Bodong:
Cordillera Tribes’ Best Hope for Tribal Rifts
Peace-pact holders say
people seek the help of the bodong because they find it hard to
obtain justice elsewhere.
By LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
BAGUIO CITY— Tribal communities rarely
go to court for conflict resolution, a Kalinga bodong (peace pact)
holder told Nordis in a recent interview, reacting to a 1999
general pagta (agreements) initiated by some professionals from
Kalinga.
According to Markus Bangit, a Malbong
tribe leader and peace pact holder for Dangtalan, people either go to
courts or ask the help of bodong holders to settle a conflict in
the binodngan areas. But more often than not, he said, poor
peasants resort to the bodong for relief.
“Iti ili, nu inareglon ti bodong,
nawaswasen ti amin a basol (Back in the village,
when the bodong settles the conflict, everything is forgiven),”
Bangit clarifies. “Ken nu nagdesisyonda nga ikamang iti korte, idiayen
a madesisyonan. Nu kunada nga ikamangda iti bodong, awanen ti mapan iti
korte (Once people decide to go to court, they do not seek the
bodong or vice versa),” he adds.
On the opinion that the whole tribe
shoulders the costs demanded from the offender, Bangit says that as
practiced in Kalinga, the cost of settling tribal conflict is borne by the
perpetrator. In cases where the offender could not afford such, he is
given a chance to find ways to put up the amount and his or her clan, not
the whole tribe, will help him raise funds to come up with the complete
amount. Bangit says a bigger portion of the cost of settlement should
come from the offending individual.
Flawed justice system
Bangit encouraged the role of
peacemakers in modern times.
“Ti bales ket ugali idi primitibo a
panawen. Ngem itatta nga adda ti korte, tiliwen koma ti pulis dagiti
nagbasol. Anya ngay koma ti akem dagiti platoon-sized police forces nu
haan nga ti agpatalinaed ti kapya ken talna? (Vengeance
was practiced in the primitive times. Now that there are courts, police
forces should apprehend the offender. What is the responsibility of
platoon-sized police forces if not to maintain harmony and peace?),”
Bangit asks.
He is quite uncomfortable with the
agreement that the bodong holders must stand as witnesses against
the offender. “Kasano ka nga ag-witness ngay no awan ti nakitam?”
(How could one be a witness when he did not see anything?)
It is acceptable in the tribal
communities for the bodong holders to conduct an independent
investigation and decide on the basis of that investigation, Bangit
clarifies. Courts, however, can dismiss his testimony as hearsay, even if
it was based on his tribe’s investigation.
Aside from the limitations of the
Philippine justice system, Bangit sees the danger in standing as a witness
against his tribesmen because, he says, it invites clan war within the
tribe. Clan war is more dangerous and divisive, Bangit says.
Uniting tribal members
The bilateral bodong in the
cities are fine, Bangit says, but the rules of the pagta,
particularly those in the Lubuagan-Guinaang bodong which were
adopted from the general pagta in 1999, are not easy to achieve.
He says it requires the approval of all tribal members who are encouraged
to sign the pagta. He says the role of the peace pact holder to
unify all the tribal members is quite crucial. It is also their
responsibility to have the bodong recognized by the tribes in the
ili or else, it will be futile.
Bangit also says that if the problem
happened in the ili and the bodong has resolved the conflict
there, a bodong in the city becomes academic. He said, the
bodong in the ili is decisive in the settlement of tribal war.
The agreement of the immigrant tribes in the city will prevent the
spillage of tribal war outside the province in cases where conflicts have
not been resolved.
Justice at one’s doorstep
Bangit says people seek the help of
the bodong because they find it hard to obtain justice elsewhere.
“Iti agdama, bodong pay laeng ti
epektibo a mangmintina iti relasyon iti nagbabaetan dagiti tribu. Umuna,
awan ti kabaelan dagiti mannalon para iti kaso
(At present, bodong is the most effective means to maintain the
relationships among tribes. Foremost, peasants have no means to finance
the case),” Bangit points out. He says the filing fees in court and the
acceptance fees that lawyers impose on the litigants are prohibitive that
poor peasants prefer the tribal leaders.
A convenor of the Metro-Baguio Tribal
Elders’/Leaders’ Council (MBTEC), Bangit also heads the Elders’ Desk of
the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance (CPA). MBTEC is composed of 60 elders
and leaders representing 22 tribes in Abra, Kalinga and Mt. Province.
Like the Kalinga Bodong Convenors’ Group, MBTEC advocates that Metro-Baguio
be spared from tribal wars. It is presently pursuing its anti-tribal war
campaign.
“Saanen a nainkalintegan ti tribal
war itatta a tiyempo. Ti bodong ket masapol a pagbalinen a progresibo
tapno agserbi iti interes ti amin a binodngan, (Tribal
wars are not justified these days. Bodong should be transformed
into progressive agreements for it to serve the people in the tribal
communities),” Bangit says.
He says people should appreciate the
initiatives of both the Lubuagan and the Guinaang tribes to prevent
further bloodshed in the cities brought about by the death of a tribal
youth leader in Kalinga. But this city-based initiative cannot decide on
the conflict that started in Kalinga, Bangit said.
Multilateral agreements
Bangit encourages tribe members who
have migrated to the cities to forge further unity not only through
bilateral peace-pacts but also through multilateral peace agreements to
face their common issues. In the cities where there are no territories
to speak of, Bangit says, there are common issues that people could talk
about.
“Addanto ti panawen a maawanto ti
pateg ti bodong (Time will come when the
bodong will lose its importance).” People have to understand that when
a thing is no longer useful, it is forgotten, Bangit says. However, he
adds that a higher level of social consciousness and a tighter unity may
be forged among several tribes.
He urges tribal people to forge
multilateral agreements and fight against common enemies of the poor
peasants in the provinces. Poor peasants are victims of tribal conflict
in the provinces and of fake land reform laws, the encroachment of big
mining corporations and human rights violations. Bangit says a
multilateral bodong might come up with a common unity to solve
these problems and advance the interests of the people.
Nordis/Bulatlat
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