Olsim: La Trinidad at 68

LA TRINIDAD is set to celebrate its 68th Foundation Day on June 14, 2018 with the theme “La Trinidad towards greater heights”.

The town’s Foundation day commemorates its founding and advancement to a regular Municipality on June 16, 1950 by virtue of Republic Act No. 531. The citizens of La Trinidad have been celebrating this momentous event for almost 67 years as a working holiday.

The municipality has lined up various activities from ecumenical service, “shawat tan owik”, to multi-cultural celebrations and presentations. The celebrations usually culminate with the awarding and recognition of distinct members and residents of the community; outstanding advocates, leaders, and even ordinary citizens and organizations of La Trinidad with extraodinary deeds, and who have contributed to the community. The event’s mechanism is guided by local Ordinance no. 35 of 2015, or the La Trinidad Foundation Day Ordinance.

According to the La Trinidad Foundation Day Steering Committee, there are 6 Special Awardees which include; Ms. Denia Tarnate, Mr. Rex John Bawang, Mr. Aljireh Lan Laoyan Fuchigami, the group Bardilleranz, King’s College of the Philippines, and Benguet State University. There are also 3 Distinct Awardees: The Cordillera Binnadangan Connection, Inc., Bineng Domestic Water System Association, and Mr. Domingo Awal Betnac.

For this year, there is only one Golden Kayabang Awardee: Mr James N. Paw, from Km.5, Pico, La Trinidad, and the author of the book “The Cordillera Valley of La Trinidad” – a significant contribution to the town’s historical research. His groundbreaking study of Guillermo Galvey’s status as an unmarried man totally put doubt on the traditional acceptance that the name “La Trinidad” was named after Galvey’s wife, a certain Donya Trinidad. The main program features Dr. Ryan Guinaran, a Golden Kayabang Awardee, as the Guest Speaker.

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Many years before the colonizers came, La Trinidad was well-cultivated with rice, sweet potatoes, gabi, and sugar cane by its original settlers – the Ibaloys. They maintained farms along the hillsides, carved rice terraces along the mountain slopes along rivers, creeks and streams and in the marshy valley. Wealth was measured by ownership of land and cattle which were redistributed by holding prestigious feasts or “peshit”. They also believed in the supreme being called “Kabunian”, and prayers were done during festivities and rituals meant to attain a bountiful harvest.

During the Spanish period, the valley of La Trinidad was originally called “Valle de Benguet”. Although the District of Benguet was established in La Trinidad by 1846, it was only in April 21, 1874, under Commandant Manuel Scheidnagel, that “Valle de Benguet” was renamed “Valle de La Trinidad” (or La Trinidad Valley).

After the Revolutionary period in 1900, La Trinidad became the supplier of vegetables through the Trinidad Farm School (now the Benguet State University). Several socio-economic changes occurred, and the concepts religion, titling of lands, formal education, paid labor, and democratic elections of leaders were introduced. During World War II in 1941 to 1945, many residents were imprisoned and pitilessly tortured. Young men joined the guerilla war, and children and mothers fled into the mountains. After the war, and during the liberation period, La Trinidad became a regular municipality by virtue of Republict Act No. 531 on June 16, 1950. The planting of temperate-growing vegetables were introduced right after the war. For this, the municipality came to be widely-known as the Salad Bowl of the Philippines.

Strawberries, first introduced by the Americans, also became the town’s main product, garnering for itself the title “Strawberry Capital of the Philippines” in the 1980s. With the establishment of the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post, La Trinidad became Benguet’s marketing hub.

By the turn of the century, migration and urbanization steadily crept in, bringing with it a colorful tapestry of people not only from the different Cordillera provinces, but from the whole country.

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