Mount Data

Also known as: Mount Data National Park (protected-area usage)

Definition

Mount Data (about 2,310 meters) is a high mountain at the boundary of Benguet and Mountain Province in the Cordillera Central of northern Luzon, Philippines, protected within Mount Data National Park. Historically the crossroads of the mountain provinces, its mossy cloud forests shelter endemic flora, and its plateau is remembered as the site of the 1986 Mount Data Peace Accord between the government and the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army.

Identities (Wikipedia/Wikidata/DBpedia)

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Data
Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1172186
DBpedia: https://dbpedia.org/resource/Mount_Data

Also Known As

Mount Data National Park (protected-area usage)

Examples and Analogies

If Mount Pulag is the Cordillera’s rooftop for climbers, Mount Data is its dinner table: a broad, fog-fed plateau where highways meet, much like a highland pasture hub in the Alps, with dwarf forest and pitcher plants replacing Pulag’s summit bamboo.

Usage Scenarios

Travelers stop at the historic Mount Data Hotel in Bauko on the Halsema route; birdwatchers and botanists survey its mossy forest for Cordillera endemics; and commemorations of the 1986 peace accord are staged at the site each September.

Strategies

Tour planners use Mount Data as the halfway lodging between Baguio and Sagada or Bontoc, pairing early-morning forest walks with the park’s trails; researchers coordinate with the protected-area office for sampling inside the national park boundaries.

Security and Safety Measures

The park protects a fragile cloud-forest watershed, so camping and plant collection are regulated; the cold, wet plateau demands thermal gear year-round, and the winding Halsema Highway segments require daylight driving and vehicle checks.

Historical Context

Mount Data National Park was proclaimed in 1936 among the country’s earliest parks; on September 13, 1986, President Corazon Aquino and CPLA leader Conrado Balweg signed the Mount Data Peace Accord, the “sipat” exchanging peace tokens that began the process leading to the Cordillera Administrative Region’s creation.

Challenges and Controversies

Encroachment of vegetable farms into the mossy forest, illegal timber poaching, and the aging hotel infrastructure have drawn periodic rehabilitation programs, while diverging recollections of the 1986 accord’s implementation keep the site central in Cordillera autonomy discussions.

References

Mount Data