By Jun Enriquez
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| Higaonon tribal council with Sultan Saidona attended the Feedback Session |
Iligan
City (June 6, 2016) - Rogongon is one of the 44 Barangays that can be found in a mountainous area of Iligan City. Iligan City has a total land area of 82,000 hectares and the 60 percent of the total land area of Iligan City is occupied by Barangay Rogongon. It has a distance at about 30 kilometers east of Iligan city proper and
has an estimated population of 5,000 people. Majority of the inhabitants in the
area are the Indigenous people of Higaonon tribe. Some of the Higaonons converted their faith into Christians, others converted into Islam but the
remaining members of the tribe remain to be a full blooded Lumad in practice of
their culture and tradition. Inter-marriages among the three tribes, the Moro,
Christians and the Lumad become common in the place and knowing each other’s
culture established good relations among them. Lumad married to either the
Christians or Muslims called “Kolibogan”. There is a Tribal council created by the Higaonon Tribe for the preservation of their culture and peaceful coexistence with other tribes. A Community policing Toolkit Feedback session was conducted on April 16, 2016 attended by the members of the Higaonon tribal Council composed of Datus' and Baes' for awareness raising purposes.
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| Bae Gloria Soong, Princess of Higaonon Tribe, Bagy Councilor of Rogongon |
One
of the Tribal leaders of the Higaonon tribe is Sultan Saidona Mansumayan, a Muslim-Lumad
and a tribal leader. He is popular to be called Sultan Saidona, also a Barangay
Councilor of Rogongon, Iligan City. Sultan Saidona is the Committee Chairman of
the Peace and order in the Barangay Council of Rogongon. The Higaonon tribe
have its own traditional way of settling dispute on amicable settlement to
prevent “Rido” or family feud through the Tribal leaders as mediators. However, the
Tribal leaders have no capacities in solving bigger crimes especially on
illegal drugs related cases. The tribal traditional dispute settlement is only
applicable to the IPs or Lumads and Muslims but not in the Christians. In the case of the Christians' disputes against other tribes will be brought to the Barangay Justice system. The Barangay Justice
system is also inclined on amicable settlement, if not the case will be
elevated to the proper court. Sultan Saidona had attended series of
consultations on community policing conducted by the “Bantay Kalilintad”
network, a group of peace advocates in Iligan city and Lanao del Norte advocating Community Policing.
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| A Higaonon Datu narrated their traditional laws on dispute settlement |
Sultan
Saidona said there are cases in the area that cannot be solved in traditional
way or in the Barangay justice system such as illegal drugs related cases. Upon
listening to the discussions on Community Policing Sultan Saidona have
understood clearly the principles and purposes of the community policing. He
said Community policing is a big help on crime solution in Rogongon, the type
of policing with the participation of the community is in the right track. Bae Gloria Soong, also a member of the Tribal Council and a Barangay Councilor of Rogongon have had the same perception with Sultan Saidona. Bae means princess in the Higaonon tribe. The Higaonon tribe participants understands community and the police are partners on crime solution that should be developed and
strengthened to achieve just peace. However the community expressed their
concern that there must be a police to be assigned in their area in Rogongon. During
the presentation of the Toolkit, the participants from the three tribes, Moro,
Lumad and Christian settlers are hopeful for the implementation of the
Community Policing because the people in Rogongon is in need of a police to
solve the problem on criminalities. As a Tribal and political leader, Sultan
Saidona is hopeful that Community Policing will be realized in Rogongon, Iligan
City. Photo by Jacmen Macatimbol.
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