CORDILLERA BEGGARS?

CORDILLERA BEGGARS?

Erle Frayne Argonza y Delago

O! Beloved people of Cordillera!

Please lend me true reasons

For the fact that some members

Of your proud majestic land

Now belong to beggars’ armies

In the Manila Metropolis?

I know too well that your grand mountains

Are abodes of immense wealth and lores

Of a sturdy people that has never

Been conquered nor has starved

Not the strong and tireless highlander

Who never disdains sweaty labor

And sublime service even as bountiful harvests

Are perpetually reaped for family and clan

And offered at the altar of Bathala.

Is it the handiwork of Plunder

Now magnified by the clockwork of War?

If twere so can you be extricated

From Plunderers’ predatory claws?

O! Please answer my query for you too

Are to me a noble teacher of life.

[Writ. 05 June 1988, Proj. 8, Quezon City, M.Manila]