Lantiguî" - Test Our Courage

by ELAC 

"Lantiguî" - Subukan mo Ang Tapang Ko!

On November 12, ELAC visited an indigenous community in Rizal, Palawan. We were welcomed by a group of people already in high spirits, already decided there was a fight to be won. When night fell, we sat around the table after dinner and the village leader told us the story of "Lantiguî."

It was a story of when his ancestor climbed Mt. Bulanao. He climbed tirelessly through the dense forest to the top of the mountain where, all of a sudden, he was greeted by a faint voice. His ancestor felt as though it was a whisper that shook the entire mountain. But the voice did not speak to him. It spoke to another being, unseen and eternal. A woman's voice replied with a song, and with music more powerful than divine, the two mountain spirits courted each other. In the decades that followed, Lantiguî in Palaw'an had come to mean "subukan mo ang tapang ko," alluding to the gods' unyielding, almost defiant, promise of love.

It is now with this arduous tale that the village's youth identified their struggle. They call themselves Lantiguî. They work and organize everyday, as faithful as the sun rises, to protect the world that they inherited from their ancestors. And to those who dare threaten to destroy the mountain they call home, they say to them: "Test our courage!"