Violence in Aeta land thwarted

READY FOR THE KILL Policemen arrest a group of Aeta out to exact revenge on another tribe member in Pampanga province. When the lawmen arrived at a hilltop cemetery in Barangay Camias, Porac town, they found a 19-year-old Aeta man inside a coffin, ready to be executed. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines — A form of tribal justice system has seen a resurgence in Aeta villages near Mt. Pinatubo, prompting local government officials to intervene in the settlement of blood debts to save lives and end feuds among families.

Anton Santos, 19, and a resident in the upland village of Camias in Porac town, Pampanga province, was the sixth person to be forcibly subjected to the customary practice of “manablas” (retaliation), according to Ricardo Guiao, an Aeta helping out in development projects in the area.

“It works like ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,’” Guiao said.

Gov. Dennis Pineda directed troops from the First Pampanga Provincial Mobile Force Company to rescue Santos minutes before his execution by men from the Serrano family on Thursday.

Policemen found more than 10 young men ready to kill Santos.

They wanted to execute Santos as payment for his father’s killing of their kin, Siete, in 2013, according to Elizabeth Baybayan, provincial social welfare and development officer.

Santos surfaced after six years of hiding to save his mother, Marissa, who was virtually held hostage by members of the Serrano family, Baybayan said.

Marissa reported that her son walked at gunpoint toward a hilltop cemetery where a white coffin was readied for him.

Pineda also organized a team, including Edwin Abuque, indigenous peoples’ mandatory representative, to hear the parties in conflict, concluding the negotiations with the signing of an agreement ending the six-year feud on Saturday.

Stopping retaliation

Invoking the name of God and their mountain deity, Apo Namalyari, the families agreed to stop retaliating against one another.

The Santoses complied with the Serranos’ demand to pay P100,000 in cash, two carabaos and three goats.

Pineda told barangay councils and tribal elders that the right entity to render justice was the government’s justice system.

Abuque said some Aeta were resorting to manablas because they had been impatient or distrustful of the justice system of the “unat” (lowlanders).

Pablo Santos, former commissioner of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, said the Constitution was higher than customary rights and “the Aeta are Filipinos, too.”

The Aeta lived on the middle and lower slopes of Mt. Pinatubo until the volcano’s eruptions in 1991.

Authority diminished

In their long stay in evacuation camps, elders saw their authority diminished as leaders are chosen based on the aid they could bring to the tribe.

Guiao said it was in 2008 that manablas reemerged following the death of a girl in Barangay Planas. “It used to be done silently. And elders investigated well and passed judgment fairly,” Guiao, now in his early 50s, said.

He added: “Now, anyone does it. It has to be regulated. The governor (Pineda) should call for a meeting to discuss this before it gets more out of hand.”

A pending case involved a man from Sitio Lumibao in San Marcelino town, Zambales province, who allegedly killed an Aeta in Barangay Nabuklod in Floridablanca town in Pampanga.

The suspect is in jail but the Aeta want his head, Guiao said.