Kalinga prepares for its anniversary

Tabuk City – As one of his first official actions on the first day of office of 2013, Governor Jocel C. Baac signed the first Order which signals a busy month for the Kalinga provincial government in preparing for the celebration of its anniversary on February 14-17.

Gov. Baac issued Executive Order No. 2013-01 last January 2 mandating a multi-sectoral “observance and participation to the 18th anniversary of the province of Kalinga and the celebration of the 2013 Ullalim Festival”.

It is expected that the various committees created under this Order will begin a loop of meetings and planning workshops in order to come up immediately a proposed line-up of activities and the corresponding budget. As stated indisputably in the Order, “Kalinga Shines”, which is the mantra of the present dispensation, will be the theme of the celebration”, and all activities should give meaning to it.

Highlights of the anniversary celebration and Ullalim Festival will be the agro-industrial and tourism fair, cultural and tourism events, Miss Kalinga and Laga fashion show, skills fair, variety shows, municipal bands and social dances presentation, and drum and lyre competition.

It is recalled that the then Kalinga-Apayao province was subdivided into two distinct provinces on February 14, 1995 by virtue of R.A. 7878. Since then Kalinga province observes its founding anniversary and afterward institutionalized and integrated into its celebration the Ullalim Festival. **ken atiwag

Tribe formalizes support for hydro project

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – Through the signatures of their chosen representatives, the four indigenous cultural communities (ICCs) in the vicinity of the proposed Upper Tabuk Hydropower Project (UTHP) all of which belong to the Nanong tribe have formalized their endorsement of the project.

Thirty-two members of the 40-man Nanong Governing Council who were present during the organizational meeting of the council on March 6 have signed a manifesto expressing their support for the project.

The tribal group known as Nanong is composed of the ICCs of the Nanong, Malbong, Dallac and Minanga who inhabit the barangays of Naneng, Lucog, Dupag and Bagumbayan in Upper Tabuk.

The manifesto also named the Minanga ICC in whose ancestral domain in barangay Dupag the UTHP is located as the host ICC thereby formally ending a bitter dissension in the Nanong tribe on the question of who should be the host ICC.

For months, groups within and outside the Nanong tribe have questioned the status of the Minanga as the host ICC claiming among others that it only lately sought recognition as a sub-tribe under the Kalinga ethnic group to skirt the free and prior informed consent (FPIC) process of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA).

Using its recognition from the Tabuk City LGU and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) obtained on January 9, 2009 and through the Kalinga Hydropower, Inc. which it formed as the entity to pursue the project, the Minangas obtained the hydro project requirements from government.

The oppositors in and ouside the Nanong tribe alleged that what the Minangas did was a circumvention of the IPRA insisting that under the law, it should be the whole Nanong tribe which will give the go signal to the project and also stand as host ICC.

The conflict within the tribe over the question of which ICC to host the project became so bitter it threatened the pursuit of the project but this was resolved during a tribal general assembly in Naneng on January 22 when the participants decided to name Minanga as the host ICC and for the formation of the 40-man council which will decide on the project in behalf of the tribe.

In the manifesto, the council also endorsed the KHI as partner and developer of the project.

The council members of which were formally chosen by the barangay councils of the four ICCs also declared that the manifesto was the result of the consensus of the Nanong tribe and had asked all parties to respect the decision.

The council includes the four barangay captains of the Nanong territory namely Samuel Suma-al of Dupag, Villamor Sannadan of Lucog, Edmund Daodaoen of Bagumbayan and Rommel Balunggay of Naneng.

Heriberto Barila, the council’s interim secretary general, told the media that the manifesto which will be sent to government agencies concerned with hydropower projects and prospective investors to prove that the people in the host community and not just a few members welcome the project.

“We also want to disprove the allegation of some parties that majority of the members of the four ICCs are not informed and do not support the project. With the manifesto, we want to assure prospective investors that the tribe supports the project,” Barila said.

Barila said that the council is the body that will enter into contract with the investor as well as answer questions that may be levelled against the project.

He said that they are presently formulating the by-laws of the governing council in preparation for registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The other interim officers of the council are the following: Balunggay – president; Suma-al – vice president for internal affairs; Sixto Obal – vice president for external affairs; Miguel Barila – treasurer; Edward Alimani – auditor; Jerome Tabanganay – PRO; Camilo Degay and Tina Batak – business managers. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.

Not many people aware of model pagta

Tabuk City, Kalinga – The Kalinga tribal elders organized by Congressman Manuel Agyao to address the peace and order problems of the province are calling for the conduct of a massive information education campaign (IEC) on the model pagta as amended during the 5th Kalinga Bodong Congress (KBC) in April 2002.

The model pagta are the laws of the bodong, the tribal peace pact system practiced in Kalinga and some parts of Mtn. Province and Abra, drafted by the 4th KBC in 1998.

The Agyao Peace and Order Movement (APOM) said the IEC is necessary because most bodong practitioners in the province are not aware of the amendments made by the 5th KBC, which includes the prohibition of vengeance unless and until all peaceful means of settling have been exhausted.

In a resolution addressed to Agyao and Gov. Floydelia Diasen, the APOM requested for a P100,000.00 allocation to fund the reproduction of the model pagta and the conduct of IEC.

APOM chairman Ruben Tuazon informed this writer that IEC will be conducted in all bodong-practicing tribal communities ahead of the conduct of another bodong congress next year.

Among the proposed amendments that will be discussed in the next bodong congress are the acknowledgement of national laws as over and above the bodong , a blanket prohibition on the severance of the bodong even in cases of killings, and that Kalinga policemen should be exempted from the effects of the bodong while in the performance of their duties.

The practice of some tribes of invoking the bodong and penalizing Kalinga policemen who go after suspects belonging to Kalinga tribes has always been an irritant between police authorities and the bodong community. **Estanislao Albanao Jr.