Mt. Province and Kalinga to focus solving Butbut and Betwagan boundary dispute

Tabuk City, Kalinga – The long-standing dispute on land borders between the Butbut sub-tribe in Tinglayan and the Betwagan sub-tribe in Sadanga will be one of the priorities of both governors of Kalinga and Mt. Province during their term.

Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan and Governor James Edduba sat down together and talked about resolutions regarding the dispute between the two sub-tribes during the kick-off ceremony of the Cordillera Month on Friday, July 1.

Both expressed their willingness to solve the issue in the soonest possible time.

Edduba said the safety of the community, particularly the children, is a big issue.

The livelihood of the two sub-tribes, he said, is also heavily impacted because of the dispute.

For Governor Lacwasan, he suggested that the series of resolutions made by both provinces should be continued to attain peace and order, recalling the conflict started back in the 1990’s.

RPOC’s role in solving the border dispute and Tinglayan Mayor’s proposal

Another hope in resolving the dispute is seen as the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC)–Cordillera prioritized the border conflict problem in its 2022 agenda along with marijuana eradication.

Mayor Sacrament Gumilab proposed to the body a convention that would serve as an avenue for sub-tribe members of the two conflicting parties to sit together and discuss their differences and find workable means to resolve the border issue

The convention, as planned, will take place this July.

As recalled, a source said the boundary dispute between the two sub-tribes started in 2001 and was solved through a peace pact in 2007, but again, a disagreement between them arose in 2019.

In February 2020, a shooting incident transpired which broke the peace pact agreement.

Several peace dialogues were then initiated by Police Regional Office-Cordillera (PRO-COR) to solve the conflict.

The peace talks spearheaded by the police did not yield much success as a resolution was made by the Butbut sub-tribe declaring some of the high-ranking police officials as persona non grata – this happened due to the alleged dismantling of a civilian outpost in the disputed boundary of the two sub-tribes.

Series of talks continued but none of them clearly solved the issue so far.

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