Bodong refers to the peace pact or treaty, used by the Kalinga people in Kalinga Province, northern

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. These peace rites are usually accompanied by Kalinga songs such as the ''ading'', ''wasani'' and the ''dandanag''. It is a unique

judicial system The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...

wherein the peace pact holder appointed by the pangat (tribal leaders) of a certain tribe holds a

peace agreement A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, which formally ends a state of war between the parties. It is different from an armistice, which is an agreement to stop hostilities; a surr ...

with another

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

. In this system, two tribes agree to ally with each other. The bodong is usually worked out in large gatherings between two villages that belong to the same geographic area and shares kinship ties. They call the written laws pagta. The tribes in Kalinga are known for their tribal-wars wherein a life is repayable only with another life. These vengeful tribes will not settle unless the tribe of the person who committed the

misdemeanor A misdemeanor (American English, spelled misdemeanour elsewhere) is any "lesser" criminal act in some common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished less severely than more serious felonies, but theoretically more so than admi ...

will surrender or will be killed. Eduardo Masferré notes that by the start of American colonial period, the neighboring

Bontoc Bontoc may refer to: * Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines * Bontoc, Southern Leyte, Philippines * Bontoc people, an ethnic group from Central Luzon, Philippines * Bontoc language, spoken by the Bontoc people {{disambig, geo Language and ...

and

Gaddang people The Gaddang are an officially-recognized Indigenous peoples of the Philippines, indigenous people and a linguistically identified ethnic groups in the Philippines, ethnic group residing for centuries in the Northern Luzon watershed of the Cagayan Ri ...

had begun adapting peace pact customs based on the Kalinga Bodong.

References

Law of the Philippines Culture of Kalinga (province) {{Philippines-stub