IGOROT

The Igorot are an ethnic people of the Philippines, clustered in the Cordillera
region of Luzon. They are famous for rice-terrace farming and some of them have been
known to be cannibals in the past.

Igorot, or Igolot, literally means people from the mountains. As one can infer,
they are a highland race, and are well-adapted to life in raised altitudes. To assure
themselves a steady supply of crop, they have even devised a way to carve terraces at the
sides of mountain, which they plant with various grain. The Igorot people are categorized
into six different ethno-linguistic groups: Bontoc, Ibaloi, Ifugao, Isneg (or Apayao) and
Kalinga.
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Igorot , general name for the people of N central Luzon island, the Philippines.
The Igorot form two subgroups: the largest group lives in the south, central, and western
areas, and is very adept at rice-terrace farming; the other group lives in the east and north.
They formerly practiced headhunting. The name Igorot is also used as a collective term
for many of the warlike tribes of Luzon.
 The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA)
On October 29, 1997, in the context of a new constitution25 and after more than ten years
of legislative advocacy by indigenous and non-governmental organizations, the President
of the Republic of the Philippines finally signed Republic Act No. 8371 otherwise known
as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 (IPRA) into law. It became effective on
November 22, 1997 upon completion of the required publication26.

Section 22, Article II mandates that the state “recognizes and promotes the rights of
indigenous cultural communities within the framework of national unity and
development.” Section 5, Article XII more particularly commands that the state to
“protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral lands to ensure
their economic, social and cultural well-being.” This is of course subject to the provisions
of the Constitution, and unlike any other provision of the same document, “national
policies and programs.” It also authorizes Congress to provide for “the applicability of
customary laws governing property rights or relations in determining the ownership and
extent of ancestral domain.”
The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 implements these provisions by:

(a) Enumerating the civil and political rights of all members of indigenous cultural
communities or indigenous peoples;

(b) Enumerating the social and cultural rights of all members of indigenous cultural
communities or indigenous peoples;

(c) Recognizing a general concept of indigenous property right and granting title thereto;
and

(d) Creating a National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to act as a a

mechanism to coordinate implementation of this law as well as a final authority that
has jurisdiction to issue Certificates of Ancestral Domain/Land Titles.

Civil and political rights

Foremost in the law is its recognition of the right to non-discrimination of Indigenous
Peoples. In an unfortunately verbose27 section of the law it states:
“Equal Protection and Non-discrimination of ICCs/IPs. – Consistent with the equal
protection clause of the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, the Charter of the
United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human