PORAC -- Nineteen-year-old Anton Santos could have met a gruesome fate if not for the timely intervention of Governor Dennis Pineda who ordered the rescue of the young Aeta who was set to become a victim of revenge killing.
Santos was in fact minutes away from being executed, as payment for his father’s killing of a fellow Aeta in 2013, if not for the timely intervention which involved three days of suspenseful negotiations that ended on Saturday, August 24.
Anton’s father Tony was blamed for the death of Siete Serrano on February 26, 2013, according to data gathered by the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO).
Because Tony died of a heart attack, Anton, although a minor then, was targeted as payment for the blood debt. Anton surfaced after six years of hiding because the Serrano family threatened to kill his mother Marissa. Revenge killing, though rarely practiced, is part of the Aeta traditional law.
Marissa begged the governor for urgent help because she said her son was forced to walk at gunpoint to a cemetery in Sitio Balangkas in the mountains of Camias where a white coffin was readied on Thursday.
A task force, led by First Pampanga Provincial Mobile Force Company head Lieutenant Colonel Michael Masangkay and Porac chief of police Lieutenant Colonel Lev Hope Basilio, rescued Anton in the nick of time.
“We respect their customs but the government is the right entity to render justice,” Governor Pineda said.
The governor assembled PSWDO head Elizabeth Baybayan, Porac Mayor Jing Capil, Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative Edwin Abuque and the barangay councils of Camias and Planas to hear the parties in conflict.
Baybayan helped the two families reasonably understand their situations by conducting a life-coaching activity.
The Santos and Serrano families finally put the matter to rest, thumb-marking an agreement at the Porac town hall on Saturday. They invoked God and their deity, Apo Namalyari, when they promised to stop the conflict among their families.
The Santos family paid P100,000, two carabaos and three goats to “compensate” for the death of Serrano who was 23 at the time of his death during a drinking bout.
“I appeal to our tribal brothers and sisters. Let us put our families and communities at peace. Let us follow the laws of our country. Do not take the law in your hands,” the governor said.