By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
Interviewed in 2018, it was hard for him to believe that the day had come that even the warlike tribes would allow an incident where blood has been spilled to go unavenged observing that in recent times, these have already been subjected to conciliation proceedings. He had expressed the belief that it was only a matter of time before tribal wars, the curse of life in Kalinga, will become a thing of the past.
He had attributed the newfound restraint of tribes against going into armed conflicts to practical demands of life saying that in the case of his tribe mates, they would not want to jeopardize their employment and other economic pursuits by allowing the hotheads among them to make decisions when the sub-tribe is faced with a conflict.
The first ever member of the Basao tribe to earn a degree, Pastor had added that the awareness that tribal wars have stunted the educational progress of the tribe also factors in the decision-making.
He had continued that population growth which have forced tribes to look outside the ancestral village for food and better life have also diverted the attention of members to economic pursuits in their new locations away from the old obsession to maintain the honor of the sub-tribe in the community of Kalinga sub-tribes by inflicting more harm whenever provoked.
“The motive of improving one’s life has weakened the ‘sin of one, sin of all’ culture which used to unite sub-tribes like one man whenever aggrieved. This is very important because in cases where vendetta does happen, it no longer involves the whole tribe but just families or clans,” he had commented.
By contrast to the significant improvement in the tribal peace situation, Pastor often expressed his disgust and frustration that corruption in government is only getting worse as the years go by. Good governance was one of his other advocacies.
He was the chairman of the Kalinga and Apayao Religious Sector Association (KARSA) when the church ecumenical group stepped up its war against corruption in government infrastructure projects notably the multi-billion peso widening and concreting of the road from Tabuk to Bontoc, Mt. Province, one of the Arroyo administration’s so-called SONA projects, starting in 2008.
The time and resources they spent in monitoring the SONA project practically went to waste as the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit sat on the complaints they filed making them look like fools. Worse, two members of the KARSA received death threats to the extent the Philippine National Police provided one of the threatened members with guards. The two would eventually relocate for their safety.
Pastor had also found time for environmental advocacy having been chairman of the Kalinga Anti-pollution Action Group (KAPAG) from 2012 until his death. With Prime Bishop Renato Abibico, Dr. Jaime Almora, Corazon Ryan and yours truly, he organized the KAPAG in 2011 in response to information that large scale mining was about to resume in Pasil. The inception of the KAPAG was prompted by the belief that the defense of Tabuk’s farmlands require vigilance and appropriate action from the citizenry and that to be effective, the response of the stakeholders could not be sporadic but must be coordinated and organized.
Coincidentally, at that time, the provincial government had come to a decision to already take legal action against Bontoc, Mt. Province over the said LGU’s continuous usage of its open dump site located along the Chico River. Since 2003, the provincial government had been negotiating for the closure of the environmentally hazardous facility to no avail and had already grown sick and tired of the stubbornness of the leaderships of Bontoc and Mt. Province. However, the provincial government thought it more prudent that it be a private entity to take Bontoc and Mt. Province to court.
Through a Writ of Kalikasan petition, the KAPAG successfully had the open dump site permanently closed in 2013.
**(To be continued)
