The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in the Cordillera region is reviving a request for a regional School of Living Tradition (SLT) where cultural practices and traditions can be learned.
“A school of living tradition for all tribes, aside from a regional museum and a dormitory for the IP (indigenous peoples) students from the provinces. That is our plan for the BIBAK (Baguio, Ifugao, Benguet, Apayao, Abra, Kalinga) area that was supported by both the Regional Development Council (RDC) and the Cordillera Congressmen in 2018,” NCIP regional director lawyer Ronald Calde told the Philippine News Agency on Monday.
Calde clarified that they are just asking for a portion of the property located along Harrison Road, beside Burnham Park, and is also supportive of the city government’s plan for a government center and a parking area at the same compound.
In the 1980s, the BIBAK area used to be utilized as dormitory by students coming from the provinces and enrolled in Baguio schools but whose families do not have the capability to rent a boarding house, thus the special memories attached to the place for current prominent leaders in the region who used to live there as students.
Calde said that with the RDC and the regional representatives’ endorsement in 2018, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was tasked to come up with a plan, which did not pushed through with his reassignment to other areas and the ensuing pandemic.
Calde, a full blooded Cordilleran from Mountain Province was re-assigned to the region in 2023 thus the revival of the plan to have a Cordillera cultural center.
He said some floors of the proposed SLT will be used to present songs, dances, practices, and cultural activities like weaving and gong-making.
“It will also serve as training center for our youth. The SLT will be opened to those from other provinces of the region and even to students, the tourists so that they get to know more of our culture. Even our cultural products, we can bring these at the center for display and sell with stories that go with them,” he added. (PNA)
