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

Sometime in 2005 while attending a journalism training in Baguio City, I met this reporter of the Bombo Radyo in Cauayan City, Isabela who shared this joke or what he thought to be a joke about Kalingas. According to the joke, a Coca-cola delivery truck hit and killed a chicken in a road in Kalinga. Hearing that in Kalinga, drivers who kill chicken will be made to pay the chicken that are still to be hatched from the unlaid eggs of the chicken aside from the chicken itself, the driver did not stop. Sometime later, a Pepsi delivery truck was stopped in the barangay where the chicken was killed and the crew were asked to pay the dead chicken. The crew reminded the man who stopped them that the truck which hit the chicken is owned by Coca-cola while they are of Pepsi. The man allegedly declared that they should pay because Pepsi is the cousin of Coca-cola.

The first part of the story is not a joke among non-Kalingas and even non-warlike Kalinga tribes because indeed, as I have told you before, the word accident has yet to enter the vocabulary of most Kalinga tribes. Up to this day and age, to most Kalinga tribes, accidents are still a golden opportunity to get money you did not labor for from others. Just to tell you how pervasive the practice is, several years ago, a lawyer who was the victim in a minor traffic accident tried to collect a settlement grossly disproportionate to the damage incurred. Fortunately, the immigrant tribe targeted for extortion stood their ground.

Worse, accidents could also occasion a reversion to barbarism. At least three drivers who accidentally hit pedestrians in Nambaran and Lacnog, Tabuk City, have been lynched through the use of bolos and spears right then and there so much so that the policy now among drivers who figure in accidents in those two barangays is not to succor the victim but drive as fast a possible to the next police station.

So  it’s really a cause of amazement and celebration when a Kalinga who gets the receiving end in an accident only asks for what is reasonable just like this professional from the Taloktok tribe did. While driving to the office in a motorcycle the other  Monday, the professional accidentally collided with the tricycle owned by LGOO V Mayer Adong, a member of the immigrant Bago tribe. The Taloktok professional sustained cuts in the left hand and the sole of his left foot and his right  leg knee would later swell although the X-ray would show that there was no fracture. The driver of Adong admitted it was his fault because he entered the lane of the Taloktok professional without making sure that it was clear.

Upon hearing of the accident and the ethnic affiliation of  the victim, Adong prepared for the worse. He would tell me later that he expected a settlement or multa of at least P20,000.00  over and above the reimbursement of the medical expenses, cost of the repair of the motorcycle and the pig for the sunga (a Kalinga ritual to fend off a recurrence and also for early recovery of the victim). Adong made the estimate on the basis of a recent case where the owner of a vehicle which sideswiped a child causing an injury that did not require hospital confinement was made to pay a multa of P15,000.00.

So Adong and his wife Hilda were greatly relieved and elated when upon visiting the victim in the hospital, the latter would tell them not to worry because he was not going to demand for multa but only for the payment of his hospital expenses, the repair of his motorcycle and a replacement for his uniform which was torn during the accident. (He would later reconsider the replacement of the uniform saying that his office provides uniform allowances anyway.) He did not even require the customary tingiting (a ritual where a chicken is killed so that the wounds would not swell and cause so much pain and for swift recovery) and the sunga. But party because of their gladness due to the understanding heart of the victim and partly so that the cultural practices would be complied with, Adong volunteered to produce the animals for the tingiting and the sunga. 

During the sunga last Friday, Adong and the  Bago elders who were with him expressed their appreciation for the victim’s unusual decision and also their hope that other Kalingas will learn from it.

When already by themselves partaking of the portion of the sunga they were given to bring home “for those who were unable to attend,” the Bagos were thankful that the victim made the decision on his own because had the professional amicable settlement negotiators whom they termed “negosyantes” went into action, the results may have been different. They speculated that when the “negosyantes” will learn of the case, they will feel insulted and that now, the Taloktok tribe will be ridiculed for not upholding Kalinga practices. They also theorized that the wife of the victim being a Tagalog must also have been a positive factor in the case because had she came from other immigrant groups, she may have urged him to demand the multa “because some immigrants who marry Kalingas sometimes think they too are Kalingas.” They regretted that they have a tribesmate who is married into a notorious tribe who is proud  of and capitalizes on the connection and is also now resorting to squatting himself.   

In an interview last Tuesday after he already reported back to work, the victim told me that resorting to the Kalinga practice of demanding the multa never occurred to him. He said: “As a professional and a government worker, it’s not normal and proper to demand the multa. Para laeng kadagiti barbariotik dayta. Let’s follow the standard which is just the reimbursement of the reasonable expenses. Our thinking should develop. Actually, the multa does not benefit the victim but third parties.” He went on to inform that initially, he was ashamed and reluctant to accept the tingiting and the sunga but allowed the rituals in the end because Adong brought the animals and “there might be consequences if we do not do the rituals.”

