CPA PUBLISHES LAND IS LIFE
July 20, 2009
The Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) announced on December 20 the publication of Ti Daga Ket Biag (Land is Life), a 232-page compilation of selected papers from three Cordillera multi-sectoral land congresses in 1983, 1994 and 2001.
According to Joanna K. Cariño, CPA Advisory Council member, Ti Daga Ket Biag represents the long-standing “effort being put in by the people’s movement in the Cordillera in trying to clarify and to help in the eventual resolution of various land issues in the region.”
“While the data in many of the early papers may already be outdated, and there has been new research conducted since we decided to publish these in order to put on record and make available to the wider public the CPA’s efforts through the years to study and clarify some of the complicated land issues in the Cordillera,” Cariño said.
With a total of 13 papers from all three land congresses spanning 18 years, the book contains five papers from the first Cordillera Multi-Sectoral Land Congress in March 1983; four papers from the second in July 1994; and four from the third in December 2001.
Only the first Land Congress papers were published in the collection Dakami ya Nan Dagami , now out of print.
The book also features 12 full-color 8.5×11” thematic maps of the Cordillera region, which summarizes an immense volume of data such as topography, population density, ethnolinguistic distribution, land classification and natural resources, among others.
Cariño said the book is dedicated “to all the martyrs of the Cordillera peoples’ struggle in the defense of land.” She also said missing CPA leader James Balao had been deeply involved in the past land congresses and that his spirit “pervades this publication.”
A CPA regional officer said Ti Daga Ket Biag is now being distributed to non-governmental organizations and offices, schools, libraries, bookstores and other commercial and non-commercial outlets.
Two formal launch dates for the book are being scheduled for January, one in Baguio City and another in Manila.