Team members of the DMMMSU Publication of Books on Indigenous Knowledge Project visited the Indigenous People (IP) community in Kapangan, Benguet, on Aug. 14, 2024, for a community validation of the information they gathered for the said publication.  

Elders of the Ibaloi and Kankana-ey tribes in Kapangan participated in verifying the information gathered by the team led by Prof. Farland Valera of the DMMMSU Open University System (DOUS).

The publication project, initiated by the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, focuses on the indigenous knowledge of various IP communities in Abra, Ilocos Region, and the Cordillera Adminisrative Region (CAR). 

Prof. Valera said that a tripartite Memorandum of Agreement was signed by the Kapangan Ancestral Domain of the Kankanaey and Ibaloi indigenous cultural communities, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples – CAR, and DMMMSU.   The MOA is for the DMMMSU Publication of Books on Indigenous Knowledge Project led by DOUS.  

In the MOA, the duties and responsibilities of the parties are spelled out and the benefit to be derived by the indigenous cultural communities is identified.  

Christopher Pagulayan and Andrea Bentres of the College of Education of the Mid La Union Campus (MLUC) presented their data on Indigenous Games for Strength and Strategy among the Ibaloi and Kankana-ey tribes.  Dr. Jouie Donato, faculty member of MLUC Institute of Criminal Justice Education, also presented his data on the Customary Peacebuilding in the Cordillera.

Other Project Team members who participated were Prof. Priscilla Abellera, Dr. Cristita Guerra, and Maynard Rex Aromin of the DOUS.

The community validation  was held in partnership with the Local Government Unit of Kapangan, represented by Mayor Manny E. Fermin, the vice mayor, Municipal IPMR, and some members of the sangguniang bayan. (Ces Myra P. Mabalot)