A Glimpse into the Life of Dean Worcester

Photo from Wikipilipinas

Dean Conant Worcester (1887-1925)

By Chester B Cabalza

Dean C Worcester was an accidental anthropologist, a practicing zoologist, one of the pioneers of Philippine studies, and the first Secretary of the Interior for the Philippine Insular Government during the American period. He was born on October 1, 1866 in Thetford, Vermont, United States and got married to Marrion Fay on April 21, 1893  

It was Professor Joseph Beal Steere, an American ornithologist and lawyer, who first brought Dean Worcester together with several zoology undergraduate students to the Philippines through the 1887-88 exploration sponsored by the University of Michigan. Thereafter, upon graduation from college in 1989, the following year Worcester headed the Menage Scientific Expedition (1890-93), aimed at collecting and documenting mammals in the Philippines and Borneo. The three-year expedition was funded by the Minnesota Academy of Natural Science.

With a teaching profession as a lecturer at hand in his alma mater in Michigan University, he also became the curator of the University Museum in 1895.

Three years later, Worcester’s life path began to change when he wrote a popular book on the Philippines. His published and influential ethnographic and photographic account of The Philippine Islands and their People in 1898 was based on the letters he had written during his early voyages to the Southeast Asian country.

It appeared in September 1898, Manila had been occupied less than a month after the U.S Navy under Admiral George Dewey arrived in the Philippines. In 1899-1902, the Philippine-American War broke out which took more lives of American soldiers than during the American-Spanish War in early 1898. On January 20, 1899, William McKinley, the last US President to have served the American Civil War, appointed the First Philippine Commission or the Schurman Commission with a five-person group led by Dr Jacob Schurman, President of Cornell University.

Dean Worcester’s maiden book about the Philippines became a best-seller, given the intense interest of the American public in their new colony. Because the book received a resounding success, it even reached the attention of then US President McKinley. The budding zoologist and accidental anthropologist, who was planning to enroll in a graduate course in Germany, was called to meet with the president, and later appointed him as a Commissioner to the first Philippine Commission.

With the new mission at hand, Dean Worcester returned to the Philippines, became a public official to the First Philippine Commission, and supervised compilation of the commission’s final report since 1899, mainly because of his vast knowledge printed in his significant book about the Philippines.

While working as a Commissioner for the Philippine Insular Government, he also published another groundbreaking book which described comparative view of tribes and cultures of the Negritos and the Malays that were supported again by texts and photographs. However, his book on The Philippine Islands and their People continuously garnered widespread critical acclaim which boosted the author’s career of fame, power, and fortune. The book was predicted to become the standard work on the Philippines, at that time.  

It was also deemed that Worcester shaped and influenced much of the way that Americans imagined their first colony in Asia. Using photography, he published his classic photographs in his books and was used to illustrate census of the Philippines. On the other hand, his medium of taking photos of places and activities of Filipinos, particularly naked indigenous peoples of the Philippines, has been adamantly questioned today by some scholars and intellectuals.

His photographic collections truly were contentious and troubling. He used many of his black and white photographs in public lectures and popular articles to support America’s colonialism in the Philippines and perpetuate the white man’s responsibilities to civilize the tribal peoples of the Philippines. It was also used for scientific records framed through controversial 19^th century racial classification and evolutionary paradigms. Nevertheless, his photographs provided an invaluable archive of the history of American colonialism, the colonial history of early anthropology, and of the late 19^th and early 20^th century Philippines. 

Subsequently by March 16, 1900, the Second Philippine Commission or the Taft Commission was formed, headed by Judge William Howard Taft who would later become the Secretary of War. The said commission was granted legislative and limited executive power to craft laws and overhaul the political system in the country. That same year, Commissioner Worcester was re-appointed to the Taft Commission.

It was in 1901 that his colorful political career as a public administrator flourished when he was appointed as Secretary of the Interior. Undoubtedly, Secretary Worcester shaped much the regime’s internal administration. His extraordinary relationship with the Philippines started since his early scientific voyages in the archipelago with his writings on the Philippines and its people. As part of his job, he had traveled extensively across islands of the archipelago particularly Mindoro and Palawan in 1910.

