Cordillera Studies Center UP Baguio

The Cordillera Studies Center (CSC) congratulates Dr. Maileenita A. Peñalba, CSC Director, and staffs, Jeffrey H. Javier and Grace L. Santos, as awardees during the Araw ng Parangal 2025 in honor of their excellence and service to the university.

𝐃𝐫. 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐚 𝐀. 𝐏𝐞𝐧̃𝐚𝐥𝐛𝐚
2025 Gawad Tsanselor for Junior Faculty

𝐉𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐲 𝐇. 𝐉𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐫, University Researcher
2025 Gawad Tsanselor for Research, Extension, and Professional Staff (REPS)
Loyalty Awardee
Service Awardee

𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐋. 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐬, Information Officer
Loyalty Awardee
Service Awardee

Photos by Wyndei A. Dacay, Justin R. Pincaro, and Gwenn T. Estravila/UPB-OPA
Anthony Coliwet/CSC

2025 TCR now published🎉
The Cordillera Review UP Baguio
https://share.google/A2HQbfmArbIgnvW0N

As UP Baguio celebrates its 23rd Foundation Day, we recognize its commitment to advancing scholarly works in the Cordillera region. We are pleased to announce that 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐗𝐕, 𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝟏 & 𝟐 is now available digitally through the TCR website (thecordillerareview.upb.edu.ph).

EDITOR, Ruth M. Tindaan, Ph.D
MANAGING EDITOR, Leah E. Abayao, Ph.D

Featuring the first set of articles and authors:

JSYDNEY M. PASCUAL
MARIA PAZ N. MARQUEZ
Sociodemographic Correlates of Fertility Preferences of Cordilleran and Non-Cordilleran Youth in the Cordillera Administrative Region

JOHN REY DAVE P. AQUINO
Ang Pagtuklas sa Katutubo bilang Nagpapatuloy na Tropong Kolonyal sa Romantikong Nobelang You’re My Shining Star

ANGELO H. GALARDE
Governing Souls and Lives: CICM Narratives on the Indigenous of the Cordillera

MARK P. MASLAR
Reconstructing Early Isinay Settlements and Migration Patterns through Linguistic Lineage and Historical Texts

KARIN SHANA C. BANGSOY
Igorot Diaspora Youth and Indigenous Diasporic De-centering of the Nation-State

DEANNA TROI C. GARCIA
Problematizing Mallification: Reading the Architecture of Urban Development Proposals for the Baguio City Public Market

The cover features a photograph by Roland Erwin P. Rabang, Director of UPB Office of Public Affairs, with pagesetting and layout by Angel D. Bagtang.

For interested authors/contributors, please see the TCR’s Submission Guidelines at https://thecordillerareview.upb.edu.ph/submit-to-tcr/

𝐀 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚

The Local Regional Studies Network of UP Center for Integrated and Development Studies (UP CIDS) and Cordillera Studies Center will be having an onsite forum on “𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐚,” on 27-28 November 2025, 9 am, Audio-Visual Room, College of Social Sciences, University of the Philippines Baguio.

The Public Forum aims to provide a venue to review and discuss the existing policies on cultural and heritage in the Cordillera. The forum will engage Government Agencies, Local Government Units, Private Sectors, Civil Society Organizations, and the Academe in a systematic discussion of the state of cultural and heritage policies and its policy outlook. The forum is free and open to the public, but seating is first-come, first-served. Participants are enjoined to pre-register at the following link:

https://bit.ly/LRSNBaguioPublicForum
https://bit.ly/LRSNBaguioPublicForum
https://bit.ly/LRSNBaguioPublicForum

For queries, please email [email protected].

Call for Proposals ONGOING
Interdisciplinary Team Research Grant 2026
Submission Deadline: 15 December 2025

The Cordillera Studies Center Call for Proposals for the 2026 Interdisciplinary Team Research Grant, open to faculty and REPS of the University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB) is ONGOING.

Application form link:
https://bit.ly/CSCGrant2026
https://bit.ly/CSCGrant2026
https://bit.ly/CSCGrant2026

For a higher resolution of the poster, you may download the file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jn0cjyrR5UQWEP8nIBs0W0iFjeoIBgK9/view?usp=drive_link

Call for Proposals ONGOING
Cordillera Studies Center Research Grant 2026 Submission Deadline: 15 December 2025

The Cordillera Studies Center Call for Proposals for the 2026 CSC Research Grant, open to faculty and REPS of the University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB) is ONGOING.

