Notes from the North

by Estanislao Albano, Jr.

To be frank about it, Kalingas particularly those coming from the warlike tribes are not exactly the darling of fellow Cordillerans and neighbors. Just like I said here when the Bontoc, Mt. Province folks contemplated to ban all Kalingas from boarding houses there as a reaction to the recalcitrance of the Basao people to surrender the killers of a Bontoc-Sagada mestizo in September of last year, if they did that, they would not be the first because boarding house owners in Baguio City and Tuguegarao City have been doing it already for sometime. 

            In my desire to find out more as to why Kalingas from the warlike tribes rub other people the wrong way, I sought out Bansen Bangibang who I featured in this column for his wit and his exploits in the field of cooperativism sometime back. I told myself that he could help because at one time, I heard an immigrant lady say “No koma no amin a Kalinga ket kasla ken Bansen, awan ti problema.” Considering that the lady who was then in danger of missing the bus had vowed she would rather remain single than marry a native Kalinga, I told myself that that indeed is high praise and he will know what the other Kalingas are doing which he is not.  

            So last Saturday afternoon at the Emilia’s Kitchenette in Bulanao, I listened to Bansen who is a member of the Taloktok tribe which is not exactly a one of those Kalinga tribes which I label civilized, talk about what he thinks is wrong with the Kalinga character. His first comment was as follows: “Because they are natives of the place, they are arrogant and treat immigrants as though they are below them. Although this might be a natural feeling for natives relative to immigrants in all places, it should not be applied to the disadvantage of the  other person.”   I did not as him to elaborate but I surmise that he must be referring to the tendency of some Kalingas to impose their will on immigrants and civilized fellow Kalingas.

            Bansen also hit Kalinga tribal leaders (papangats) for practicing double standard down to a man. He said that they are all justice and fairness when it is other people involved but when the issue touches their relatives, they change their tune. He continued that even if the young men of their tribes do evil things, they exert no effort to correct them because they would have no one to turn to in the event that the tribe gets into a violent conflict with other tribes. According to Bansen, their policy is to refrain from antagonizing tribe members with violent and criminal streak because they are useful in case of war.

            According to Bansen, one reason the practice of tribal war is not going away is that people who marry into the warlike tribes whom he refers to as “royal blood” and “kawitan” do not try to influence them to change for the better but instead feel proud and capitalize on the connection.

            I was not satisfied though with his answer when I asked if he ever tried to dissuade his tribe from going to war. He said it would be no use because his tribe would not listen as he comes from a poor family with no “ngadan” or name in Taloktok tribal society. He explained that it is the members of the old established families of the tribe who have a say in times of crisis in the tribe. My thinking is that he does not need to be heeded but only to speak up against the tendency of the tribe to resort to violence just in case other members would listen.

            He redeemed himself partly though when he said that his way of showing that he is against the practice of tribal war is that he is one of the few Kalingas who never bought a gun. According to him, he has been despised  as a “bakla”, “takrot” or “can’t afford” for refusing to arm himself. “I do not want to participate in the war efforts of the tribe. I do not want my movements to be curtailed during a war. I do not want to hide. I do have some wayward nephews and in Kalinga, avengers go for the prominent members of the family,  but I am still alive.” He will turn 60 this year. He attributes his salvation from violence to God and his marriage to a member of the Biga tribe so that when it’s the Bigas who are involved in a conflict, the enemy would not touch him because he is a Taloktok and when it’s the Bigas who are involved, the enemies would say he is married to the Biga tribe.

            Aside from not buying his own gun, he never contributes resources to the war efforts of the tribe. “But I help in the restoration of peace. They will curse you if you do not lift a finger. In fact, I pay more because I have work.” It’s hard to associate selfishness with a person imbued with altruism like Bansen but in contributing to the peace effort, he is also protecting his skin because among Kalingas, there is an order of battle determined by one’s prominence in the community.

            Regarding the troubles of Kalinga youth of looking for boarding houses in the cities, he believes that other people want to give Kalingas a dose of their own medicine of vindictiveness. He adds that the other people may not also want to have anything to do with the bad practices of Kalingas. 

by Estanislao Albano

In compliance with a previous agreement, one dusk I went to see an old acquaintance at the Tabuk Public Market to hear his story on certain encounters with some bodong-practicing people. Jay Cabuyadao who just like me resides in Casigayan, Tabuk, but tends to a store at the market had told me earlier that he wanted the story published for people to ponder upon.

