BEFORE I proceed to talk about friendships sealed, respect earned and "the getting-to-know-you-better" among us young(er) professionals from the different National Government agencies and a non-government organization which worked on the Land Tenure Instruments Handbook, allow me to announce that the Basic Pranic and Advance Healing Courses will be held in Bontoc this April at the Teng-ab Retreat House.
The BPHC is on April 24 to 25, the APHC on April 26 to 27. We urge all graduates of Pranic Healing not only in Bontoc but all over Mountain Province to recruit trainees to these two courses. With prayers and the Meditation on Twin Hearts, we continue to bless Mountain Province and the Philippines with the right leaders come May 10.
Now on to the LTI Handbook, Chrislyn and Espie from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples with manong Recto comprised the team from the lead agency, i.e. NCIP. The chair of the Committee on Indigenous Peoples - the sectoral committee of the Regional Development
Council which produced the handbook, is Director Amador Batay-an of the NCIP. I have known Director Batay-an during my younger and happier days (years) in campaigning for local and national candidates. In all honesty, the campaigns tested the leadership in me and among my municipal and barangay youth leaders.
Handling the youth leaders and their groups in Mountain Province to vote and convince voters to go for a whole party from congressman to governor down the line was a collective feat.
Creativity, innovativeness full of fun was the tone of the leadership we tried to build among our youth campaigners and leaders. Many of us earned our being the campaign leaders.
I started as a volunteer organizer until I found myself and my own group taking care of the whole province. Funny it was. I never imagined myself herding thousands of young voters to support the politician. Yet, looking back, the experience, as a whole - with its daunting tasks and of course the tirades - I can still say that my personal growth was beyond what I planned in that stage of my life.
I personally witnessed how the politician we supported for more than a decade helped a lot of people get promoted or go abroad to earn merits to get promoted plus earn more money. Funny, because some of the youth leaders complained to me - they never saw these people or their siblings join the campaign. I just kept mum. One time at the house of a politician I witnessed how the staff photocopied the papers of a person who the politician endorsed his papers to go abroad (Cambodia) to earn merits. He just smiled at us sheepishly. He knew without the help of the politician, he could not have gone abroad. The experience enriched his resume.
Now, what have these campaigns and leadership got to do in helping in writing the handbook?
In the campaigns, one LEARNED patience, tolerance and humility.
The ability to accept people as they are became a collective TUNE for us who worked on the handbook. Some of us went out of our way to get the drafts of the handbook going beyond official hours. There were at least four drafts.
Internal consistency of the substance, i.e topics of the handbook, was our main focus. The various topics written in the handbook were written by different people from the Departments of Agrarian Reform, Environment and Natural Resources, National Economic Development Authority, NCIP, Register of Deeds, and the Department of Agriculture.
As we went along sewing the different topics together, discussions on what to put or not put, emphasize or not emphasize, hued the common fabric of the intellectual tapestry of the handbook. In the handbook are subliminal messages between and among us - the Ifugao, the Ifontok, the Ibaloi, the Kankanaey etc.
Of course sir Laberinto of Neda was there to help us.
Some of the underlying tones could be tribal, as in parochial between an Ifontok and an Ibesao; between a government employee and one from the non-government organizations in the Cordillera; between the Ibaloi and the Kankana-ey. The colors and strength of the ideas we exchanged and defended in our discussions were as varied as our own inafer or inabel (native woven cloth/tapis). And such variances of tribal character were not new to me.
In my younger days of campaigning for politicians, patience was a guide and obedience was a virtue. If one is sensitive enough, the silence of youth campaign leaders during the planning for our campaign strategies as youth leaders can be a "loud" disapproval.
I also sensed this from one or two of my colleagues in how we sewed together our different points of views in writing of the handbook. The best lesson I learned from the experience is: Knowledge of one's culture was not enough. Experience was the key in handling and writing your piece of the handbook. Living your culture is best in writing anything about it.
To Chryslyn, Espie, Ellen, Lloyd, manong Recto, sir Labarinto, Attorneys Juanito Ampaguey and Felipe. Nice meeting you! Yes! For the two lawyers, humility is my word for them.