Bakun: It takes a mountain village

BAKUN, Benguet-On the

towering peaks of Luzon's Gran

Cordillera Central, cold winds

sweep over the collection of

settlements of the Kankanaey

and Bago clans which have

inhabited the rugged mountain

valleys of northern Benguet since

time beyond memory.

It takes a tortuous four-hour bus

ride from Baguio City to reach

Bakun, one of the 13 towns of

Benguet province almost at the border with Ilocos Sur, and the

homeland of the Kankanaey and the Bago.

Bakun (pop: 13,500) is classified as a fifth-class municipality.

But it is a first-class town in many ways, not least the fact that it

is a good place to observe a local community's initiative in

protectng, conserving, developing and managing its

environment.

The town has virgin forests, four rivers and several springs

teeming with fish, rice terraces, vegetable gardens, swidden

farms -- all of which are maintained by a hardy, industrious

people using their traditional institutions.

In 1997, the town's council of elders fined a man from the town

of Cervantes in Ilocos Sur and asked him to pay two carabaos

(water buffaloes) to a family here. The man had been accused of

poisoning the Bakun River.

Two carabaos died after drinking from the river, which the man

from Cervantes and three accomplices had laced with sodium

cyanide, a deadly chemical that villagers said the ''outsiders''

used to catch fish.

The three accomplices escaped the community's wrath.

Villagers caught the Cervantes man and brought him before the

elders who, after hearing all sides, ordered the man to replace

the two poisoned carabaos.

''The penalty was not even enough,'' said Amos Beta-a, a

member of the council. ''The two carabaos could not repay the

poisoned young fish, shrimps and eels.''

But the incident had sent a strong message. No one has ever

tried to poison the Bakun River again, Beta-a said.

Green gold

A few years ago, the vegetable terraces and farms which the

Bakun community regards as its ''green gold'' faced a threat from

a potentially profitable business proposition brought before the

town leaders.

Bakun's vegetable farmers are very modest about the income

they derive from their vegetable cash crops that you cannot get

them to tell you how much they are earning from these farms.

But the children of local farmers who are sent and continue to

be sent to college and the ''Elf'' trucks and vehicles that some of

the farmers have acquired and continue to acquire all show that

there is indeed gold in vegetables.

In 1997, a mining company had wanted to mine gold in Barangay

Gambang, a farming village near the Halsema Highway, the main

artery linking Manila to the vegetable-farming communities of

Benguet.

To help convince the villagers, the company, Dalton Pacific,

employed some influential people from the community as

supervisors and liaison officers.

The gold that the mine would be extracting, the company said,

would benefit the community in the form of jobs, more municipal

revenues and infrastructure. But most of community members

were not convinced and protested.

In short, the mining company's proposed entry created conflict

in the community.

To help resolve the conflict, Vice Mayor Tirso Bayawa invited

representatives from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the

Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the

company, the municipal and barangay governments, and the

affected communities.

Representatives of these bodies presented their side before the

papangoan or council of elders of the Bakun Indigenous Tribes

Organization, a municipal-wide grassroots people's organization.

The council's membership is made up of elders from Bakun's

seven barangays.

The opposition argued well its position against the company's

plans.

If the company were to mine the upper Gambang village, the

water sources of communities below would dry up, the

oppositors said.

Once the water sources dry up, the community would lose its

vegetable farms.

The barangay's vegetable industry, they argued, has also

brought income, jobs and other side-industries such as

transportation and restaurant businesses to the town.

The council of elders weighed the benefits of what the mining

firm promised and what the farmers were getting from their

vegetable crops.

The elders gave more weight to the opposition's argument.

The company soon packed up and left.

Conflict settlement

The two cases show how community interests govern the

decision-making on the part of the village elders, the

papangoan.

The council of elders is sought after for its authority not only in

dispensing justice but also in articulating community positions

on controversial issues such as development projects like mines

and dams.

Members of this council are chosen not just for their age, but

also for their wisdom, integrity and impartiality.

Once a case is brought before it, the council, which involves as

many as 15 to 20 elders, hears the contending parties. It decides

its verdict through a process of consensus called tongtong.

The tongtong is an unwritten justice system, handed down

through generations. This system exists only in the memory of

wise elders who have been proven to be the best arbiters in the

community. Public opinion reinforces the verdict of the elders'

council.

Bain or shame is the ultimate sanction against crime. A person

adjudged guilty will have to bear the shame that comes with

wrongdoing.

The tongtong system covers all aspects of conflicts,

misbehavior and crimes -- from marital woes, land disputes,

abuse and rape of women and murder to burning of forests and

poisoning of rivers.

The system is participatory. Each community member present in

a tongtong hearing can participate in the deliberations.

Contending parties go to the tongtongan or community court

with their relatives. As soon as both parties are duly

represented, an elder may start the session by presenting the

background of the case or may immediately call the complaining

party to present its case.

A complainant may appoint a relative to present the complaint.

The other party is then called on to argue, deny or admit the

complaint.