Trixie Cruz-Angeles: Wedding Blues and the IPRA

By Rose Beatrix C. Angeles (Trixie Cruz-Angeles)

The State shall preserve, protect and develop the past,

present and future manifestations of their cultures

as well as the right to the restitution of cultural, intellectual,

religious, and spiritual property taken without their

free and prior informed consent or in violation of their laws,

traditions and customs.

 Sec. 32 Republic Act 8371

otherwise known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act

I must confess that I had liked this post conviction Robin Padilla.  More mature, more artistically daring; he is becoming a real actor, rather than a star. Still, his romance with Mariel Rodriguez elicited only boredom from me. These showbiz pairings usually do. Well, at least until the alleged Ibaloi ceremony.

TV Patrol reported that Robin married Mariel last September 16 in Ibaloi ceremonies officiated by a “native priest” (not a term I would use, but there it is) named Jimmy Ong, PEP also reported that the two married in Baguio City on that day. (source)

“The TV host-action star opted to marry Mariel in an Ibaloi ceremony because his mother, Eva Cariño-Padilla, is an Igorot. As part of the ceremony, Robin and Mariel drank tapuy (rice wine) as a symbol of their love and performed the tayaw dance to show that they are bound to each other by marriage. A pig was butchered and the blood was smeared on the faces of the celebrity couple. “After the Ibaloi ceremony, Robin and Mariel were married again in a ceremony officiated by a pastor.”

The couple was quick to make denials as soon as the protests began.  It wasn’t a wedding, they said.  It was a mere ceremony.

The controversy deepened, further because of the alleged claim that Eva Cariño-Padilla, Robin's mother is a member of the Ibaloi cultural community, and a descendant of the Mateo Carino.

A claim to kinship with Mateo Carino, is no small deal. In defense of his land rights, he filed suit in the early part of the 20th century, against the American colonial government. The conquering army had appropriated the property in the same manner and presumption as they had with the Native American Indians. The resulting victory established the legal doctrine that recognizes the rightful ownership of indigenous cultural communities to land that they had occupied since time immemorial (Mateo Carino versus Insular Government of the Philippine Islands 212 US 449), property in what is now Baguio City and its suburbs. This doctrine lays the foundation for the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (RA 8371) that has provided the legal impetus for the recognition of ancestral domain and ancestral lands.

Contained in that same law, is the recognition of the right to cultural integrity. This right ensures that the expressions of the community are protected as communally held intellectual property.  Thus, no person can appropriate chants, songs, dances, designs, rites or other such manifestations of any indigenous  community without the said community’s prior and informed consent.

Robin’s claim of Ibaloi ethnicity and the alleged performance of wedding rites has thus riled some of the community’s members, and justly so. It affronts many of the IPs to see their rituals performed out of context by non-members who do not understand their heritage, but merely wish to use or appropriate the symbols of their people.  They feel that this reduces them to being mere “producers of culture.”

This was further manifested when a descendant of Mateo Carino came out to state publicly that Robin is not a member of their clan.  While they bestowed on Robin the title of “honorary cousin” they did not give him explicit permission for the conduct of the Ibaloi wedding ceremony.

I understand wanting to be married in Ibaloi rites, wanting to express oneself in the language of ancestors traced back to the building of the rice terraces centuries ago, wanting to be part of a genealogy that can be recited back for at least a dozen generations.  I get this longing for ritual and tradition so lacking in modern living. Belonging to an ancient race locates the individual in the stream of time and empowers him.  We do all stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and the ability to name them, trace them, and give us unmistakable identity both separate and part of our people and history.

However in a later news item, the alleged Ibaloi mambunong who conducted the so-called ceremony, has expressed his disappointment over the couple's denial of the ceremony. In the said item, it appears that Padilla filmed the ceremony and has issued a denial because of the subsequent telecast of the rites -- establishing a clear commercial intent for the conduct of the indigenous ritual and severely disappointing this Robin fan. (source) 

  

Padilla must understand, that he has to respect the processes laid not only by law, but by the traditions of the Ibaloi. He must allow the community the choice to welcome him or not and to do so in accordance with their own pace, in their own time and thus imbue his marital partnership with the blessings of the people with whom he seeks to belong. A blatant commercialization of the Ibaloi practises -- without their consent --  will not only further inflame the IPs, but would put him in danger of the imposition of penalties laid down in the IPRA.

So I hope for the best for the Padillas and for an equitable solution to this issue, even as I stand firmly behind the sensibilities of the katutubos.

(Source: Trixie Cruz-Angeles )
To know more about Trixie Cruz Angeles, check out: I AM TRIXIE CRUZ