Bodong: Cordillera Tribes Best Hope for Tribal Rifts

Peace-pact holders say people seek the help of the bodongbecause 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 tribes 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 bodongrecognized 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 ones 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