Dean Worcester remained a controversial American administrator during his tenure. His strong stances on “No to Philippine Independence” angered many Filipino patriots and anti-imperialists during his time for his ferocious paternalistic pledge to civilize the America’s brown colonial subjects.   

In 1913, he resigned from the Philippine Insular Government as Secretary of Interior, making him the longest serving administrator in the American colonial government. His powerful position formerly oversaw a number of government bureaus on agriculture, forestry, government laboratories, health, mining, weather, and the non-Christian tribes. More so, his fondness and interest to the latter bureau proved his advocacy to permeate American imperialism in the Philippines. 

However, he opted to become the Vice President of the Philippine American Company, a New York-based corporation that invested on plantations, mines, and other ventures. That same year, he also directed and produced a film entitled, Native Life in the Philippines, in collaboration with long-time staff camera operator and government photographer Charles Martin. It was believed that this film could have supported Worcester’s continuous and adamant political aims of ensuring that the Philippines should not be granted independence.

Hence, after leaving the American government service, however, he remained and retired in the Philippines until his death in 1924.

Other notable books authored by Worcester include the following: The Non-Christian Tribes of Northern Luzon (1906) A History of Asiatic Cholera in the Philippine Islands (1908), Sports Among the Wild Men of Northern Luzon (1911); Slavery and Peonage in the Philippine Islands (1913); One Year of the New Era (1914); and the two-volume book of The Philippines Past and Present, first printed in 1913 and reprinted in 1914.

Online sources:

http://www.avibushistoriae.com/Worcester,%20Dean%20Conant%20(1866-1924).htm

http://edicionesdigitales.info/biblioteca/rice.pdf

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Dean_C._Worcester

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bhlead/umich-bhl-86354?rgn=main;view=text

http://www.penn.museum/blog/collection/archival-practice/native-life-in-the-philippines-1913-or-another-missing-film-found-in-the-archives/

http://webapps.lsa.umich.edu/umma/exhibits/Worcester%202012/biography.html

The Streets of Istanbul, Turkey

    Photographs by CBCabalza. Copyright © 2013 by Chester B. Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.

     Photographs by CBCabalza. Copyright © 2013 by Chester B. Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.

Philippines in The Apprentice Asia

By Chester Cabalza

I am beginning to like this reality talent game show as it draws near its final episode this week. I never thought that my toddler kids would also find interest to the search for the best manager in Asia!  

This is not because a Filipino contestant Jonathan Yabut, an economics graduate from the University of the Philippines, made it to the Top 2. It’s just so happened that two of my bets including Singaporean litigator, Andrea Loh, settled in the coveted final two slots.

Host Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes even made the show spicier, making this Asian version dubbed as “the world’s toughest job interview,” something trendsetting.  His impressive and decisive comments and analyses every boardroom tensions in the show proved his strong presence and solomonic judgments to fire or hire aspiring young apprentices from China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines.

Diskarte and the Filipino contenders

In an interview by GMA News to Jonathan Yabut, a 27-year-old senior product manager in a pharmaceutical company, he credited his success in the stressful yet awesome reality show to his Filipino style of doing things – diskarte. It’s true that when he further elaborated this ambiguous concept there’s no exact translation of it. This is a uniquely Filipino attitude or philosophy to survive and solve any given situation or problem. 

In the show, Jonathan’s eloquent tongue in English language and uncompromising confidence in managing various challenges exuded his positive outlook and high intellect. Although, there are times in some episodes where his weaknesses apparently shown obvious, still he can refute intellectually his gaffes and stand up confident all throughout. 

Another Filipino apprentice is Celina Le Neindre, a food and beverage consultant and an alumna of Philippine School of Culinary Arts. Fired in week seven of the show after her team Apex lost to team Maverick. She turned out to be the weakest at that time when strategist Alexis Lothar Bauduin of China accused her of insincerity of handling people. However, this former model and a beauty and brain consultant is oozing with graceful self-assurance, she said in describing herself in one interview by Rappler.com.

Boardroom tensions

I like the boardroom tensions as it shakes and moves host, advisers, and apprentices to spark debates and switch on to Solomonic judgments. This is one reality show I’ve kept on following produced in Asia were everybody has to be critical and frank with one another. It is sometimes unusual for Asian contestants and viewers. Or perhaps it is needed as a required format in the reality show.

