INTIMIDATION: Village Justice Repression | Igorotage

Intimidation can be described as the intentional behaviors of forcing another person to experience general discomfort. Intimidation is oppressive, unreasonable and unjust. For the case in point, depriving the ownership, control and operation of the family ancestral lands and water well system. On March 16, 2021 the onsite Informal Settlers whom I posted as construction workers, filled three columns of the Heritage House with substandard cement mix of 1:5:3; despite instruction not to do so. Underneath the main room of a 1930 original structure which was extended twice, over the years; scaffolding were placed excessively with the intention for the room to collapse once removed after the standard duration for the column repairs dried out. I had all scaffolding removed and the cement fill replaced the following day by crew from Datakan: Carl Gaspar and Judimar Badang; and the Heritage house had been safely saved. Samples of these substandard cement fill are kept. The material dried out brittle but did not combine to set in a hard glue-like fashion of cement mix. Then the footings were made to be deeper and broader than the illustration prepared by the Structural Engineer, and left half open since these are to be slabbed out fully with a nice topping, in the planned phase two completion of the structure. Over the Philippines’ three tropical cyclones Emong, Fabian, and Gorio for 2021 July; the drainage of these informal settlers had been directed to the family house, causing land slide on the eroding cliff for bulldozer works; making a mud filled space to evidence the darkness of them souls. Young students of the Labueg Parish school whom I once tutored for math and science: Steven Bay-An, Juliene Bay-An and Lester Bay-An, helped convoy mud filled sacks, which I vacuumed out of these mud-filled columns. Engr Romeo Densen of the Benguet Provincial Engineering Office, sent two hauler crew, Maverik and Ceasar from the Salasa family; to excavate properly formed ditches to rectify the improvised canals I set. Again, the Heritage house had been saved from the informal settlers incoherent ranting “Itumba Yan Molintas House”. On March 5th in the year before, I had all the chicken coups around the house taken off. The pong reeked and full of flies.These informal settlers barricaded the path and suspended the use of water and the bathroom. I had a good comfort room built. Yet the informal settlers tresspassed when nobody is home and broke the tank flush and bent the water pipes outside. On other ocassions they tresspass the property to burn portions of the pastureland. Yet even when discrimination had been apparent, and deliberate action very obvious; the most twisted remarks came across as an expression of group think.

For the piteously criminal mindset of cruel and destructive, biased by institutional and professional mechanisms that feed the confidence for gangster squat; the day of reckoning is yet to come.