Cordillera IPs Long Practiced Quarantine To Ward Off Diseases, Bad Luck

March 28, 2020 Headlines

BAGUIO CITY (March 27, 2020) – Indigenous peoples in the Cordillera had long been into quarantine practice. Not only to ward or parry off diseases but also bad luck.
Called by various names though but essentially the same – quarantine. The IPs of Mountain Province collectively called “Igorots” (“Ygollotes” (Spanish) or people of the mountains) practice “tengao” or “teer” to some.
It is a community holiday lasting for a day or more depending on what village elders advise. During this period, no one is virtually allowed to enter or go out from the village.
The municipal government of Sabangan town in Mountain Province, respecting and strongly believing in indigenous culture, shut its entry and exit points from 7:00 Am to 7:00 PM with no exemptions on March 22, 2020.
This is for the observance of the indigenous ritual led by the elders. “Tengao” is observed after the indigenous ritual led by the village “manakem” or elders is performed at the “dap-ay” or “ato” (house of elders and tribal leaders for policy-making and rituals).
A team of “village criers” go around chanting and announcing the start of “tengaw”. They then put “pudong” or knotted leaves of a plant usualy tiger grass at strategic places especially entrance and exit points of the community to symbolize the village is in quarantine.
Other villages in Mountain Province call the quarantine practice “ubaya”. Village folks pray to thank the gods and their ancestors and ask for more protection and guidance. They also plea to the creator they call “Kabunyan” to shoo away any bad luck and illness.
Tadian town in Mt. Province began its “tengao” on Friday 6AM until 6AM on Saturday, while Barlig town, also in Mt. Province that calls its quarantine as “tungao” that started Satudday (March 27) lasts until March 29.
Among IPs, especially those in the interior villages of the Cordillera, forsome reasons that one accidentally enters a village under quarantine, one cannot go out until the “tengao” or “teer” is over. Villagers respect it. They are “trained by it”, said a Mt. Province town villager.
In 2003, human rights worker Christopher Batan was shot by then CAFGU Agustin Agpawan with an M14 rifle killing him instantly before Batan’s team of three human rights documentors were about to enter Betwagan in Sadanga, Mt. Province. Agpawan, now Betwagan’s barangay chairman, who was sent to jail after he was though found guilty of murdering the human rights worker, argued in court that Betwagan village was in “tengao” and no one is allowed to enter their village.
Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN