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POLICE REPORTS 

PRO-COR Chief told not to interfere without understanding issues

Writer's picture: Christian MalnawaChristian Malnawa

Updated: Mar 12, 2021


Tinglayan, Kalinga – Relative to the boundary dispute between the cultural communities of Betwagan and Butbut, officials of this municipality through a resolution on Tuesday, March 9 2021, urged the Cordillera Police Regional Director to ‘stop usurping and arrogating upon himself powers and functions solely within the sphere of the Local Government Units.’


The local government unit through Resolution No. 08 Series of 2021 likewise requested the provincial LGUs Kalinga and Mountain Province to create a special body to take charge of the negotiation and amicable settlement, taking into full consideration the indigenous culture and tradition of both tribes.

In said resolution, Tinglayan officials claimed that they had been working with the City of Tabuk, and the Provincial Local Government Units of Kalinga and Mountain Province to solve the issue but said efforts was interrupted when Police Regional Director PBGen R’win Pagkalinawan ‘interfered hastily.’


“While the concerned Local Government Units are executing their plans to amicably settle the boundary, the Regional Director interfered hastily without fully understanding the real situation, the history of the conflict, and the idiosyncrasies of the culture and tradition of the tribe whose constituents are all indigenous people living in an ancestral domain,” the resolution states.

“The Regional Director acted unilaterally without coordination with the LGUs concerned and his actions blatantly went against the culture and tradition of the tribes and the real situation of both tribes vis-à-vis the conflict,” the resolution further explains.


Said action, the officials added, resulted to the indignation from the tribes and sowed mistrust against the government.

The LGU however, acknowledged in said resolution, the zeal and enthusiasm of the Regional Director in trying to resolve the issue, but as a result of his actions, he was asked to limit participation so as not to worsen the situation.


The longstanding boundary dispute between the two tribes started in 2001 which was then solved through a peace pact forged in 2007, but a disagreement arose in 2019 that resulted to the severance of the peace pact.



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