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Migrant elders declare Baguio a tribal war free zone

BAGUIO CITY (Nov. 18) — At least 60 tribal elders from Kalinga, Abra, and Mt. Province gathered on November 13 and entered into a pact declaring the summer capital city as mataguan or tribal war free zone. Women elders were also present.

The mataguan is a practice in binodngan communities where both parties agree that a certain area is a war-free zone.

The elders, through their council representative to the Metro-Baguio Tribal Elders Assembly, will bring their agreement to the city council and offer to join the peace and order committee to address tribal conflict that may spill in the city.

The elders assembly was organized as tribal war from warring tribes usually extended in the city, endangering tribe members who had migrated in the city.

Elders, mediators

Lakay Ben Casilen claimed that elders in the city play an important role in mediation towards the resolution of tribal wars that extend in the city.

“As elders, we committed to talk with members of warring tribes in the city for the conflict resolution,” added Casilen, 72 years old and a member of the Tocucan tribe from Bontoc. He has been in the city since 1948 and is a member of the San Luis Barangay Council.

He added that many members of the binodngan communities have migrated here and are residents in the city’s 128 barangays.

The City Planning Office records show that 50% of the city’s total population, which translates to 300,000 persons, come from different Cordillera provinces.

Most tribal migrants live in the urban poor communities where social services are lacking. Their livelihood sources are not stable as many work as sidewalk vendors and rip rap stonewall laborers. However, they have strong ties with their villages and practice their customs and traditions even in the city, which incidentally include tribal war and vengeance.

Worsened sufferings

During the assembly, elders shared that in cases of unresolved tribal conflict, members of the warring tribes are prohibited to go to work, attend school, or even buy basic needs for fear of getting killed or injured.

Participants claimed that tribal war has added to the burden of unemployment, lack of social services, demolition threat on their dwellings, among others.

The on-and-off tribal conflict between the Saclit and Poblacion tribes of Sadanga, Mt. Province, was the longest conflict that affected their members in the city.

Inappropriate

Marcus Bangit, a member of the Malbong tribe of Kalinga said that tribal war is an obsolete means to resolve tribal conflict.

He claimed that the practice was exercised in the early days when there were no legal systems and institutions where cases could be resolved and justice rendered. He also observed that the causes of tribal war are mostly petty quarrels of individuals caused by drunkenness and drugs but had affected the whole villages instead.

Bangit’s organization, the Binodngan Elders Organization, patronizes the development of indigenous systems of settling disputes but calls for the stoppage of tribal war as a means due to the danger it causes tribes and their properties.

Migration push-factor

According to Ignacio Pangket, member of the Sadanga tribe in Mt. Province, mainly economic issues like employment and job opportunities cause urban migration. He added that small agricultural lands in the provinces also push people to migrate to the city.

The concentration of educational institutions in the city also encouraged migration, he added. He identified intense militarization in the provinces as another push factor for migration. NORDIS learned from the assembly that villagers are militarized to quell villages’ opposition against development aggression projects, such as corporate mining and mega dams.

The promise of a good life in the city is but a dream, Pangket claims, as Cordillera migrants are among those who suffered most from economic crises. # Arthur L. Allad-iw for NORDIS

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