In this Ibaloi cultural capital, coffee is elixir of youth

Inquirer Northern Luzon
In this Ibaloi cultural capital, coffee is elixir of youth
By Maurice Malanes
Inquirer Northern Luzon
First Posted 21:35:00 02/02/2010

Filed Under: Culture (general), Consumer Goods, Travel & Commuting, Tourism
BENGUET, Philippines--DRIVING THROUGH THE newly built Baguio-Nueva Vizcaya road is a breeze. But detouring along the way toward the upland town of Kabayan in Benguet is another experience.

From the village of Bangao in neighboring Bokod town, the road becomes rough and bumpy, a situation which the hardy Ibaloi folk have long lived with since 1960, when the road to the Ibaloi cultural capital was first opened.

But if the road to Kabayan in eastern Benguet is rough and rude, the people are gentle, friendly and hospitable. And they are great storytellers.

In a visit to Kabayan recently, reporters heard stories about a Spanish trail, Arabica coffee, centuries-old mummies, descendants of the insurrectos (rebel soldiers) of Emilio Aguinaldo and the secrets to the vitality of Ibaloi elders.
The Coopbank of Benguet and the homegrown corporation, Benguet Organic Coffee Enterprises Ltd. Inc. (Bocael), organized the trip for important reasons.

Coopbank manager Gerry Lab-oyan and Bocael operations manager Rudy Guisdan said visitors and tourists must appreciate that Kabayan offers more than just the experience of climbing Mt. Pulag, the Ibaloi’s “hallowed ground in the clouds.”

Spanish trail

An interesting story was the Spanish trail that began in Aritao in Nueva Vizcaya and traversed the Benguet towns of Itogon, Bokod, Kabayan, Buguias, Mankayan and Bakun before exiting towards Cervantes and Tagudin towns in Ilocos Sur.

The elders said the Spanish trail was built through forced labor in the 1800s. When the Spaniards ordered Filipinos to pay tributes to the Spanish crown, they imposed tres dias (three days) of forced labor.

For the people of Kabayan and nearby communities, the forced labor meant working to help build the trail, says former Kabayan mayor and local historian, Florentino Merino.

The Spaniards distributed Arabica coffee seeds for local folk to plant along the trail. “It was just logical for the Spaniards to impose that the coffee seeds be planted along the trail so they could easily monitor the crops,” says Merino.

Arabica coffee, he says, must have been among the prized products for the Spanish galleon trade.

Locals eventually came to appreciate how to brew coffee, which became a prized beverage especially offered to welcome visitors and to keep guests and community folk awake during traditional sacred feasts called the cañao or peshit.

Barter

As early as then, Arabica coffee had become a vital barter item.

Kabayan Ibaloi folk would go down to what is now Pangasinan and barter their coffee with textiles and blankets, sugar, salt and dogs.

Why dogs? “Our ancestors needed dogs, which they could train to help hunt wild game,” says Merino.

The 80-year-old Merino, however, says Arabica coffee was just a secondary barter item. Even before the Spaniards came, the Ibaloi people’s primary barter item was gold, which they panned from the Agno River and its tributaries.

Historians, including Merino, say the Spaniards forced locals to build for them a trail after they learned about the Igorot people’s gold.

It was thus not surprising that the Spanish trail also led to gold-rich Lepanto in what is now Mankayan.

Interestingly, many of the towns along the Spanish trail, such as Itogon and Mankayan, had also become mining boom towns when American colonial soldiers turned to gold prospecting.

Coffee trees

With tidbits of history, the media people drove along a dirt road toward Barangay Pacso.

The place is considered one of the town’s historic sites because a big battle against Japanese soldiers during World War II was fought and won there. And there’s more.

Among the areas traversed by the Spanish trail, Pacso is one of the communities with centuries-old Arabica coffee trees, which continue to yield aromatic coffee beans.
Among the living stewards of these coffee trees is Tosie Maranes, who at 91 still gathers coffee beans and sips cups of brew each day.

Asked about secrets of his long life and good health, Maranes says: “I always pray to and thank God for my life and, of course, I drink brewed coffee.”

In this upland town of about 12,000 people, many, in fact, believe that brewed Arabica coffee is both an elixir of youth and an energy drink.

“I know of many farmers who claim that if they take coffee, they can work all day long without getting tired,” says Merino.

Maranes estimates that the Arabica coffee plants still growing in his backyard are 200 years old.

That the centuries-old coffee trees are still thriving and bearing fruits must be good reasons to protect them, says Guisdan of Bocael.

Taking on its role as “guardian” of Benguet’s centuries-old Arabica trees, Bocael has helped teach local folk to rejuvenate these trees through proper pruning.