It can also become a boredom room since the host himself can literally slash and burn apprentices using his control freak remarks and power tripping bossy position to fire contestants (but that’s how the show works!)

I certainly deem that the boardroom is quite mysterious and heart-breaking for some because you do not know the thread of your fate in the show. This also happens to most of us working in the hierarchy of bureaucracy and corporate world where board members have to deliberate people and policies; and officials or employees are scared when one becomes an item in the deliberation.  

Surely, the boardroom is the heart of the show. It brings out the best and worst of the person or it will make or break apprentices based on their performances during various tasks. I like some episodes in which epic judgments are presided and decided. And as a viewer I sometimes tend to agree or disagree with Mr Fernandes!

In week one, I agree with the host that both teams Apex and Maverick lack any form of strategy to accomplish the task of selling fish at a wet market. This can be understood simply because it is the first episode of the show and apprentices usually were still in the ‘getting to know’ stage. All of them were boxed in understanding the dynamics of the show resulting in spying on the strengths and weaknesses of each other. Some stood up grandstanding of their leadership and managerial skills while others remained low-profile as a strategic move.

Jumping to episode six, there were high pressures in the hotel services. An apprentice micro-managed a fellow team member, there’s a few minor hiccups with slow check-ins, room service order done incorrectly, a diamond VIP member waited for almost an hour to check-in, and so on.

Apprentices underwent house-keeping and room service. Draining and tiring! One must have grace in pressure particularly when trooped by irate customers.

Episodes eight and nine were cheesy but fiery. Apprentices created a pitch and skit to produce a live commercial for a branded car. Winning Apex team produced a commercial with an unforgettable tagline, “You qualify. Beetle up.” While the other team thought of a cheesy and forgettable concept. Then, the ninth episode truly was intense particularly when Mr Fernandes and his trusted associates provided him some inputs to decide whom to fire. The apprentices had undergone their toughest job interviews. One of the strongest candidates, Alexis Lothar Bauduin was sacked out of his motivations and the host has had doubts on him whether the contestant from China who even spoke Mandarin Chinese would use the show as his stepping stone for greener pastures.

Who will be hired?

Although, I sometimes thought of myself wearing the shoes of a successful manager, however, as a professor of national security, there are concepts used in business and economics which it copied from the military, such as strategy. The words of the week every episode are informative and entertaining, especially on how to properly use managerial skills to risky and challenging situations.

The ninth pulsating episode leveled up the winning streaks of Mr Yabut and Ms Lao. In the tenth and last episode, who will be fired or hired? I bet for the Filipino apprentice! Keep up the good work! Go Team Philippines!

Congratulations to Jonathan Yabut of the Philippines! You made our country proud and keep on inspiring millions of young Asians as the first Asian apprentice!

Abolish Pork Barrel

By Chester B Cabalza

Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic (Copyright @ 2013 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).


President Benigno Aquino’s thrust of good governance is to tighten anti-corruption efforts in the Philippines. His moral advocacy rings a bell when he ran for office as president of Asia’s “sick man,” crippled by perennial corruption, with his famous slogan, “Kung walang kurap, walang mahirap” (if there’s no corrupt, there are no poor people). 

His Tuwid na Daan (straight path) policy is certainly making strides, although, a snail pace according to most impatient Filipinos. His pitch of a good governance equals good economy is slowly being realized when international rating agencies like Moodys, Fitch, and Standard & Poor have simultaneously upgraded the country’s investment status due to the Philippines’ impressive economic growth.

Today, the Philippines has improved a little in the corruption index from Transparency International. Furthermore, the going strong country has posted high GDP growth rates of 6.8 percent in 2012 and 7.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, making it the highest GDP growth rate in Asia, outpacing giant economies of China and Indonesia.  

No longer the “sick man” of Asia! But if we try to scrutinize Philippines’ economic history, the country has been riding on a roller coaster of economic boom and bust since post-war.

The issue now is how to sustain current economic momentum to be on top again and beyond. But how?

Simple. Corruption must be curbed and poverty must be eradicated. Corruption and poverty is a twin problem. It comes hand in hand, pulling down each other, even if one country has promising macroeconomic fundamentals.

