TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Dao-angan sub-tribe of Balbalan, Kalinga and the Minanga sub-tribe of this city have sealed their bodong or peace pact with the inom celebration on November 25 and 26 in barangay Dupag here.
The inom is the occasion where bodong counterparts deliberate their bilateral laws or pagta.
Marco Pagtud, the peace pact overseer for the Minangas, informed that unlike other existing bodongs which have been handed from one generation to the other, the bodong between Minanga and Dao-angan is new.
He related that while their application for recognition as a sub-tribe pending with the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) was having a rough sailing, former Provincial Board Member John Dongui-is, Sr., member of the Doa-angan sub-tribe, had proposed that their sub-tribes enter a bodong.
Pagtud recalls that the offer was Dongui-is’ way of helping the Minangas prove that they exist as an independent sub-tribe.
Pagtud said that Dongui-is grounded his offer on his personal knowledge that during his childhood and youth, he had heard people refer to Minanga as a place in ullalims (chants) during bodong gatherings.
Pagtud and Dongui-is then acted on the offer by exchanging sipats (tokens) which on the part of the Minangas was a bolo and on the part of the Dao-angans coins. The sipat is the initial stage of the bodong process.
However, before the bodong could be consummated, Dongui-is fell ill and eventually died.
Pagtud said that the process was stalled until recently when Brent Dongui-is, a grandson of the late John Dongui-is, Sr., had expressed his willingness to act as overseer for the Dao-angans.
The Minangas which has been identified with the Naneng sub-tribe for several decades had tried to come out of the shadows of the Naneng sub-tribe on two occasions – in the 1980s and again in the late 2000s.
They were able to gain the recognition of the Tabuk City LGU and the NCIP in 2009 but due to some infirmities of the process undertaken, the NCIP would later withdraw the recognition
The Minangas decided to make another go for recognition after the Naneng, Dallac and Malbong sub-tribes passed a resolution recognizing them as an independent sub-tribe and indorsing its recognition by the Tabuk City LGU and the NCIP late last year.
Pagtud informed that two sub-tribes adopted the ITabuk Pagta, the laws of the bodong covering the city ratified on November 17, as their bilateral laws.
The ITabuk Pagta which is intended to address the long-time complaint of immigrants and mild Kalinga sub-tribes of double standard of justice in amicable settlement in the locality is distinct from other pagtas because it outlaws vengeance and the severance of the bodong.
The severance of the bodong is a declaration of war.
Pagtud also said that the two sub-tribes decided to replace the palpaliwat part of the bodong celebration with a prayer because the palpaliwat extols the mengor or killer and promotes violence.
According to him, the palpaliwat is a speech form boasting of violent exploits. Only mengors are allowed to perform the palpaliwat.
Pagtud said that as part of their continuing quest for recognition by the Kalinga community later this month, they will also renew their existing bodong with the Bonnong sub-tribe of Pinukpuk which was last celebrated two generations ago.
He also informed that they are presently trying to trace their tribal relations with the Balicnat people of Rizal, Cagayan who they learned from their old folks are their bodong counterparts.
Back in 2012, the Minangas have renewed their existing bodong with the sub-tribe of Cagaluan in Pasil, Kalinga .**By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
