Killing for Honor

To round off our discussion on violence in Manobo culture, I’ll say a few things here about the most recent violent incident involving Manobo men.

More than a year ago, a Visayan family of five was murdered in the village of Midtungok. Here’s the report from Mindanews.

The village where the massacre happened is quite far from where I stay, at least an hour away by motorcycle. My village, however, is swarming with the relatives of the victims, about a quarter to half of the population. Jolly Fegurac’s parents and brothers live here. I am, therefore, privy to some information that didn’t make it to the papers.

Some people here say that Josephine Fegurac was a little too sharp-tongued, and she might have let out stinging remarks against her Manobo enemies in front of them. The killing, therefore, might have been more for honor than due to material interest. It is said that the Feguracs obtained a lease on a land owned by a Manobo, but the two parties did not agree later on whether the trees could be cut as part of the contract. The Feguracs insisted they had the right to the trees and bought two chainsaws. Right on that night, before the machines could be used the next day, the Feguracs’ home was raided.

So far, one suspect, an official of the village, has surrendered to the authorities. That’s the only development on the case. Take note that the suspect surrendered and was not apprehended. I could go on and on about the ineptitude of the local police and the slothfulness of the local government officials, but let me stop myself. I’m here to discuss the causes of violence in Manobo culture.

Fr. Rafael Tianero, in his book Violence and Christianization in Manoboland, cites a similar but less grisly case. Sometime in 1998, a merchant Visayan couple from Kulaman village went to the hamlet of Tinandok to collect some debts. When one Manobo could not pay, the Visayan woman berated him in front of his wife and children. The Manobo man bore the humiliation is silence, and the merchant couple went off to sell their wares to other houses. The couple was not able to go back home to Kulaman. The next day, their motorcycle and their bodies were found lying beside the road. They had been hacked to death, their money and wares left untouched.

I’ll leave it to you to think further why such things happen between Manobo and Christians.