Son of Macliing Dulag among dead in Kalinga bus crash

The eldest son of Ama Macliing Dulag, Kalinga tribal leader and martyr during the Marcos era, was among the eight deaths in the passenger bus crash in Tabuk City in Kalinga province Tuesday. Francis Macliing was killed along with seven others when their bus fell into a ravine while negotiating a curve in Naneng village in upper Tabuk. (See: 8 dead, 51 others hurt in Kalinga road crash) According to the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), a federation of indigenous organizations in the Cordillera region, Francis himself pursued the same cause that his father died for. Francis' father, Macliing Dulag, was a respected pangat (tribal chieftain) of the province’s Butbut tribe who helped lead an alliance of tribes in the northern Cordillera to resist the Chico Dam project of then President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s. He was killed by Army soldiers in 1980.

“Like his father, Francis was actively involved in building inter-tribal unity in his home province and the struggle for the defense of Cordillera indigenous peoples’ ancestral domain and self-determination. He remained an active member of CPA and participated in Cordillera Day celebrations until his death," the CPA said in a letter addressed to its members. The death of Francis, who was in his late fifties, came just a little over a week before the 26th Cordillera Day celebrations that are held annually in honor of his father and other indigenous peoples' martyrs.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMANews.TV