Remembering Ama Daniel Ngayaan

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

(Windel Bolinget, secretary general of Cordillera Peoples Alliance writes this week’s issue)

In a simple occasion, his family joined by at least 100 elders and the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) paid tribute to Ama Daniel Ngayaan and other martyrs in the Cordillera on Oct. 5, 2015 in Baguio City to honor his important contributions in defending land, life and resources.

The tribute was also a pledge of commitment for the continuing challenge to strengthen the role of elders in building consensus and unities within and among tribes to continue the legacy of defending and nurturing the land.

Daniel Ngayaan was abducted and killed in Cagaluan gate, Pasil, Kalinga province, by the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) on Oct. 5, 1987 when he attended the regional council meeting of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) in Baguio City. At that time, he was also the chairperson of the Cordillera Bodong Association. 28 years after his death, his remains were never found. 28 years after his abduction, his family, clan, friends, and kailyan have yet to say that justice has been served.

From 1955-1960, his leadership earned his appointment as barangay captain of Tanglag. In 1974, he was one of the elders who stood up and actively participated and led the opposition against the World Bank-funded Chico River Dams project during the Marcos dictatorship. Ama Daniel significantly contributed in uniting the elders of his community, being an influential peace pact holder himself for the Tanglag tribe.

Through his participation in bodong conferences in Buscalan, Tanglag, and as far as Metro Manila, community opposition was strengthened and consolidated. From these bodong conferences, elders forged a pagta expressing opposition to the dam project in 1975, in the spirit of the defense of ancestral heritage.

His leadership figured as well in spontaneous actions against the dam such as the dismantling of the National Power Corporation camp in Mosimos, Tomiangan, Tabuk, Kalinga. Affected communities including a huge number of women marched down from Tomiangan to Camp Duyan in Bulanao, Tabuk to return parcels of the dismantled camp in 1976.

Threatened by the growing opposition, the Marcos government later sent presidential assistant on national minorities Manda Elizalde to the province. Panamin was used as a divide and rule mechanism against the tribal peoples just so the dam project would push through. Scholarships were offered to families, including cash and canned goods. Ama Daniel was among the first to expose the real motives of this agency.

Like thousands of mass leaders and members of the progressive organizations illegally detained during the Martial Law, Ama Daniel, together with other 150 leaders, elders, oppositionists of the Chico dam was arrested in 1976.

They were detained in Camp Olivas in Pampanga, charged of hampering a government project. They were released the following year with the help of different support groups from the church, the Free Legal Assistance (FLAG) and Amnesty International.

His arrest and detention, did not, however, water down his determination against the dam construction and his people's fight, as he continued to figure in the struggle against the dam. Being a peace pact holder, he was among those who actively participated in the formation of the KalingaBontoc Peace Pact Holders Association (KBPPHA) in 1982, where he became an officer.

In 1983, the growing and widening Cordillera people's movement gave rise to the birth of the Cordillera Bodong Association, which he later chaired. During the second congress of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, Ama Daniel was elected vice chairperson, In October 5, 1987, Ama Daniel was homeward bound to Tanglag after the CPA Regional Council Meeting when he was abducted by elements of the CPLA in Cagaluan gate.

Justice for Ama Daniel 

Justice for Ama Daniel remains elusive. It remains so even with the knowledge that the CPLA is accountable for his death, and later on RomyGardo of CPA-Abra. Even with CPLA's criminal activities and the complaints lodged against it, the CPLA remains scot-free and is fact coddled by government, the latest act of which is the CPLA's integration into the Armed Forces despite its criminal records under the Arroyo government, virtually forgetting the CPLA's crimes. For this, the state remains culpable of denying justice to Ngayaan, his clan, tribe and the Cordillera people's movement.

Thus, as we remember Ama Daniel, we shall not let our guard down and continue to expose the CPLA for its criminal acts and human rights violations. We shall continue our calls for the immediate abolition of this paramilitary group and make it answer for its crimes against the Cordillera people.

More than two decades after his abduction, we come to remember the life of our martyr Ama Daniel Ngayaan-his great contributions in the defense of our ancestral lands, his thoughts and deed as a progressive tribal leader. We also remember the brave people of Kalinga and Bontoc who stood up against the dam. Today, the Chico River runs free and flowing.