Tribal court absolves vice mayor of sex raps

SANTA FE, Nueva Vizcaya — A customary law has saved the vice mayor of this upland town dominated by Kalanguya natives from possible imprisonment for sexually molesting a 21-year-old coed.

This, after the Kalanguya council of elders cleared Vice Mayor Donior Tidang in the tongtongan or tribal court from possible criminal liabilities for sexually molesting the college sophomore.

Tidang’s exoneration cost him P90,000 which he paid as "moral damages" to the girl. He also will have to sponsor a laga or feast where animals would be butchered, cooked and later partaken of by the relatives and neighbors of Tidang and the girl.

"The case between Vice Mayor Donior Tidang and the (girl) is absolutely settled by the tribal elders through customary laws and tradition… that he will pay the amount of P90,000 as moral damages to (her) on or before April 7, 2002," part of the settlement paper dated Feb. 6 states.

The 56-year-old Tidang, a father of four, told reporters that he had paid the amount to the girl’s family even before the imposed deadline.

The tribal council of the Kalanguyas, a subgroup of the Igorots, summoned Tidang, himself a Kalanguya, to a tongtongan after the girl, who belongs to the same tribe, lodged a complaint for sexual molestation against him with the council.

The customary practice of tongtongan among Kalanguyas has proven to be effective in resolving offenses such as rape, sexual molestation, murder and other acts considered heinous by government laws.

In his testimony written in the vernacular, Tidang confessed to having sex with the girl several times in June, July and November last year, with one of the incidents taking place inside a government-issued vehicle.

"She was usually even the one removing my pants," he claimed, disputing allegations that he raped his "foster child."

In one of these incidents, Tidang admitted having taken the sex-enhancing drug Viagra before he had sex with the coed.

He insisted, however, that he did not force himself on the girl whose schooling he had supported after she graduated valedictorian from high school.

Tidang, a minister of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, said he and the girl were already having an affair when he tried using Viagra which, he said, he bought from a friend.

However, the relatives of the girl, who studies in the capital town of Bayombong, insisted that the vice mayor might have applied some pressure on her.