In September 2009, residents of Barangay Tadiangan in Tuba, Benguet undertook a nine-day human barricade of the Irisan dumpsite and padlocked the entrance to protest the continued dumping of Baguio City's trash, fearing that the garbage will be washed downhill to their residences. The city was festered with uncollected trash for weeks.

In 2004, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed a Second International Decade of the world's Indigenous Peoples and August 9 every year is the International Day. The First International Decade that lasted 1994-2004 intended to strengthen international cooperation to solve problems faced by Indigenous Peoples in such areas as human rights, the environment, development, education and health.