Institutionalized corruption

According to World Bank (1997) and UNDP (1999), corruption is most commonly defined as the misuse or the abuse of public office for private gains. Economist Robert Klitgaard thinks that corruption can come in various forms and a wide array of illicit behavior, such as bribery, extortion, fraud, nepotism, graft, speed money, pilferage, theft, embezzlement, falsification of records, kickbacks, influence peddling, and campaign contributions.

In a study done by APEC in 2006, citing USAID and Anticorruption Strategy (2005), it argued that while corruption is commonly attributed to the public sector, it also exists in other aspects of governance, such as political parties, private business sector, and NGO.

Lastly, UNDP classifies corruption into two types: spontaneous and institutionalized or systemic. The second classification is referred to societies where corrupt behaviors are perennially extensive or pervasive. In these societies, corruption has become a way of life, a goal, and an outlook towards public office.

Although, spontaneous corruption must also be keenly studied since it looks at how societies observe strong ethics and morals in public service. Perhaps, this needs a separate scrutiny to further magnify Filipino ethics and morals on anti-corruption - if there’s such a thing.  

Certainly, with acceptable definitions provided by western organizations, the Philippines has been suffering a huge gap of systemic corruption. Corruption is a social cancer that hinders us to achieve greater inclusive growth and breeds poverty. This spell and bad luck should be cut and stopped!

Therefore, successful economic gains are gauged through economic measurements when every Juan or everybody, regardless of socio-economic class in the country, reap commonwealth resulting from robust GDP in the country.

Graft-tainted pork barrel

The Philippine congress has been castigated recently by the public when some senators and representatives, allegedly enriched themselves courtesy of ghost projects supposedly undertaken in the 10 billion pesos scam involving JLN Corp., a false NGO.

These greedy legislators allowed their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or in layman’s term “pork barrels” to undergo a “moro-moro” public bidding to finance their crooked projects. They choose and collude with contractor/s to get kickbacks, at least 30 percent of the project’s budget. Most of the times, projects and persons listed on the documents as beneficiaries are all fictitious. Corrupt legislators get as much as 60 percent of the pork allocation – dinadaya at pinagmumukhang tanga ang mga Pilipino! (Filipinos are deceived and are looked like stupid!).

The intent of the so-called pork barrels are supposedly clean pork and not botcha (double dead) to appropriate considerable government spending in a locality to the benefit of the legislator’s constituents. It is also intended to use government funds on local projects that are primarily used to bring more money to a specific representative’s district. In other words, the politician tries to benefit his constituents in order to maintain their support and vote.

Obviously, these pork barrels are forms of temptations in the orbit of institutionalized corruption that may possibly enrich and profit voracious politicians from government funds. Intriguingly running for office in the congress and senate can certainly be perceived as a business-making profession. Social service comes secondary based on the actual behaviors of many Filipino legislators. This only reaffirms Klitgaard’s enumeration of illicit behaviors that may result to wide systemic corruption in the country.

President Aquino and future Philippine presidents should not fatten pork barrels of politicians in the bicameral congress. If greedy legislators think that without pork barrels for their projects, their constituents will not reelect them. This is a fallacy! There are few senators who never collected their pork funds but they were reelected.

Abolish pork barrel

As a Filipino taxpayer, I am enraged by this perennial corrupt practice of our politicians. Filipinos for sure are also very angry. Politicians identified in the recent pork barrel scam were the forefront personalities who disrobed a corrupt and ousted chief justice. Where is ethics and morals of public service?

According to economist Solita Monsod, in the Philippines, while the big guns get the lion’s share of the pork, legislators don’t have to fight over it. The division is institutionalized: at least 70 million pesos worth of pork a year for a House legislator and 200 million pesos a year for a senator of the republic.

The culture of corruption continues if we maintain dolling out pork barrels to legislators. If we pull together this huge amount of government money from the pork barrel system, including of that from the president, it will definitely help us, in black and white, finance more productive and relevant projects for every Filipino.  Ideally, corruption will no longer be prevalent in the public sector.

With the upcoming state of the nation address (SONA) of president Aquino on July 22, Malacañang wants to curb systemic corruption by submitting policy recommendations to tighten up the rules on the disbursement of funds from the graft-tainted pork barrel.

