Sagada elders perform rituals for safe journey, justice for fallen SAF hero

By: Arthur L. Allad-iw, Northern Dispatch (special to InterAksyon.com)
February 3, 2015 3:53 PM http://www.interaksyon.com/article/104302/sagada-elders-perform-rituals-for-safe-journey-justice-for-fallen-saf-hero
 

Special Action Force personnel attend the wake for PO1 Russel Bilog in Baguio City. (photo by Arthur Allad-iw, Northern Dispatch)

InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -- For elders of the eastern villages of Sagada, Mountain Province, respect for a fallen hero is manifested in the rituals tradition obliges them to perform, accompanied by prayers that none of his kin meet the same fate and that he have justice in hand as he joins his ancestors in the outer world.

Thus it was for Police Officer 1 Russel Bawaan Bilog, 28, one of the 44 Special Action Force commandos who died in battle in faraway Mamasapano, Maguindanao on January 25 as the elders of his village offered animals and read the sacrificed creatures’ bile to ensure his safe journey and welcome by his ancestors and Creator.

Residents of PO1 Bilog's native Sagada village attend his wake in Baguio City. (photo by Arthur L. Allad-iw)

Aside from Bilog, 12 more of the SAF 44 trace their ancestry to the Cordilleras, including two others from Sagada -- PO3 Noel Onangey Golucan and PO2 Jerry Cayob.

The other Cordillerans were PO2 Nobel Kiangan of Mankayan, Benguet; PO1 Angel Kodiamat of Bontoc, Mountain Province; PO2 Walter Danao of Irisan, Baguio City; PO1 Gringo Cayang-o of Bontoc, Mountain Province; PO2 Peterson Carap of Kabayan, Benguet; PO2 Joel Dulnuan of Kiangan, Ifugao; PO3 Robert Allaga of Banaue, Ifugao; PO2 Franklin Danao of Tinoc, Ifugao; Senior Inspector Gednat Tabde of La Trinidad, Benguet; and Senior Inspector Cyrus Anniban of Balbalan, Kalinga.


A SAF honor guard stands by PO1 Bilog's coffin

The series of rituals for Bilog began Saturday morning when his body, in a sealed coffin, was taken home to Puliwes in this city and a pig was offered in a ritual called “senga” to signal the start of the overnight wake for the fallen policeman.

Two more pigs would be sacrificed that evening, one in a ritual called “linabi,” and another called the “alolosan” at 3 a.m. Sunday.

A pig is butchered in the ritual called 'linabi,' performed at the wake of PO1 Bilog. 

In between these, Lakay Eduardo Latawan, offered a chicken in the “pamutbutan” ritual, reciting prayers in Sagada Kankanaey.

Harking to the martial tradition of the northern tribes, the prayers for Bilog not only asked that he be the last of his kin to fall in battle but that he be allowed to take vengeance on his killers with the help of his ancestor.

A chicken is sacrificed in the 'pamutbutan' ritual by a Kankanaey elder from Sagada

As tradition requires for those who fall in battle, Bilog was buried at the Baguio cemetery as the sun rose Sunday.

Another ritual, the “daw-es,” or cleansing, was performed for Bilog’s family after the funeral “to end this kind of nightmare and to overcome the incident and to move on,” an elder explained.

But as he was laid to rest, the recriminations began, with condemnation for President Benigno Aquino III, who is widely perceived to be responsible for sending Bilog and his comrades to their deaths.

“There should be a full-blown investigation into the incident and appropriate charges should be filed against all those who are involved in the incident,” said Baguio City Councilor Faustino Olowan, who also traces his roots to the same eastern Sagada village as Bilog.