Jay began by expressing his appreciation of the Kalinga system of redressing grievances and settling conflicts but that it should also treat immigrants who were born in Kalinga and have been living under the system all their lives in the same way it does the natives. “What is good for them should also be good for us. There should be no discrimination. They should also respect their provincemates regardless of their ethnic background. The traffic should be two-way There should be a provision in the bodong recognizing immigrants who were born here and are complying with it. We belong to the same place and therefore should walk hand in hand,” he said.

Jay then cited two instances when their family willingly complied with the bodong way of doing things. Some four years ago, the passenger jeep of an aunt which just stopped for a passenger to get off accidentally bumped a native Kalinga in downtown Tabuk who suddenly crossed the street. The victim who was drunk fell on the ground but sustained no injuries. The family of the victim asked chicken for the songa, a ritual intended to give an injured person swift recovery done at the expense of the person who caused the injury the performance of which means the party of the victim is ready to forgive the offender. Jay said that on top of the chicken, they also gave a regular-sized pig “tapno awan makunkunada.” (So that they will not say anything.)

Two years ago, the same jeep figured in a mishap where the passengers belonging to different Kalinga tribes suffered very slight injuries. They were all brought to the hospital. Hearing this, some friends of the owner suggested that to ease the feelings of the tribes of the victims against them, they should send each of the passengers a chicken for the tingiting,  ritual to make the victims of an accident regain his normal spiritual bearing.  The family complied. When the tribes of the victims asked for animals for the songa, the family likewise agreed. Jay related that just to make certain that the accident did not inflict any serious internal injury on the victims, the family also footed the bill for CT scan which was done sans the recommendation of the attending physicians. Finally, two of the victims, one a teacher and the other a police applicant, also demanded for amounts to compensate them for the days they lost due to the accident and to defray the fare of relatives who visited them at the hospital. Jay said that all in all, the family spent P160,000.00 on account of the accident.

Jay related that last December 9, the shoe was on the other foot. While his wife Nelda and his grandmother were walking home on the street, a motorcycle with two men on board accidentally hit the latter. The old woman fell on the street with her face hitting the pavement. She lost eight teeth. One of the men alighted and helped the old woman to her feet but when Nelda asked them to bring the victim to the hospital which was just in the other block, they said they are going some place. She then asked for their identities and the only told her they belong to a certain Kalinga tribe.

With the help of the plate number of the motorcycle, Jay was able to find out the identity of the owner. In an effort to get from the offenders what is due for the victim, the family of Jay sought the help of some members of the subject tribe with whom they are related by consanguinity and also known peace negotiators in the community. Those approached sent messengers to the two men who admitted their involvement in the mishap and promised to attend to the victim. But the family of the victim waited in vain until the fourth day when the offenders sent an emissary to ask what the family wants. Jay said that he told them reimbursement of the medical expense which amounted to P16,000.00 will do “because asking for fine is not our practice.” Despite their word to attend to the victim, however, the men have not done so to date.

Asked why they are not bringing the matter to court, Jay said: “We are busy with our business. Furthermore, we are not ready to go to war because when you seek justice here, you will be threatened. On the other hand, they are ready to go to war because that is their practice. We are not taking legal action because of fear and also in deference to relatives who are married into their tribe.”          

“What we want to see is for the traffic to become two-way. If we immigrants are the victims of accidents, they should willingly attend to us like we do when they are the victims. In the specific case of my grandmother, they should not hesitate to come to us because we are not warlike and the medical expense incurred is not so high,” Jay said.

At the end of the interview the question that came to my mind was how would the subject Kalinga tribe which is known for its ferocity have reacted  had the victim belonged to their tribe and the culprits immigrants? Nearly every immigrant family in this province know the answer from their own experience and from observation.

My own family has had its own experience with the one-way traffic in Kalinga. In 1984, the jeep owned by my brother-in-law but driven by someone else accidentally sideswiped a boy from a Kalinga tribe. The victim suffered a sprain in his hand and was brought to the hospital by my late father. Jeeploads of people from the tribe came to our house to negotiate for settlement so we had to butcher a pig. Aside from the pig, the family footed the medical bill amounting to P3,000.00 and also paid a fine of P8,000.00. Then sometime in 1993, an aunt was one of the passengers of a jeep owned by a Kalinga which fell along the road to Tuguegarao. She was hospitalized for more than a week. Understanding that she was just one of  the many of the passengers who were wounded with one even dead, she did not complain when only a portion of her hospital bills were answered by the owner.