Benguet is a state of mind, several times removed from the national mainstream. Despite the joys and afflictions brought on by the outside world and the tragedies of being part of, well, the bigger Philippine tragicomedy, its people have lived according to their terms, coping with the intrusions but keeping their definitive, uhmm, X-factor intact.

As for the general picture (and you'll need copious coffee to read thru this ...)

It is home to me and my family and to about half a million other people (1995 pop. 313,833), not counting the inhabitants of Baguio City, locked inside Benguet territory. Here too is Mt. Pulag, the second highest peak of the Philippines (rising up to 2,792 meters, next to Mt. Apo in Mindanao), and several of the oldest copper and gold mines in Southeast Asia (Benguet Corporation, Philex Mines, Lepanto Consolidated, to name the industry leaders). Benguet's waterways, through the hydroelectric dams of Binga (built 1960) and Ambuklao (1956), have been providing power to the Luzon Grid for decades.

Benguet's land area of 261,648 hectares covers 13 municipalities: Atok, Bakun, Bokod, Buguias, Itogon, Kabayan, Kapangan, Kibungan, Mankayan, Sablan, Tuba, Tublay and the capital town of La Trinidad. Bordering it are the provinces of Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province in the north, La Union in the east, Ifugao in the west, Nueva Vizcaya in the southwest, and Pangasinan in the south.

Vegetable farming ranks first as the staple livelihood of most families. Nowhere in the Cordilleras is agriculture as widespread. The highland soil and climate grows the crispiest crops and greens this side of the Philippines, reaching thousands of kitchens in the lowlands, including the most discriminating gourmet tables in Metro Manila.

Not surprisingly, Benguet scores higher in terms of annual economic growth and financial resources than the other Cordillera provinces. This can lead to the wrong impression that Benguet is rife with development. One cannot help observing that for all the valuable resources it has expended for the country, in return it has gotten disproportionately little. Crumbs, in fact.

There are two major ethnolinguistic groups: Kankanaey and Ibaloi. A smaller grouping, the Kalanguya, shares elements of the two. How Kankanaeys and Ibalois continue to foster centuries of relative peace is a model case in tribal relations. No two highland tribes could be more understanding of each other's character and temperament. And some would add no two tribes know each other very well enough to stay clear of one another's nerves.

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