[Time Trowel] The Ifugao landscape that Marcos and Palafox’s master plan needs to understand
A trowel (/ˈtraʊ.əl/), in the hands of an archaeologist, is like a trusty sidekick — a tiny, yet mighty, instrument that uncovers ancient secrets, one well-placed scoop at a time. It’s the Sherlock Holmes of the excavation site, revealing clues about the past with every delicate swipe.
Every year, after the rice harvest in Hungduan, communities from Hapao, Baang, and Nungulunan gather along the Hapao River for the Punnuk. This year, the gathering will be on August 22. People wade into the river and tug against each other using the pakid, a hooked sapling, and the kina-ag, made from bundled rice stalks. The Punnuk closes the huowah, the post-harvest rituals marking the end of the rice cycle, and is included in UNESCO’s multinational inscription of “Tugging rituals and games.”
Punnuk takes place within the agricultural landscape of the Hungduan payo (rice terraces), one of the five clusters included in the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras World Heritage Site. The ritual depends on that landscape and on the rice cycle.
On August 13, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with Palafox Associates to discuss a master plan for Banaue and other rice terrace communities. The proposal would guide conservation, farming, tourism, infrastructure, and development in the terrace communities.
The terraces need sustained public support. Maintaining them has become harder, while farming continues to bring limited returns.
But a master plan cannot treat the terraces as isolated rice paddies.
ALSO ON RAPPLER
- [Time Trowel] Safeguarding the Ifugao Rice Terraces for future generations
- [Time Trowel] The Ifugao Rice Terraces are not 2,000 years old
- [Time Trowel] The Ifugao Rice Terraces are 400 years old. That matters.
- [Time Trowel] Are they still rice terraces?
- [Time Trowel] Ifugao’s evolving story as birthplace of Philippine anthropology
- [Time Trowel] Why do we only respect Indigenous peoples when they’re ancient?
What exactly are we planning for?
Above the terraces are the muyong, managed forests that regulate runoff and help protect the slopes. Families also tend uma for other crops. The paddies depend on the forests, water systems, farms, and households around them.
Marlon Martin, through the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement and Preserving Legacies, has been making this point for years. Their climate vulnerability research treats damaged walls and canals as only part of the problem. Farming, household income, cultural practices, and local knowledge are also affected. The assessment was developed with farmers, Indigenous leaders, and technical experts.
Martin draws from the Ifugao concepts of Tawid, Tanud, Tugun, and Ki-ohaan, which speak to inheritance, livelihood, knowledge, and shared responsibility. Communities already apply these ideas when they manage forests and fields, share water, perform rituals, and help one another during the rice cycle.
Terrace rice farming does not bring in enough for many households. Walls have to be rebuilt. Canals have to be cleared. Water has to be watched and directed. Planting and harvesting require time and labor.
Most farmers do not sell tinawon (Ifugao rice varieties), and even when they do, they cannot compete with lowland farms on volume or price.
Who pays for keeping a World Heritage landscape alive?
We should subsidize the farmers.
If the terraces are part of our national heritage and carry a UNESCO World Heritage designation, their survival should not depend mainly on what individual households can afford. Farmers could receive support for wall repair, irrigation maintenance, seeds, planting, harvesting, and water management. Support should include the muyong and watershed. A share of tourism revenues could go directly to terrace communities. Programs for tinawon should focus on better prices and returns, not just producing more rice.
Mayoyao is already using public funds to restore abandoned terraces. The LGU established a Rice Terraces Restoration and Maintenance Program and allocated funds to bring abandoned terraces back into cultivation. By 2023, restored fields in Mapawoy and Poblacion were again producing tinawon. The harvest festivities involved the LGU, community members, teachers, and students. The program also includes student immersion so young people can learn about the rice cycle and Indigenous farming knowledge through participation
We should start with the youth.
Young Ifugao should grow up knowing why the muyong is important to the terraces, how water is managed, what rice varieties their families grow, and where the uma fits into the food they eat. They should know the stories and rituals connected with planting, harvesting, storing rice, and maintaining the fields.
Not every child will farm, nor should we expect them to. But they should know the landscape they inherit. In Mayoyao, students already join terrace restoration and harvesting. The IPED Center in Kiangan also introduces young people to Ifugao heritage and history.
Do we want rice terraces without the culture that produced them?
We could repair terraces, improve roads, and build more hotels for tourists. But what happens when rituals tied to the rice cycle disappear? What happens when fewer people know how water is shared, or when the next generation no longer understands how the muyong, uma, and payo are linked together?
UNESCO recognized the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras as a living cultural landscape, not just as an impressive set of terraces.
How will the master plan keep forests, water, farming, ritual, and communities connected?
Farmers, terrace owners, elders, women, youth, the mumbaki (ritual specialists), Ifugao scholars, teachers, tourism workers, community organizations, and local governments should be involved while the plan is being made, not after the drawings are finished. They should help decide where money goes, what can change, what should remain, and what development should look like.
The master plan can bring the needed income into the province. Some of that monies should reach the farmers and communities who are responsible for the maintenance of the terraces. Farmer subsidies, heritage education, support for the muyong and water systems, and a fairer share of tourism revenues would be a good place to begin.
On August 22, people will again gather in the Hapao River for the Punnuk. The payo, muyong, uma, tinawon, water, and communities around them will all be part of that gathering, even when they are not in the river.
That is the Ifugao landscape the master plan needs to understand.
This essay grew out of conversations with Marlon Martin, Karminn Daytec Yañgot, and Rae Macapagal. I am grateful for their insights, but I take full responsibility for the arguments and any errors in this essay.
– Rappler.com
Stephen B. Acabado is professor of anthropology at the University of California-Los Angeles. He directs the Ifugao and Bicol Archaeological Projects, research programs that engage community stakeholders. He grew up in Tinambac, Camarines Sur.
