BANGUED, