TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The Tinglayan and Tulgao tribes of Tinglayan town, this province, whose festering boundary dispute had exploded into a shooting war on August 29 resulting in the wounding of two members of the Tinglayan tribe, have taken a significant step towards peace by exchanging sipat or peace tokens.
The swapping of the sipat is the first stage in the restoration of the bodong, the peace pact system practiced by tribes in Kalinga and some parts of Mtn. Province and Abra, which signals a truce and the start of negotiations to resolve the root causes of the conflict.
Acting Governor James Edduba said that the breakthrough came as a result of the mediation efforts of the Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC) and cultural peace negotiators of Tinglayan who shuttled between the two tribes.
Edduba said that the peacemakers hand carried the sipat of the Tulgao tribe which is in the form of a bolo to the Tingalayan village on October 6 but due to some cultural requisites that were not yet met, the Tinglayans only finally accepted the sipat and at the same time gave their own which is also a bolo on Sunday.
Edduba informed that the sipat holder or overseer of the Tulgaos is Kagawad Leonardo Pacas of Tulgao East and for the Tinglayans, Ambato barangay captain Ambrosio Estak.
Edduba said that with the exchange of the sipat, the police and Army contingents which have been deployed in Tinglayan to maintain peace could now withdraw.
Edduba said that while the sipat is as good as a bodong, it still has to undergo the steps for the full restoration of the pact and it is only after everything is threshed out that the bonong or final ritual in the restoration could be celebrated.
Asked if it is possible that the bodong restoration process could be aborted through the irreconcilable positions of the tribes, Edduba said that as far as he knows, the inom has only been extended to give more time to the tribes to settle their difference but that always, the bodong has always been restored. The inom is the formal acceptance of the sipat and the phase where the issues between the two tribes are discussed and resolved.
Edduba called on the Tinglayan MPOC and the Provincial Peace and Order Council to continue their work until the bodong is restored.
Edduba said that it is high time that Kalinga tribes will realize the futility and folly of tribal vendetta pointing out that for one, casualties during the conflict are just treated as collateral damage so that when peace is restored, their families will most likely only get assistance.
The Tinglayans blame the Tulgaos for causing the conflict and marring their more than a century-old peaceful relations alleging that the latter tribe refused to honor the boundary settlement forged during their bodong celebration in 2013 in barangay Luplupa, Tinglayan.
Edduba thanked all the groups which took part in the efforts to prevent the escalation of the violence and also to convince the two tribes to start the process of reconciliation namely the Tinglayan MPOC, Tinglayan peace coordinators, Provincial Peace and Order Council, Kalinga Bodong Council, Philippine National Police, Philippine Army, the Itulgao Professional Association and the religious sector.
He also mentioned Judge Victor Dalanao, Fr. Jose Pic-it, Dr. Amelia Miranda and Rev. Luis Aoas as among the individuals who went out of their way to help make peace between the two tribes. **Estanislao Albanao, Jr.