Application form link:
https://bit.ly/CSCGrant2026
https://bit.ly/CSCGrant2026
https://bit.ly/CSCGrant2026

For a higher resolution of the poster, you may download the file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Fnf-W9xBFkbczZ7QEO16RRS1iBlFkG-8/view?usp=drive_link

HAPPENING TOMORROW!

Kindly pre-register through the link below
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1023
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1023
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1023

YOU ARE INVITED!
Join us for a face-to-face CSC Research Lecture Series with Asst. Prof. Jessica C. Talangchey, Human Kinetics Program, College of Science. Mark your calendar on 23 October 2025 (Thursday), 10:30 am onwards, at the CSS-AVR, UP Baguio.

Kindly pre-register through the link below
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1023
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1023
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1023

SUMMARY
Bawet, Dong-as, and Pinakpakan are among the traditional indigenous games of e-Sabangan handed down from their ancestors, representing heritage and cultural identity. These games have historically been of great importance in the farming-based community's life, reflecting its social attitudes and cultural values. However, these games have slowly disappeared from transmission
due to modernity. This presentation informs the public of the undertakings recommended by the IPMRs to preserve e-Sabangan's intangible heritage. Ultimately, it is a strong call to action not only to preserve these critical traditions but also to revive them, keeping them alive and ensuring they remain part of our culture moving forward.

For participants attending via Zoom, kindly fill the registration link below.

https://up-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iS-KH5hhTAeVg3qe06cJUg

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Join us for a CSC Research Lecture Series with Prof. Emeritus June Prill-Brett and Dr. Karminn Daytec Yañgot on 20 October 2025 (Monday), 1:00 pm onwards, at the CSS-Audio Visual Room, UP Baguio and online through Zoom.

Kindly pre-register through the link below
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1020
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1020
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1020

Revisiting Some Ethnohistorical Events and Issues in Benguet Cordillera History
ABSTRACT
This paper revisits a critical historical event in Benguet ethnohistory that investigates the Battle of Tonglo and the "Tonglo massacre" of 1759. Some current writers of Benguet history have referred to the event as the "Tonglo massacre." Consequently, social media has featured stories of a Tonglo massacre, with a news report that a certain Karyas was said to have survived the Tonglo massacre of 1759. On another occasion, during a Baguio Day celebration at Session Road, Baguio City, the Irisan National High School students reenacted the so-called "massacre of Tonglo." It appears that the narrative of the Tonglo massacre is being accepted as a historical fact. However, some writers question some inconsistencies in the "massacre" narrative with historical accounts, while other writers have dismissed the "Tonglo massacre" narrative as a myth (Paw 2015, 40). The main objective of this inquiry is to address the following questions: Did a massacre occur at Tonglo village on March 18, 1759? When and how did the current narrative of a Tonglo massacre emerge? And, is there sufficient evidence to affirm it as a historical fact? To answer these, the inquiry draws on archival documents, ethnohistorical accounts, oral traditions, and recent archaeological findings. By critically examining these sources, the paper aims to clarify whether the massacre narrative reflects historical reality or collective memory shaped by contemporary interpretation.

Since Time Immemorial: Interrogating the Provenance of Native Title Rights in the Philippine Legal System
ABSTRACT
In what is now the Philippines, Native Title, the inherent right of Indigenous peoples (IP) to territories they have occupied “since time immemorial,” finds its legal origin in the 1909 Cariño v. Insular Government case. This paper contends that contemporary interpretations of Native Title have fundamentally deviated from Cariño’s judicial intent. Moving across centuries of law and colonization, the study traces how “native” land rights have been interpreted, narrowed, and contested. It challenges the prevailing assumption that “native” and “Indigenous” are synonymous in this context, and argues instead that Cariño embraced a broader idea of justice: one extending protection not only to those categorized today as IP but to all historically dispossessed “natives” of the archipelago whose land occupation predates colonial rule. Engaging legal historical sources from Spanish laws to the 1997 Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act and current jurisprudence, the paper establishes that the current narrow scope of Native Title remains inadequate for comprehensive redress of historical dispossession. Consequently, it proposes two parallel pathways for a reframing of existing policy: (a) widening the judicial application of “Native Title” to encompass other historically displaced communities who share a history of oppression with IP, and (b) amending the IPRA to redefine the specific “claim” of legally recognized IP as “Indigenous Title.” This recovery of layered legal genealogies aims to make the case for a more historically attuned understanding of land, law, and justice in the country.

