Road accident sparks controversy:Kalinga, Mountain Province clash over cultural practises

TABUK CITY, Kalinga – A clash over their contrasting manners of disposing cases of accidents is threatening to sour the relationship between Kalinga and neighboring Mountain Province.

The controversy puts Kalinga Rep. Manuel Agyao, who is also representing Mountain Province in Congress in an uncomfortable position. as caretaker due to the death of Rep. Victor Dominguez,

A former ranking provincial official of Mountain Province has called on Agyao through the media to intervene in the resolution of a case involving a vehicular accident on Sept. 8, 2007 in Magabbangon, Cudal, Tabuk. The accident claimed the lives of 10 persons.

Most of the victims were Kalinga natives, while the owner of the ill-fated Forward truck, Alexander Miranda, hailed from Sabangan, Mountain Province. He was one of the fatalities.

Former Mountain Province provincial administrator Evelyn Miranda, a sister-in-law of Alexander, is pleading with Agyao to help in the efforts of the relatives of the dead victims and some survivors to impose a multa (indemnity) on the family of Alexander.

She said with some Kalinga professionals, including several government officials, taking the cudgels for them, relatives of seven of the fatalities are demanding that the family of Alexander pay P50,000 for each of the victims as multa.

She said the initial agreement was for the family to raise P70,000 as assistance to families of the fatalities.

But that when the money, which she claimed is the only remaining resources of Lucia Miranda, the widow, was ready, the claimants and their supporters said that it is not enough.

"They do not consider that it was an accident and that Alexander was also killed.

They do not also seem to believe that the family has more money. Actually, P50,000 of the P70,000 came from the sale of the junked Elf truck, the only remaining property in the name of Alexander," said Evelyn, adding that the amount is not being given as multa but as assistance to the bereaved families.

She said some Kalinga professionals who are in a position to help resolve the issue appear instead to be in favor of the giving indemnity to the victims.

"In Mountain Province, we do not impose any compensation on account of accidents,” Evelyn said. “We do not give a price to life. It cannot be bought or sold. Assistance, if any, is voluntary. They are saying that we have a different culture and that, on the other hand, the practice of exacting the multa is part of the Kalinga culture.

But our position is that bad cultural practices should be discarded. The practice of girls sleeping in the ulog and the boys sleeping in the ato used to be a part of Mountain Province culture but that was when our houses were one-room affairs.

(Ulog and ato, in the not-so recent years were indigenous huts where community affairs were discussed respectively by the women in the former and the men in the latter.) There came a time when we realized that the practice has become impractical and no longer attuned with the times and it just disappeared. The bagbagto practice (organized tribal stone-throwing fights) vanished for the same reason."

Evelyn is hoping that Agyao will look into the plight of Mountain Province immigrants in Kalinga who, she claimed, are being treated as second-class citizens for many generations now.

She said that in cases in which Moutain Province immigrants are victimized by Kalingas through accidents or crimes, they are not paid the multa.

Evelyn is also intending to bring the case to the attention of the sangguniang panlalawigan of Mountain Province. -- EAJ