The Philippines and the Igorot People Groups

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Eph 3:20-21

The Philippine Islands have a republic form of government that was established after gaining its independence from US control on July 4, 1946. The celebrated date of independence though is June 12, 1898 when it declared itself free from Spanish rule. The Philippines boasts itself of over 7001 islands but that number varies depending on the tide. Throughout this paper I will refer to ranges when dealing with statistics as no two sites or books seem to agree. I give the most reference and credibility to the CIA World Factbook as the numbers are more current. Between 750 and 880 of the islands are inhabited. Some islands have millions of people and others simply are a tourist destination that houses a few staff in order to run the resort. One example would be Sumilon Island off the southern tip of Cebu.

The population of the Philippines according to the World Factbook estimate of July 2007 is 91 million people. When reading other articles from not that many years ago they were citing population in the 70’s. This population growth is due to the Catholic influence in the country which have influenced birth control, abortion and divorce to be illegal. Statistics show that 61% of the country is under 25 years old and 38% is under 14%. This must be a consideration in the strategy of missionaries going to this land. In the city areas of Cebu City and Manila, this young generation mimics more of the rebellious MTV generation of America more than it does the previous generations of devoted Catholic Filipinos who are steeped in their traditions. There are a few large cities in the Philippines. Davao City is the largest city geographically but the capital city of Manila has by far the greatest population of between 18-20 million people in the metro-Manila region. This is also known as the National Capital Region (NCR).

There are very few statistics or observations that can be made of this land that would be universal for the country because the land and people are incredibly diverse and they have never had a national unity. To give an idea of this, there are eight major dialects according to the CIA factbook - Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan. Beyond this however, there are many varied lists of the unreached or least reached peoples in the Philippines. One prayer list that I found includes 83 different groups that range in population from 2000 to well over 1,000,000 people and all these people have different languages. Another research site lists 161 people groups in the Philippines but shows far fewer that are unreached. A well respected missionary mind said recently that the Philippines is one of the highest evangelized countries on earth and they (like South Korea) are now a missionary sending nation. Depending on how you view it, this is correct but I hope to draw attention to the readers that this statement may have been made with too simplistic of an overview of this country. In reading about the history, geography and people groups I have come across two ways of dividing this country into thirds. One is the regional way offered by the government. This shows the Luzon region to the north, the Visayan (primarily Cebuano speaking) region in the center and the Mindanao region to the south. The other way which I find more helpful from a Christian mission perspective is the map on the cover page which reflects the Igorot (tribal) groups that are of the highest concentration in the Cordillera and Cariballo mountains of Northern Luzon, the Filipino people that make up the majority of the population (primarily catholic) and the Moro peoples in the south which are Muslim.

When it is said that the Philippines is one of the most evangelized places in the world it should be noted that most of those statements are from the perspective of the vast amount of missionaries that are sent to the Philippines. I would argue though that the majority of those missionaries are located in the “Filipino” or Catholic, Spanish influenced regions. Another note may be made that if we could somehow refine that group of missionaries to works that are doctrinally sound and then map them out based on the areas they work in I believe we would be surprised. One of the articles I read in a missions class was about city evangelism. On my second trip to the Philippines I traveled with the missionary on two separate daylong survey trips to a corner of the Metro Manila region called San Juan. This area is populated by close to five million people that vary from wealthy to squatter hut poor and are from a vast amount of people groups that have migrated to the city for work. In these two days we did not find a single Baptist church in this large region. Some missionaries avoid cities as they are typically more expensive, more crime infested, certainly more polluted, often have unbearable traffic, contain none of the romantic jungle pioneer missionary mystique and often include a more proud and gospel hardened people. Between the overcrowded and under evangelized cities and the little or unreached tribal and Muslim areas, I would vehemently argue against the idea that the Philippines is an over evangelized country that does not need more missionaries. God does the calling and God then is the judge of that. We know our local church is hardly capable of ministering to the 100,000 people in our town yet some would argue that no church for 5,000,000 people in Manila would be a waste of God’s money and God’s servant. Before churches start disregarding a missionary because they have a tack in the map there, they might either study it out themselves or more importantly spend some time with that missionary and pray that God gives them the discernment to be able to effectively judge their heart and motives. It is not a missions board, a statistician or demographic wizard that calls a man. The Holy God of heaven who paid for the souls of men and has a plan and strategy that we can’t comprehend does (Isa. 55). It is very possible that the missionaries God would have to go to the unreached are from these “over evangelized areas.” I certainly believe that they would have an easier transition than me when reaching those peoples. I’m done preaching now.