If we really do want to achieve a developed status as a proud country, we must seriously fight corruption and alleviate the people from poverty. By doing so, we must scrap the pork barrel system. It’s true that when there’s no corrupt leaders, there are no poor people.  Good leadership by example. Economic power Singapore successfully did it despite its smallness as a city-state. Singapore is a living proof that there is hope for the Philippines to reform its bulok na sistema (crooked ways). Regardless of size of a country, integrity of leaders and moral ethics of people are more admirable. 

Bosphorous Cruise, Istanbul, Turkey

Photographs by CBCabalza. Copyright © 2013 by Chester B. Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.

        Photographs by CBCabalza. Copyright © 2013 by Chester B. Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.

Ibanag Language and Culture

Photo by IHFI. Gabi na Ibanag in Tugeugarao City

By Chester B Cabalza

Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic (Copyright @ 2013 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).

I am a native speaker of Ibanag! I am fluent and proficient of my first language!

The Ibanag (also known as Ybanag or Ibanak) language is the lingua franca of Cagayan Valley. It is spoken from Pamplona to Gattaran up to Tuguegarao city in Cagayan. In the province of Isabela, it is widely spoken in Cabagan, Tumauini city, Ilagan, Gamu, Echague and Santiago city.

It is believed that the Ibanagic language has had to splitter into Itawes, Gaddang, Yogad, and Iraya languages. According to noted Ibanag and Atenean scholar Vicente Valdapeñas Jr, in his book on Ateneo de Tuguegarao, he originally cited the chronicles of Dominican friar Pedro V. Salgado, writing that the Spaniards crossed to their minds that having a common language would help the conquistadores in their governance. So, they adopted and enforced the use of Ibanag as the official language for the rest of the Cagayan Valley (2008:18).

Since it was officially used as the lingua franca in Cagayan Valley, it became the language for trade in the area. As a dominant language, published Christiana Doctrina written in Ibanag was also disseminated across the region during the Spanish period. 

As to the stature of the Ibanags, documents provide that they belong to the lowland Christian groups according to the Ethnological Survey of the Philippines Office and the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) during the American period, and in today’s National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP).   

Online facts about the Ibanag recount that the Ibanags originated in the region around the mouth of the mighty Cagayan River and gradually dispersed southward within the last 200 years influencing some other languages in the region.

According to anthropologist Michael Tan, in his column dated February 28, 2012 that based from Ethnologue, a database of languages throughout the world, there are 500,000 speakers of Ibanag. It is not a small number although the figure dates back to 1990. However, there might be a decreased number of Ibanag speakers now.

The Ibanag language is distinct in that it features phonemes and double consonants which are not present in many other languages in the country.

In the speech delivered by Vice President Jejomar Binay in May 2012 during the launching of the Ibanag Heritage Foundation Incorporated (IHFI), sitting as the founding Chairman and being a proud Ibanag himself, he affectionately said that, the Ibanag language is using all the complete letters in the adopted Roman alphabets in Filipino since Ibanag words have embedded y / f / v / z / j / in its phonemes. VP Binay has Ibanag roots and speaks the language fluently. His mother, the late Lourdes Gatan Cabauatan, was a native of Cabagan in Isabela.

Mother-Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education

The Department of Education (DepEd) used 12 major languages when it introduced the Mother-Tongue-Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-MLE) program last school year. Tagalog, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Iloko, Bikol, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Tausug, Maguindanaoan, Maranao and Chabacano were the first batch.  

The seven new mother tongues included in the program are Ibanag, Ivatan, Sambal, Akianon and Kinaray-a, Yakan, and Surigaonon. These Philippine languages are currently used or will be used as a medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3.

Since Ibanag language has now been successfully included in the second batch of the vernacular languages to be used in public schools under the K to 12 reform program of the DepEd, it is expected that Ibanag native speakers will increase in the future.

This is after VP Binay wrote Education secretary Bro Armin Luistro in March 2012 and recommended the inclusion of Ibanag in the MTB-MLE program. Thus, he marked in his recent speech on May 31, 2013 during the second Gabi na Ibanag gathering held at Tuguegarao city, which was delivered by his articulate emissary that, “the official inclusion of Ibanag in the MTB-MLE program of DepEd is a major milestone in our efforts to preserve the Ibanag language and culture by increasing the number of native speakers. It also serves as a springboard of the government’s advocacy to empower every Filipino youth with quality education, including those who belong to indigenous groups.”

