‘Inayan’ and rape-slay of Sagada teenage girl

HAPPY WEEKEND
Gina Dizon

The rape and killing of teen-age girl Winnie Dumakit from Aguid, Sagada is a blow to the small-knit cultural town of Sagada in Mountain Province in the northern part of the country.

Winnie Dumakit, a third year high school student from Bangaan National High School was allegedly gang-raped by three young men from Taccong, Sagada. She was reportedly found dead morning of July 25, at the Tangeb grounds of Sagada Poblacion.

Medical records say the victim died of asphyxiation. For years in Sagada, such incident never happened making this crime the first of its kind and let it be the last. While Sagada has its share of crimes on theft, drugs, robbery and muggings, aside from malicious mischief and isolated cases of homicide, such an incident involving rape and death has gone beyond ordinary crimes.

Sex-related violence is creeping in the peaceful cultural-knit tourist town of Sagada. Such offenses had been done to children in the very recent years which include acts of lasciviousness done to an eight year old girl by a 17 year old boy two years ago, among others. The effect of sex videos might have something to do with these perverted and beastly acts.

Residents of Sagada and Sagada migrants abroad are alarmed how such incident (rape-slay) could happen in Sagada among a people (along with residents from nearby Besao) who believe in inayan, a cultural and psycho-social principle of doing good to others lest harm will be done to one’s self or other members of the family.

Inayan as a belief is the classic Golden Rule which traces to ancient Greek philosophy, ‘Do unto others what you like others do unto you’; or among Christians where Jesus Christ said, ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brothers you do unto me’. Such value system is closely practiced among the Hindus’ belief in karma which tells one reaps what one sows in later life.

The perpetration of the rape-slay tells of offenders who must have lost all sense of what inayan means. Such a rape-slay offense smacks against the very values of inayan of the community and what must have been values ingrained to them by their own friends, neighbors, people in the community, teachers, and more especially by their very own parents and elders.

What might be weaknesses of parents, the school, and the community in disciplining children and the youth, is left to authorities and institutions to regulate behavior. We talk of the police who have to strictly implement curfew rules.

In Sagada for example, curfew starts at 9 p.m. In the capital town of Bontoc, the Women’s Brigade help the police in telling people to go home when they are seen still out in drinking pubs and in streets. Curfew in this capital town is 9 p.m. for minors and 10 pm for adults.

The school also as a second parent comes in to inculcate the subject, Good Manners and Right Conduct (GMRC) if such subject is still there, unless the subject is taught in another subject. Perhaps the cultural value of inayan can be integrated in related subjects as well.

Even the church, which means any church, has this major role in actually practicing and preaching about inayan as how it is interpreted in the Christian Bible. Children and the youth receive role models in how they actualize their behavior.

Neighbors too have their important role in being alert and vigilant to suspicious and abusive behavior. A concerned neighbor makes a community a better place to live in where they are alert in stopping or reporting any wayward behavior as it affects community welfare.

The values preached by elders as they sit in the dap-ay (indigenous hut where elders meet to discuss community affairs) smoking their pipes, need to creep in the schools, churches, parents, and all institutions including business.

"It takes a village to raise a child", an African proverb says. Let it be that every one in the community watch and help each other in making a better place to live in.