My focus for the remainder of this study will be on the tribal people groups of Northern Luzon, collectively known as the Igorot. It is important to note that never has the Philippines been a collective, unified country. There has never been a time when the Tribal peoples, the Filipinos and the Moro people groups were unified and desirous to call these 7000 islands their country. When the Spanish took the land in the 16th century they claimed it all for themselves and influenced as many people as they could with their rule and religion. Try as they might they did not win the allegiance of the ancient tribes who in response to this intrusion moved any remaining groups from the flatlands to the mountain regions of northern Luzon. When they gained independence from Spain and were in American control the Igorot pleaded with the Americans to allow them to have their own national identity. The US felt that identifying the Mountain province would be enough and that Manila would not press for anything more after their departure. This wasn’t the case and Filipino governments of all forms since then have always sought to bring these peoples under their mandates and do with their land what they would like. It really is little difference than what we did to the Native Americans. The result is that it has been harder and harder as years go on for these tribes to remain isolated from the rest of society and to retain their ancestral land. Another factor in this eating away of the land is logging (deforestation). I read in one book that every year now the wooded areas of the Philippines are reduced by the space of ¾ the land mass of Rhode Island. Land is running out considering all the islands put together are only about the size of Nevada.

There are six provinces that contain the ancestral lands of the Igorot and there is only one city for this whole area: Baguio. Naturally this makes Baguio a key point for mission strategy, as this is the place that many of these people will come if they are seeking work, commerce or education. Baguio is second only to Manila in the Philippines for educational opportunities as there are many good universities and the cost for a quality education is far cheaper in Baguio than in Manila. The word Igorot is a Tagalog word that means “mountain people.” It is a general term that all these tribal groups are bucketed into. Outsiders originally used the word as a derogatory term that spoke of being backward or inferior but most of these people are proud to be referred to as Igorot now with the exception of the Kalinga and some of the Ifugao.

Within the Igorot peoples there are eight identified ethnic groups, which are the Apayao, Tinggian, Bontoc, Ibaloi, Ifugao, Isneg, Kalinga and Kankanai. Some of these groups are considered the last of the “headhunters” of the Philippines; namely the Bontoc and the Kalinga. Neither is believed to still practice this but it is true that most are still involved in animal sacrifices. They are all animistic groups that believe in many gods and spirits that influence their life circumstances. Their belief that these gods have emotions and get angered lead them to different sacrificial systems and other rituals to make them happy. What differs in the groups are what they sacrifice, whether the men or women act as the priests and whether they believe the gods to be their deceased ancestors or some other spiritual beings. This also impacts whether they dury their dead or keep their bones in their homes as sacred items. There are tremendous demonic influences at work in these villages that are called upon through shaman priests, rituals, chants, magic and sacrifice. One secular observer noted that during an Ifugao canao healing ritual of sacrificing chickens and observing their entrails by a shaman that “his demeanor changed and his very appearance was transformed; the Ifugao gods seemed to take possession of his spirit.” The strongholds of Satan can and must be overcome by the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

The eight primary groups above are the main tribes I found and most of them have some portions of scripture in their language although none more than the New Testament. The big questions I have in looking at this data are “what is the basis for being considered reached (by what group and doctrine)? And “what do they consider scriptures, how accurate are they?” In doing more reading as well as talking to Paul Perkins about these peoples, it seems there are many other peoples and languages represented in these mountains that perhaps are not identified or are bunched together with these eight. Groups such as First Bible International who are King James and Textus Receptus based have had to start their own translations in Mongolia for example because the “scripture” that they had was all dynamic equivalent and not a literal translation with the goal of accuracy with readability. Those people only have some type of paraphrase and not something they can call the Bible. I don’t know enough about the translations into these tribal languages to say one way or the other. Brother Paul told me firsthand that he knew of a missionary in Baguio working with one of these groups that has shared with him that there are some groups up there that are still unengaged and that have no scriptures in their dialect. In further study I have found that the Ifugao tribe, for example, are recognized by at least eight different names themselves and there are at least four distinct Ifugao dialects. The Kalinga also go by at least two names and have two different dialects, not to mention the 50+ divisions of groups within their people. It is the Ifugao who are known for the beautiful rice terraces that were been carved out of the mountains by hand approximately 2000 years ago.

