BONTOC, Mt. Province—A group of Cordillera residents has denounced the insinuation that Igorots obtained their facial features from foreigners who had settled in the area as missionaries.
This came about as Jeyrick Sigmaton, from Barlig town, became famous on social media being dubbed as “carrot man.”
Interviewed by a television program which featured Sigmaton last week, historian Jimmuel Naval said the features of the boy could be due to the intermarriage between Caucasian missionaries/colonialists with Cordilleran people, resulting in the “improvement of the race.”
“At this very moment, it is highly likely that we are not alone in writing about this blunder. We are more than willing to join the fray. ‘Improvement of the race’ is just so wrong in so many levels,” read a statement from the Habi Collective posted online.
A regional journalist castigated the television anchor for “the poorly researched story that has deeper repercussions with the Igorots.”
Another netizen referred to the claim as downright discriminatory to the Igorots, pointing out that Igorots were not an inferior race before the coming of the missionaries.
Other commenters called Naval’s statement shocking and suggested he go back to school to study Igorot ancestry.
Other comments allege poor research on the part of the producers of the show, as they point out that it could have transcended the physical attributes of Sigmaton and delved instead on the number of out-of-school youth in the region.
Challenges faced by the agriculture sector in the Cordilleras in the wake of the Asean integration should have also been mentioned.