Ibanag indigenous religious beliefs: a study in culture and education / Marino Gatan.

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His Language
Ibanag is the lingua franca of the Cagayan Valley. It is claimed that
Ibanag is the mother dialect of Itawes, Gaddang, Yogad, Iraya. All are
spoken in various parts of tle Valley. Ibanag is purely spoken from
Pamplona to Gattaran in Cagayan, it is also spoken in Tuguegarao. In
Isabela, it is spoken in Cabagan, Tumauini, Ilagan, Gamu, and Echague.
The emergence of Ibanag as the lingua franca of the Valley was intentional rather than spontaneous. For the convenience of the Spanish missionaries, Ibanag was forced on the other groups to facilitate their missionary efforts.2 The friars thought that by having one official medium
of communication the preaching of the gospel and even civil administration could be made easier. Those who did not accept the gospel or the
Ibanag tongue or refuse to pay tribute fled to the mountains. Generally,
therefore, those who stayed in the lowlands were Christianized and those
who fled to the mountains were dubbed enemies of the gospel or civilization itself and were known in Casibarag as kalinga (enemy)J. Those were
either called remontados who fled back to the mountain, or vagos people
who could not give up their nomadic life, or the nomads.
Today, out of 648,123 inhabitants of Isabela, only 104,196 claim
Ibanag as their mother tongue.4 The rest speak Ilocano (459,708),
Tagalog (36,616), Yogad (12,307), Gaddang (7,603), Ifawes (4,567). We
can add here that the Yogads, the Gaddangs, and the Itawes also speak
Ibanag, although not in their homes.
Religion
Because of this historical background, authorities in Ibanag, like
Msgr. Domingo P. Mallo, claim that Ibanags are predominantly
Catholic. If there are any exceptions, they are too insignificant to merit
attention. There is a tendency to hand down their religion to -their
children as a matter of course rather than a matter of conviction. " Yawy
neyanakammi. We are born in this religion." In fact; to turn away
from this "inherited' religion is deemed disastrous. It is a belief in the
2Fr. Julian Malumbres, O.P., Historia de Cagayan (Manila: Universidad de Sto.
Tomas, 1910), p. 14. It was decreed in 1607 by the Provincial Chapter of the Dominicans
who were incharge of the evangelization of the Valley that Ibanag should be taught to the
rest of the natives in the Valley and that they would be governed with Ibanag as official
medium. The decree follows in Latin: "Praecipientes ut omni studio et diligentia dent
operam, ut linguam de Ibanag loquantur Yndi omnes, et in illa dictis indis ministrare studeant."
3Kalinga - pronounced ka-li-nga simply means in Ibanag enemy. It does not refer at all to
the ethnic group called Kalinga (pronounced Ka-lin-ga).
4National Census and Statistics Office, 1970 Census of Population and Housing,
Philippines, p. 370.

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