Asked if he encountered resistance to his decision from his tribesmates, the Talotok professional said that the moment the elders heard his stance, they went along with him. Actually, he did not tell the accident to his relatives so that when an uncle learned of it, he felt sore that he was not informed. The victim would tell the uncle to be thankful that the accident was not worse. The uncle would later approve of his foregoing the multa  because “we have vehicles and in the event that we also figure in accidents, the victims might also demand the multa from us.” The victim claimed that it is not a practice among Talotoktoks to demand multa for accidents except when it results to death.

The victim said that during his student days at the Kalinga-Apayao State College, his friends were Ilocanos and that these days, he sometimes attends amicable settlement or areglo negotiations on the side of immigrants. He sadly noted that even immigrants demand compensation for their  sufferings on account of the accident.

If all Kalingas were as civilized as this Taloktok professional, there would be less disunity and distrust and  there would be better relations between Kalingas on one hand and immigrants on the other. But sadly, he is a  very rare exception. 

One of the things that may set Kalingas apart from other people  is the multa. It is the practice of exacting one’s pound of flesh from incidents where the blood of a Kalinga is drawn (or even if not drawn), a Kalinga is aggrieved. Never mind if the incident is  not intentional or accident for so long as blood has been drawn, the multa must be paid. Multa is also imposed in cases when a man impregnates a Kalinga woman but does not intend to marry her and things like that.

With the failure of the government to  regulate the practice, multa is a dreaded word among the immigrants and the mild Kalinga tribes. The practice drives a wedge between them and the tribes that exact multa on the other hand. It is a well known fact that most multa demands are unreasonable and the process in enforcing it attended by intimidation. 

Recently, I had a chance to hear the thoughts of Bansen Bangibang, one of the few Kalingas who does not mince words when it comes to the bad practices and excesses of his fellow  Kalingas, on the matter. According to Bansen, a member of the Taloktok tribe, among Kalingas, it does not matter who starts something. It has no bearing. You punch me and no blood is shed. I then retaliate and blood is drawn.  I must pay the multa.

He continues: The moment blood is shed, the Kalinga has reason to exact the multa. That’s because the wound must be masonga. In English, songa is the payment of the blood money so that the problem is prevented from getting any worse. Even just a little blood is reason to demand the multa. It all depends on the relative fierceness of the tribe or family of the victim in relation to the tribe or family of the one who caused the injury. If the tribe or family of the latter is easily intimidated, the victim tribe raises the demand sky high just in case the other party will give in. It’s like a bluff. Not all Kalingas kill but then there is no way of determining who is bluffing and who is not so the safe thing to do is to give in.  

The facts on who started the incident will only have a bearing when the person who drew blood belongs to a kawitan or warlike tribe in which case they could enforce their rights but if they belong to the upa or non-warlike tribes, they might as well come across so as not to make things worse.

When I asked what’s so significant about the drawing of blood that the multa must be imposed at all costs, Bansen could not explain. He only said the shedding of blood  is a serious matter among Kalingas.  “Blood is important because it is life but I do not know the actual reason,” Bansen admitted.

According to Bansen, the expression “maysa a tedted, maysa a nuang” is an exaggeration but that the principle is  “basta nagdara, mamulta.” And that’s even if the cause of the bleeding was unintended or accidental.

Going back to the songa, Bansen said that according to the belief of Kalingas, the killing and butchering of an animal the simplest of which is a chicken makes the wound heal easier and will not make it swell. As for the demand in cash, Bansen explained that it is to cover hospital expenses and related losses and also to appease the victim.

Bansen said that ever since he could remember, Kalingas already practiced the multa but that in  recent years, its hold on them has loosened a bit because of the advent of Christianity. When I asked him about church people who impose the multa, Bansen said that they are just pretending to be Christians but are not real Christians because Christians are supposed to be forgiving. He related that there are times during amicable settlement negotiations when he rebuked so-called Christian families for demanding the multa but that the latter would reason that if they do not demand the multa, their stature in the  community would suffer because among Kalingas, the demand is tied up with one’s prestige.  If you do not demand much, then you are apt to be ignored and look down on.

Bansen relates that one time when his second boy was in grade three at the Bulanao South Elementary School, he and an immigrant boy were throwing stones at the fruits of a mango tree. One of the stones thrown by the immigrant boy as it was coming down hit  Bansen’s son injuring him in the forehead. The bleeding was profuse. The knowledge that the injured boy was a Kalinga rattled the teacher of the two boys and even the principal because, according to Bansen, in incidents like this among Kalingas, teachers are dragged in. The teachers were only calmed when he went to the hospital where the boy was taken and informed the immigrant boy to get a chicken for him and the injured boy to butcher and eat together in a house in front of the school the following day. He did not even ask the family of the immigrant boy to pay the hospital bill. According to Bansen, he asked for the chicken  with the intent of  preventing his tribesmates from taking advantage of the situation.

Bansen said that among warlike Kalinga tribes, unfortunate incidents like what happened to his boy is an opportunity to “make their lives better.”  But he quickly adds that there are also Kalingas who have learned to forgive like he did.

The trouble is, they are very rare.