The poignantly silent or subdued moments in Dulaang UP’s “Collection” are what hit you like a fist to the stomach, or make that sense of disquiet creep under your skin. Probably because they are few and far between, amidst endless scenes of bragging auctioneers, swaggering fashionistas, the raving show-biz crowd and half-a-dozen big players who just want to outshout everyone else.
I had promised myself that I should see the Banaue Rice Terraces, and soon. My nationalistic conscience bothered me when friends from foreign lands would ask me if I had been to this wonder of the world. When that happens, I change the subject matter to other places like Batanes and Tawi-Tawi, faraway places I had been to, which, at the time, almost no one had visited yet.
Before visiting Banaue last year, I had never heard of Mayoyao, Hungduan, Batad or Kiangan. To me, they were all just part of the Banaue rice terraces.
Ifugao as a province is relatively young. But its culture and civilization dates thousands of years back: Its prime attraction—the world-famous Banaue Rice Terraces—is believed to have been constructed 2,000 years ago. So there was reason to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the province recently. Originally a part of Mountain Province, it became a full-fledged [...]
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