Ibaloi Language Marker unveiled

BAGUIO CITY– The Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, and the Onjon ni Ivadoy Association, Inc. on Wednesday, October 17, 2018 unveiled the Language Monument or Bantayog-Wika for the Ivadoy language at the Ibaloi Heritage Garden here.

The Bantayog-Wika for Ivadoy or Ibalói, as more popularly known, is the third in the Cordillera Region and the 10th language monument erected in the country next to Surigao City, where the 9th language marker for Surigaonon was inaugurated earlier this month.

The 3rd Language Marker in the Cordillera region and 10th nationwide, recognizing the Ivadoy language of the Ibalois. The marker was unveiled at the Ibaloi Heritage Garden in Baguio City on October 17, 2018. 

The language marker was created and designed by installation artist Luis ‘Junyee’ Yee, Jr.

In a statement read by National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) chairperson Virgilio Almario, Senator Loren Legarda said in Filipino that the country is rich in culture and languages, most of which originated from the different groups of indigenous people in the country. These native languages demonstrate the rich culture of the Philippines and so it is important to preserve these languages.

“Mayaman at sagana ang ating bansa sa kultura at wika, na karamihan ay nagmula sa iba’t-ibang grupo ng mga katutubo sa ating bansa. Ang mga wikang ito ang nagpapatunay ng mayamang kultura ng Pilipinas kaya naman mahalaga na mapangalagaan natin ang mga wikang ito”, Legarda said.

Legarda also said that according to the United Nation, languages are the most powerful instruments in preserving the country’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

“Ayon sa United Nation, ang mga wika ang pinakamakapangyarihang kasangkapan upang mapangalagaan at mapaunlad pa ang mga materyal at di-materyal na pamanang pangkultura o tangible and intangible cultural heritage”, Lagarda said.

“If we are not able to preserve and establish these native languages, the cultural aspect will vanish along with the native language,” Legarda said. (Kung di natin mapangangalagaan at maitataguyod ang mga katutubong wika, kasamang maglalaho sa wika ang kulturang bahagi nito).

According to Legarda, the Bantayog-Wika is a nationwide project of KWF, which aims to put-up monuments that symbolize and recognize native languages in the country, given the important culture, ways, tradition and historical facts that it symbolize or represent.

Onjon ni Ivadoy Association, Inc. president Franklin Cocoy, in an interview said that the Bantayog-Wika marker is a reminder that there is an Ibalói language in the Philippines.

“It is but proper and fitting, especially here in Baguio and Benguet, that the said monument was erected in Baguio because the first settlers here are Ibalois and their language is Ivadoy”, Cocoy said.

For his part, KWF Commissioner Jimmy Fong said that although only 4% speak the Ivadoy language in Baguio, recent survey shows more than 100,000 revealing they are Ibalois.

“Buhay na buhay ang wikang Ivadoy” (the Ivadoy language is so much alive), Fong said.

Fong said that the language is also spoken in the municipalities of Tuba, Itogon, Sablan, La Trinidad, Tublay, Kapangan, Atok, Bokod, Kabayan, all in Benguet, and also in Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya.

“For decades, the language is being used in pop musical compositions and music videos and are now on YouTube”, Fong said.

Accoding to Fong, Ivadoy is also used in multi-lingual education in certain schools.

Fong said Ivadoy language tutorials are being conducted for free to the public every Saturday at the Ibaloy Heritage Garden, also to cater to the many young people who do not know how to speak the language.

“Inaamin namin na kahit una ang Ivadoy na salita dito sa Baguio, marami na rin sa mga kabataan ang hindi na marunong magsalita nito” (We admit that though Ivadoy was the first dialect spoken in Baguio, many young people no longer speak it), Fong said.

Earlier in March, during the unveiling of the the first language marker in the Cordillera Region — theTuwali language in Ifugao, Legarda, in a statement ensured funding for the installation of language markers for all 131 languages in the country, including ethnographic studies of Philippine languages.

“We need to comprehensively document all active, endangered, and dying languages of our ethno-linguistic groups in the country and we should promote the continued use of such languages”, Legarda said.

“To complement the Language Markers Project of KWF, the Department of Tourism and the local government units (LGUs) can provide language tours to include discussions on how the language started and was embraced by the community in order to widen the perspective of the youth, students, and tourists when visiting various tourist sites in the country,” Legarda added.

The KWF is almost halfway in its implementation this year of its aim to install 22 language markers in a year across the country.

The ten language markers already unveiled nationwide are the following: 1)Kinaray-a in Antique; 2)Tuwali in Ifugao; 3)Mandaya in Davao Oriental; 4)Kalinga in Kalinga; 5)Mangyan in Occidental Mindoro; 6)Binukid in Bukidnon; 7)Ayta-Magbukun in Bataan; 8)Tagalog in Batangas; 9)Surigaonon in Surigao City; and 10)Ivadoy or Ibalói in Baguio City.