I remember last February 9, 2012 when a new set of Board of Trustees of the IHFI, including myself was convened, and being the Chair of Research of the said foundation, we did a cultural heritage workshop in the National Defense College of the Philippines to identify valuable projects and activities related to the preservation and promotion of the Ibanag language and culture. Evidently, proposal to revive the Ibanag language has topped all our insights during series of brainstorming and workshop sessions.

Starting July to September 2012, officers of IHFI spearheaded by Commodore Artemio Arugay and Ms Milaflor Gonzalez, through the guidance of Chairman Binay, has solicited help from the expertise of DepEd senior officials in Region 2, Ibanag orthographers, and grade school teachers in Cagayan and Isabela. 

VP Binay has expressed optimism that an official Ibanag Orthography will soon be approved as stakeholders from Cagayan and Isabela met in Tuguegarao City last summer to validate the draft orthography produced in an earlier workshop held last July.

To fully appreciate the efforts of all the stakeholders in this great project, Chairman Binay wrote in his May 2013 speech that, “we are grateful for the DepEd’s approval of the official orthography of the Ibanag language. The orthography is a result of a painstaking study done by our research team that began last year. The Ibanag orthography would also not have been possible without the support of our partners: the Region 02 offices of DepEd represented by Asst. Regional Director Corazon Barrientos, Department of Tourism headed by Regional Director Bless Diwa, and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources led by Regional Director Dr. Jovita Ayson; Schools Divisions of Cagayan and Isabela; the City Government of Tuguegarao under Mayor Delfin Ting, Congressman Randy Ting, various local government units of Cagayan and Isabela, the Ateneo de Tuguegarao Alumni Association headed by Victor Valdepenas, Ibanag Lawyers Group led by Atty. Marian Ivy Reyes-Fajardo, Mawwaragi Nat Tuguegarao, and the Cagayan State University."

This joyous affair was celebrated after the enthusiastic response of key officials of DepEd led by Secretary Luistro who has been instrumental in the completion of the conceptualization and pilot implementation of our MTB-MLE. 

More so, from the report of Dona Z Pazzibugan in PDI dated July 7, 2013, she wrote that based on a DepED order, the mother tongue or vernacular in the region, should be taught as a subject from Grades 1 to 3 and used as a medium of instruction from kindergarten to the first three years of grade school. In Grade 1, subjects in the native language include Math, Araling Panlipunan (AP), Music, Arts, Physical Education and Health (Mapeh) and Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (Values Education).

There are 181 documented languages in the Philippines; four have become extinct, while 24 others are either dying or in trouble of going extinct, according to the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Can we still afford to lose any language in our country? 

Ibanag language and culture

In Binay’s May 2012 speech, he totally deems that, “culture and history can never be discounted in the act of nation-building and the forging of national unity. History is the continuing narrative of a nation that extends into the future, and culture is a nation’s soul. Everything that we are and aspire to be comes from our national soul. For we are a people rich in heritage, gifted in the arts, and blessed in His bounty."

I only realized the beauty of my language and culture when I entered for college in UP Diliman and began studying anthropology. Perhaps I was not totally conscious about my uniqueness, or had not experienced any marginalization as an Ibanag. As I get immersed in my own culture, by joining my defunct provincial organization in the university - UP Kapinan, and later as a practicing anthropologist, and now as a professor of anthropology, I realized how much I should treasure forms of my tangible and intangible culture. 

Certainly, the Ibanags have beautiful language and culture, sumptuous food and delicacies, rich literature and songs which must be shared with fellow Ibanags not only in Region 2 or in Manila but also to Ibanag immigrants all over the world.

Successful and wealthy Ibanags are now spread worldwide and are willing to share their stories. Many illustrious Ibanags in various fields are very much proud of their Ibanag heritage. Without much ado, I can name prominent personalities that have Ibanag lineage including Vice President Jejomar Binay; Kontra-Gapi founder retired UP professor Edru Abraham; top singer Freddie Aguilar; artista Derek Ramsey, Coney Reyes, Michael V, and Maja Salvador; basketball players Jerry Codiñera and Rommel Adducul; senators Bong Revilla and Juan Ponce Enrile; and more.