MEMBERS of the Municipal Council approved an ordinance institutionalizing programs and projects for Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in La Trinidad.

“Observance of the IP month and celebration of an IP day is an opportunity for all diverse indigenous peoples in the municipality to celebrate and gather for the preservation and development of cultures and traditions and to uphold tourism and socio-cultural in the locality,” declared the approved ordinance authored by La Trinidad Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative Pendon Thompson, Councilor Teddy Quintos and Councilor Arthur Shontogan.

La Trinidad is home of the Ibaloy-Benguet ethnolinguistic group and has become a melting pot for several groups from the region.

Thompson said they seek to retrace the history of the municipality in the passage of the ordinance with the cultural immersion for all IPs, documentation of the aborigines and geographical location of the Ibaloy, Kankana-ey, Kalanguya, I’owak and other Cordilleran ethnolinguistic groups.

Included among the programs under the approved ordinance the celebration of IP day on October 20 every year are cultural trainings and seminars, arts cultural and traditional activities, agro-industrial trade fairs and other programs promulgated.

Arts, cultural and traditional activities include cultural performing arts, festivals or competitions, through cultural dance, music, indigenous games, street dancing, literature, poetry, crafts, woodworking, culinary arts and contest related to native cuisine such as strawberry wine, jam, “kinuday” or “kini’ing,” “etag.”

Thompson added the funding for the new law would be incorporated in the annual appropriation of the municipality of La Trinidad.

The committee on La Trinidad IP Month Celebration would be created headed by the mayor to prescribe the guidelines in the implementation of the identified programs and the IPs month observance also declared as National IPs Month through Presidential Proclamation in 2009.