- Igorot group slammed Senator- elect Imee Marcos over her remark ‘mga Igorot namin’
- They furthered that it would be a shame to do a ritual dance for the newbie senator
- This is after Marcos said she would like to perform an Igorot ritual dance to ‘bless’ her new office after knowing that it formerly belonged to outgoing senator Antonio Trillanes IV
“May we then remind Imee that there is no such thing as ‘mga Igorot namin.’ You don’t own us, and you never will.” This is what the indigenous youth group Progressive Igorot for Social Action said last June 26.
This was following the senator-elect’s statement that she will have her new office blessed by having Igorots perform a ritual dance after knowing that it was vacated by outgoing senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
“Siguro magpapatawag ako ng mga Igorot namin dahil kailangan basbasan ang office ko dahil kay Sen. Trillanes yata ang nabunot (Perhaps, I will call some of our Igorots, because the office needs to be blessed first since I picked Sen. Trillanes’ former office).”
According to the group, they ‘flinched with anger and disgust’ after hearing Marcos’ statement. They also condemned Marcos for taking their culture for granted and for stealing their identity.
Progressive Igorot for Social Action furthered that Marcos does not deserve any ‘blessing’, with the alleged electoral fraud during the midterm elections and the late President Ferdinand Marcos’ ‘historical plundering of the resources in the Cordilleras in the 1970s.
“With the outright electoral fraud in this year’s elections, Marcos’ office deserves no blessing, add the fact that her family ushered the historical plundering of our resources in the Cordillera in the ’70s.”
“Her father, Ferdinand Marcos, allowed the construction of the Chico dam despite the displacement of indigenous communities that goes along with it. It was the militant movement of the Igorot that led to the project’s demise- a historic contribution to the dictator’s eventual downfall.”
They also reminded Marcos that Igorot dances are sacred heritage.
“Asking the Igorot to dance for a blessing is a m0ckery of the sanctity of our rituals and traditions.We will not dance for you, because a dance for a Marcos is a dance for shame.”
Moreover, the Cordillera People’s Alliance further protested about Imee Marcos’ statement—calling it a form of discrimination and m0ckery to the culture of the Igorot.
“We condemn this as yet another form of discrimination upon the Igorot people — we, and our traditions, are not spectacles for anyone’s amusement or political gimmickry.”
Source: Facebook, Progressive Igorot for Social Action, GMA News
