Fund drive to save Ifugao Rice Terraces launched

MANILA, Philippines - Senate committee on agriculture and food chairman Francis Pangilinan has teamed up with Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat on a fund-raising effort to rehabilitate the Ifugao Rice Terraces.

Pangilinan said he and Baguilat would embark on a multi-sectoral fund-raising drive to undertake major repairs on the rice terraces and support community programs that will encourage young Ifugaos to continue stewarding the rice terraces for future generations.

“For 2,000 years, the Ifugao Rice Terraces have helped to shape the culture, identity, and livelihood not only of our brothers and sisters in the Cordilleras, but also of the Filipino people. They have become symbols of our ingenuity and vision, our rootedness in nature and the value of community, among others. We cannot allow the rice terraces, as well as these values, to be eroded over time. These help define our being Filipino,” he said.

Pangilinan cited a report prepared by the office of Baguilat indicating that a total of 102,663 cubic meters of the rice terraces have been damaged. Value of the damaged areas in 13 barangays was placed at over P122 million, affecting almost 2,000 farmers.

He stressed the need to preserve the Ifugaos’ traditional methods of upland rice farming and sustainable communal agriculture, which has been going on for over 2,000 years and led to the Rice Terraces being recognized as a world heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

“We cannot kill the Ifugao farmers’ source of life, culture, and pride. We must do whatever we can to ensure that future generations will be able to enjoy the rice terraces and make a sustainable living out of them. We owe it not only to them or to ourselves, but to our ancestors who have entrusted the rice terraces to us over the last 2,000 years,” he said.

A Facebook page named the “Save the Ifugao Rice Terraces campaign” has been created to help gain support for the efforts of the two legislators.