Fashioning the youth for peace-building

Tabuk City, Kalinga – Driven by the desire to educate the youth and eventually make them partners in peace advocacy, the Kailian Peace-building Institute (KPI) of the St Louis College of Bulanao conducted a three-day seminar on indigenous peace mechanism last May 4-6, 2011. The sessions were held in one of the spacious classrooms of SLCB.

The seminar zeroed-in the Bodong, which is a social institution and a system of governance between and among the Kalingas, established since time immemorial and has evolved through the years. Topics include the history and origin of the bodong; processes, rites and rituals in forging, restoring and as well as in sustaining the bodong; working principles on which the bodong is based; provisions of the Pagta (Law of the Bodong); factors that may have had influences in the bodong such as religion, education, commerce and technology, politics and governance, migration and marriage, peace and order, and the Indigenous Peoples Right Act (IPRA) - however these were presented in a succinct manner. How the bodong itself affected these phenomenon was briefly discussed as well.

This lecture-type seminar was attended initially by 34 youths coming from the different municipalities. An open-forum was allotted after presentation and discussion of each topic to give the participants an opportunity to ask questions and express their views and observations.

The group is composed of 18 males (52.9%) and 16 females (47%). Majority of the participants came from Tabuk, the capital town; although almost of them have Tinglayan origins (38.2%) followed by Balbalan (23.5%), Tanudan (14.7%), Pasil (5.8%), and 2.9% for each of the other municipalities.

Meanwhile, a quick survey was conducted to determine what they feel about regional autonomy for the Cordillera. It is believed that cultures in the Cordilleras will be further preserved and enhanced under the regional autonomy setup. There were three questions asked from the participants. They were asked whether or not they have heard before about Cordillera Regional Autonomy, and will they vote favorably or not if the third organic act will be presented to them for approval in a plebiscite. Lastly, they were asked to indicate their level of knowledge about Cordillera Regional Autonomy. In this instance however only 25 youths participated in the survey of which 44% (11) are males and 52% (13) are females. There was one who did not reveal his/her sex identity.

Of the 25 youths, 76% (19) said they have heard about the regional autonomy while 20% (5) did not. What is interesting to note is that these 20% are all females. For those who heard about it, according to them they got such information from the school, media, and “tsismis” or from acquaintances. Likewise, asked if they will vote favorably for the third organic act, 60% (15) said “Yes” while 4% (1) said “No”, and 36% (9) were undecided.

In terms of the level of knowledge, the respondents generally have a mean knowledge of 5.7 (based on a scale of 10) about the issue of the Cordillera regional autonomy. The 20% (5) youths who said earlier they have not heard about regional autonomy for the Cordillera are the same individuals who indicated they have zero knowledge about it, and these are all females.