The cultural obstacles faced in reaching these groups would be similar to many lands in that they have a completely different language, way of thinking, way of living and belief structure. A recent article on the worldviews (assumptions) of people opened up my thinking much further than just the language barrier. There is so much to learn and it won’t be learned in a book or in a Bible school in the US but through time, observation, immersion, interaction and prayer. These are groups that have fought off the westernization and modernization of their land for hundreds of years and are naturally on some type of defensive toward intrusion. They are steeped in pride and tradition. Many of these people are illiterate and if they can read, their languages are more spoken than written and the scriptures must be translated or finished. Many of them have no power, modern form of communication or effective sanitary or medical measures. One hope is that any missionaries who are in the area and have gone before have been a positive influence and have planted the seed which now must be watered and see God give the increase. Even the unreached and unengaged may have had some type of contact or introduction to missionaries of various groups since the people will sometimes have their daughters marry men from other tribes or through some of the people that come into Baguio for various reason and perhaps have been influenced. We must remember though that small populations of cross-cultural people within cities are often unreached as well. FBBC for example doesn’t have ministries for Spanish, Chinese or Ukrainian populations in Rochester so there needs to be ministries in those cities as well to meet such groups.

I read one of the cultural rituals that the Ifugao take part in concerning distribution of meat. They will bring a caribao into the center of town and the kids may play with it for a while until it is ready for sacrifice. They perform their idolatrous ritual, kill it and then start the meat distribution. The aggressive men will often barge in and cut away large portions instead of waiting for their priest to distribute the meat. Those men are often then chased by women and children who aren’t happy with their greed. To try to be fair, they often will use chalk to draw on the caribao to show how it will be cut and distributed prior to the sacrifice. After they split up the meat they will then boil any portion that wont be used. The last and most exciting part is they give the urinary bladder to one of the children as a toy. This and the tail are usually given by favoritism to a child of a prominent family. It is then filled with water like a baloon and tied off making it a fund toy to play ball with; that is until another jealous child stabs it with a spear.
The Ifugao also have different burial rituals depending on whether someone just dies or if they were murdered. If it is a murder then all of the men of that persons family will use a tribal dance to indicate that this murder will not go unavenged. From what I read, most of the murders take place because of disagreement over land and water ownership. During the ceremony of a murdered man, a woman will stand over the body poking it with a weaver’s sword and telling his spirit not to go to sleep but to wake up and bother the murderer so he can be identified. One man is assigned as the one responsible to take revenge. This is determined by all the men standing in a circle, they cut the head off a chicken and in front of whatever man it finally falls, he is then responsible to kill not only the murderer but all his male relatives. They determine when and by what means he is to kill them based on what animal that they catch next in a designated trap that is placed in the jungle. When it is a natural death the people will place the person in a death chair before they die and tie them in an upright position so they can be addressed by loved ones before dying. This is done in a very private ritual and then once the individual dies there is another ritual followed by burial. The most important tribal rituals that are common among the Kalinga, Bontoc and Ifugao especially are centered on birth, puberty, marriage, death, the rice harvest, rice wine fermentation and until this last generation or two – headhunting. The Kalinga have long been recognized as the most unpredictable and aggressive of the Igorot mountain peoples.

Strange food is always a culture shock and the Ifugao are no different; they enjoy frying up large quantities of flying termites – delicious. There are a vast amount of villages in these mountains as might be expected. Rough estimates say there are more than two hundred villages for each of the Bontoc, Ifugao and Kalinga peoples that will range from fifty to one hundred or more people in each. Many of these villages have divisions among them because of land, family issues, beliefs and even because some feel that others have conformed to the outside world pressures by welcoming advancements in dress, communication, power and technology. There are known to be at least 55 divisions in the Kalinga region alone according to one source. Over the years these secluded mountains have been used for more profitable cash crops like tobacco and now the growth and use of marijuana is prevalent. The Kalinga province is the biggest producer of the drug in this region and therefore the military sets up checkpoints at most main roads to try to hinder drug runners.

Strategically I believe that it would take first and foremost a great deal of study about their land, beliefs, culture, languages, heritage and the current influence (or lack thereof) of the gospel. I believe the city is the key and that Baguio is the primary point for learning about these groups and for having a work that will train men to go to these groups. It is a good center for learning the various languages and to focus on translation of the scriptures. I believe youth are also a key and that showing love to youth will often impact the hearts of adults. Youth have such potential for Christ when trained up effectively and need for love is so great in the Philippines as most children work significantly, play very little and only 40% will ever go to high school (nationally- 1993 statistic). I would look into starting extension classes (like Sunday Schools) that adults are invited to in their village. It could be with picture cards or something at first and progress from there as the language and cultural barriers start to break down. It may be that the best and only way to impact them is to train a Filipino or one of their own that you reach in the city to go back to them rather than going yourself. There are other physical needs like medical assistance and other practical helps that could help bridge the gap. I believe this is something the Lord will make clear and direct in as He is sought. One thing is clear, there is a need, there are unreached people in this area and Jesus deserves for them to hear of His great love. Here am I, Lord, send me…