanags themselves (speakers of the Ibanag
language) as the cause of the near death of the language.
“If nothing is done, the language’s death will be
inevitable and the next generations will never know about
its existence,” Dayag said.
In his study “Language Loyalty Among the Ibanags of
Cagayan: Basis for a Proposed Ibanag Language Development
Program” conducted in the seven Ibanag-speaking towns of
Cagayan, Dayag said similar situation was experienced just
before the Irraya, another minority language in the
province, died out.
The Ibanag and the Irraya are among the 30 languages
and dialects in the province before the Spaniards came to
Cagayan in the 16th century.
Espousing that language is an inherent part of any
culture, Dayag said linguists around the world agree that
minority languages are threatened by language extinction or
death in the future, and if no intervention is introduced,
the extinction of minority cultures is likely to happen in
the next decade.
The Living Tongues Institute estimates that between
one-half to two-thirds of the world’s languages are
endangered which translates to the death of one language
every 14 days.
Researchers earlier noted that Filipinos from the
countryside appear to abandon their indigenous languages as
they assimilate both the dominant languages and the culture
they are exposed to.
In Tuguegarao City alone, the so-called Premier Ibanag
City, the number of Ibanag speakers continue to dwindle as
children and their Ibanag parents have assimilated the
national language — Filipino.
“If the people maintain and preserve their culture by
using their mother tongue, they maintain and preserve their
culture as they pass this successfully to the next
generation,” said a noted local journalist, Estanislao
Caldez in his 100 Essays of Walsi.
The study of Dayag likewise revealed that among the
Ibanag adults, the language is now seldom used in the
workplace and at home, and that only a few send their
messages through text in the language.
Majority of those interviewed suggested that the
education department revive the use of Ibanag textbooks in
the grades for the Ibanag children to appreciate their own
tongue.
“It’s really a dying language. Only last December, I
sent text messages to my friends and relatives to greet
them for the season and they almost cried when they read my
message in Ibanag,” Engr. Reynaldo Lingan of nearby Solana
town said.
While English and Filipino were made the official
media of communication in the Philippine academic
landscape, indigenous languages, especially those spoken by
fewer than one million speakers, are facing the threat of
extinction or death.
Ibanag, Dayag insisted, is one of those indigenous
languages being slowly displaced by English and other
dominant Philippine languages like Filipino and Ilocano.
The study added that, as a result, gone are the days
when pupils were taught in Ibanag, encouraged to speak and
write in Ibanag, and persuaded to peruse over Ibanag
reading materials.
“Gone now are the days when primary books depict the
distinctive scenery, culture and tradition of Cagayan,
especially those of the Ibanag folk,” Dayag said of his
research findings.
The observation on the rarity of Ibanag use is also
felt among the local officials of Tuguegarao City.
Vice Mayor Danilo Baccay said “the Ibanag language is
getting lost in the cultural milieu of the city so that we
need to restore it as our dominant language, preserve it so
that we can be proud of it again”. (PNA) DCT/SCD/PSL/mba
([Link]
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