INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S
WATCH
Kalingas Forge Peace the Bodong Way
How are the rules of bodong
(traditional peace pact) and state laws used to settle conflicts between
two tribes? This question elicited a thousand and one responses from
Kalinga tribes who, in an assembly here last week, moved for the holding
of a bodong congress soon.
By
Lyn V. Ramo and Marlon Gomarcho
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
BAGUIO CITY -
How are the
rules of bodong (traditional peace pact) and state laws used to
settle conflicts between two tribes? This question elicited a thousand and
one responses from Kalinga tribes who, in an assembly here last week,
moved for the holding of a bodong congress soon.
Kalinga
officials who were at the conference agreed that the talks be held, said
lawyer Elorde Lingayo, chair of the Kalinga Bodong Convenors’ Group (KBCG).
KBCG has been spearheading attempts at conflict resolution between Kalinga
tribes.
Lingayo bats
for popularizing the general Pagta (tribal agreement) held on Oct.
1, 1999 at the Benguet State University (BSU) campus. The agreement has
been adopted by some Kalinga city-based binodngan and
members of the bodong-practicing villages in Kalinga, northern
province of the Cordillera mountain ranges in northern Philippines.
The general
pagta, according to Lingayo, covers Baguio and the province of Benguet.
Foremost, he said, the general pagta prohibits bales (revenge)
to settle conflicts. The bales culture has spilled much blood among
tribal groups for centuries.
In the 1999
pagta, if a tribal villager commits a mistake, i.e., has killed or
hurt a member of another tribe, a criminal case must be filed against the
offender. The bodong holder from the offender’s tribe should
testify in court. If the offender flees, the bodong holder brings
him back to Baguio or Benguet.
Criminal
case
Elders from
both tribes may settle the conflict the bodong way, clarifies
Lingayo, but the criminal case will take its course. The offended party is
prohibited from executing an affidavit of desistance.
Kalinga lawyers
are not supposed to assist in the legal proceedings, as agreed upon in the
general pagta.
“This is where
the modification lies,” says Lingayo. He explained that in the original
pagta, if someone commits a crime within the binodngan
areas, the offending person does not suffer alone. The tribe usually
produces whatever the offended tribe demands.
“If 10 carabaos
are asked to settle the offense, only one carabao may come from the
perpetrator of the crime,” he says. “It is the responsibility of the whole
tribe to solicit (the settlement payment).”
In the old
ways, Lingayo said, the “criminal will never reform because he will have
no criminal record in courts.” After the tribal settlement, criminals may
hold government positions and may even enter the Philippine Military
Academy or be a police officer, he said.
There have been
other attempts at settling tribal conflicts. For instance last January,
the Lubuagan and Guinaang tribes forged a bodong in Baguio covering
this city and Benguet.
Mario Gawon,
peace pact holder for the Lubuagan tribe, explains that the
Lubuagan-Guinaang conflict is not as grave as those in other binodngan
areas where revenge is still allowed.
“Saan a
kaskarina nga innibusan ti tribo. Ngem kasapulan latta ti ag-precaution”
(It’s not at all easy to simply kill members of the other tribe. Still, we
have to take caution), Gawon clarifies.
The Guinaang
triba was represented by Benny Lingbawan.
Gawon said, a
criminal case had to be filed in the courts while the tribes settled the
case.
Legal
problems
The Lubuagan
peace pact holder admits however that there are legal intricacies in
merging bodong rules with state laws.
“We have to
live in the present,” Gawon says. “Saan a kasla idi a bassit pay ti
tattao ken awan pay ti cell phones” (Unlike before when people were
few and there were no cellular phones).
It is not
always easy to forge a bodong, Gawon admits, as it requires a lot
of preparations and involves many people who have a say in the holding of
a celebration of the bodong.
There are, for
instance, the allasiw (tokens). If a member of the tribe disagrees
with the terms of the bodong, the allasiw is returned which
is a signal of the collapse of the agreement. Tribes, however, try to
convince all members on the rules or terms of the bodong.
A bodong
is based on consensus. “Masapol ket amin ag-wen” (Everyone has to
approve), Gawon clarifies. Consensus makes the peace pact solid, he adds.
If one member of a tribe offends a member of the other tribe with whom his
tribe has an agreement, the bodong could not just collapse. Tribal
elders and leaders find ways to talk it out and save the bodong.
In case the
bodong collapses, however, an emissary from a neutral party, usually a
member of a third tribe, or a mestizo from the warring tribes, is sent to
the other tribe to inform them that the bodong has collapsed.
Gawon
emphasized that tribal communities and binodngan areas are
generally peaceful. It has been like this since I was young, he says,
correcting fears that going to Kalinga or any tribal area involves risks.
“One has
to really understand how the bodong works to appreciate it. Only
then can one compare state laws as combined with the bodong way to
settle differences among tribal peoples,” Gawon says. Nordis /
Bulatlat
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