On the Brink: Banaue Rice Terraces are in Danger

Saving the Banaue Rice Terraces from the damages brought about by the successive typhoons and abandonment of locals has become an uphill climb for the locals, maybe even tougher than the trail charted by tourists who go on trekking here to see its beauty.

Recent typhoons Pedring and Quiel have aggravated the damages in the Terraces, hiking the cost of repair and rehabilitation or rice fields in 13 barangays to P66 million. The amount, however, would reach to P122 million if it would include the cost for repairing the irrigation systems—an amount greater than the P102 million proposed budget for the National Anti-Poverty Commission for 2012.

Rep. Teddy Brawner Baguilat of Ifugao noted that the farmers are used to repairing the damages in the Terraces on their own in the past thru bayanihan, but the destruction has recently took its toll on the people.

“We can’t do bayanihan to repair it anymore because the damage is so huge. This should not last long because it would deprive the community of food,” Baguilat told reporters.

The Terraces in brgy. Batad, Banaue—a top tourist destination among other Terraces areas because of its steepness which mimics steps to heaven—badly needs funding for the repair of the damaged 32 Terraces and the two irrigation systems as well as the construction of a retaining wall which would hold the soil until the repairs on the 32 Terraces are done.

A farmer can raise one bundle of rice per 1.5 square meters of the Terraces in Batad.

For brgy. Hapao in Hungduan, the destroyed Common Irrigation System (CIS) is the main dilemma since the damaged CIS irrigates 50 percent of the Hapao Rice Terraces which wider and is more gradual than Batad’s.

Unlike The Terraces in Banaue wherein only those in Batad and Bangaan are declared World Heritage Sites, all the Terraces areas in Hungduan are inscribed in the World Heritage Site record. At least 320 farmers in Brgy. Bulunan are affected by the damaged CIS in Hungduan.

“This CIS should be fixed soon because we need to plant rice. Otherwise, we’ll go hungry,” Captain Rodolfo Dong-E of Brgy. Bulunan, Hungduan said.

“We need immediate solutions because we need to prepare these rice fields before we plant on them. Maybe a few plastic pipes would do for the meantime to facilitate water supply in rice fields,” Hungduan Mayor Hilario Bumangabang added.

The lack of manpower is also threatening the Philippine entry to the World Heritage Site with more and more people migrating to nearby provinces such as Mountain Province, Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya because taking care of the Terraces does not earn them enough money to make ends meet.

Marlon Martin of non-government organization Save the Ifugao Rice Terraces Movement (SITMO) disclosed that threats of poverty have prompted the younger population to opt to finish college so that they can work in the city rather than farm the Rice Terraces.

The farmers of the families, on the other hand, go to nearby provinces wherein they can still farm the land and do other jobs for extra income such as woodcarving and doing handicrafts.

“We need people to take care of the terraces because more than a World Heritage, this is our culture. The Terraces is highly dependent on human knowledge, but we don’t have enough employment opportunities here. We also need economic development,” Martin lamented.

Councilor Froebel Gumbatan of brgy. Nagadacan in Kiangan backed up Martin by disclosing that 25 percent of the Rice Terraces in their area are already abandoned. The recent storms have affected at least 160 Nagadacan farmers.

BY LLANESCA T. PANTI