Kalinga tribal peace pacts renewed in Tabuk festival

TABUK CITY, Kalinga — This city’s celebration of the Matagoan Festival last week gained more significance with the “dornat” (renewal of pact) -- tradition of formally informing the young generation the contents and importance of peace pacts among its sub-tribes.

Through a cultural presentation, members of the eight sub-tribes here individually showed how they crafted their “pagta” (laws) that would govern the “bodong” (peace pact) with one or more tribes.

After each presentation, a “community getting together” was shown through native dances with the participants in their native costumes.

The Kalingans have practiced for generations the bodong or peace pacts among their sub-tribes to settle disputes.

This system has prevented early generations from engaging in tribal wars.

To prevent bloodshed, a bodong council is created which initiates a meeting and dialogue among the tribal members affected by a dispute. In that sense, the bodong is akin to today’s judicial dispute resolution or amicable settlement.

But as elders are the participants in a bodong, informing the youth about the practice has become important, explained Community Affairs Officer (CAO) Heriberto Barila.

He said many breaches in peace pacts had been committed by the youth in the past because they were not made aware of the relations among other  tribes.

This gave rise to the Matagoan Bodong Council (MBC) in 2005 which is in charge of the culture-based “Matagoan” peace program of Tabuk.

As a tradition in the celebration of the Matagoan Festival, the dornat among bodong-practicing tribes has become part of the program.