BENGUET, PHILIPPINES

Benguet is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is La Trinidad and borders, clockwise from the south, Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Mountain Province, Ifugao, and Nueva Vizcaya.

Baguio City, a popular tourist destination in the country, is located in the interior of the province, however, the city is independent of the province.

The mountainous area, now covered by Benguet is home to residents which are known as the Igorots. Two of these, the Ibaloi and the Kankanaey, are dominant ethnolinguistic groups of the area. Many of these tribes are believed by Filipino anthropologists to be of Malay descent. Before the arrival of the Spanish colonizers, these tribes had a flourishing trade with the lowlanders such as the Ilocanos and the Pangasinenses.