YOU ARE INVITED!
Join us for a face-to-face CSC Research Lecture Series with Asst. Prof. Jessica C. Talangchey, Human Kinetics Program, College of Science. Mark your calendar on 23 October 2025 (Thursday), 10:30 am onwards, at the CSS-AVR, UP Baguio.

Kindly pre-register through the link below
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1023
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1023
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1023

SUMMARY
Bawet, Dong-as, and Pinakpakan are among the traditional indigenous games of e-Sabangan handed down from their ancestors, representing heritage and cultural identity. These games have historically been of great importance in the farming-based community's life, reflecting its social attitudes and cultural values. However, these games have slowly disappeared from transmission
due to modernity. This presentation informs the public of the undertakings recommended by the IPMRs to preserve e-Sabangan's intangible heritage. Ultimately, it is a strong call to action not only to preserve these critical traditions but also to revive them, keeping them alive and ensuring they remain part of our culture moving forward.

FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Join us for a CSC Research Lecture Series with Prof. Emeritus June Prill-Brett and Dr. Karminn Daytec Yañgot on 20 October 2025 (Monday), 1:00 pm onwards, at the CSS-Audio Visual Room, UP Baguio and online through Zoom.

Kindly pre-register through the link below
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1020
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1020
https://bit.ly/CSCLec1020

Revisiting Some Ethnohistorical Events and Issues in Benguet Cordillera History
ABSTRACT
This paper revisits a critical historical event in Benguet ethnohistory that investigates the Battle of Tonglo and the "Tonglo massacre" of 1759. Some current writers of Benguet history have referred to the event as the "Tonglo massacre." Consequently, social media has featured stories of a Tonglo massacre, with a news report that a certain Karyas was said to have survived the Tonglo massacre of 1759. On another occasion, during a Baguio Day celebration at Session Road, Baguio City, the Irisan National High School students reenacted the so-called "massacre of Tonglo." It appears that the narrative of the Tonglo massacre is being accepted as a historical fact. However, some writers question some inconsistencies in the "massacre" narrative with historical accounts, while other writers have dismissed the "Tonglo massacre" narrative as a myth (Paw 2015, 40). The main objective of this inquiry is to address the following questions: Did a massacre occur at Tonglo village on March 18, 1759? When and how did the current narrative of a Tonglo massacre emerge? And, is there sufficient evidence to affirm it as a historical fact? To answer these, the inquiry draws on archival documents, ethnohistorical accounts, oral traditions, and recent archaeological findings. By critically examining these sources, the paper aims to clarify whether the massacre narrative reflects historical reality or collective memory shaped by contemporary interpretation.

Since Time Immemorial: Interrogating the Provenance of Native Title Rights in the Philippine Legal System
ABSTRACT
In what is now the Philippines, Native Title, the inherent right of Indigenous peoples (IP) to territories they have occupied “since time immemorial,” finds its legal origin in the 1909 Cariño v. Insular Government case. This paper contends that contemporary interpretations of Native Title have fundamentally deviated from Cariño’s judicial intent. Moving across centuries of law and colonization, the study traces how “native” land rights have been interpreted, narrowed, and contested. It challenges the prevailing assumption that “native” and “Indigenous” are synonymous in this context, and argues instead that Cariño embraced a broader idea of justice: one extending protection not only to those categorized today as IP but to all historically dispossessed “natives” of the archipelago whose land occupation predates colonial rule. Engaging legal historical sources from Spanish laws to the 1997 Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act and current jurisprudence, the paper establishes that the current narrow scope of Native Title remains inadequate for comprehensive redress of historical dispossession. Consequently, it proposes two parallel pathways for a reframing of existing policy: (a) widening the judicial application of “Native Title” to encompass other historically displaced communities who share a history of oppression with IP, and (b) amending the IPRA to redefine the specific “claim” of legally recognized IP as “Indigenous Title.” This recovery of layered legal genealogies aims to make the case for a more historically attuned understanding of land, law, and justice in the country.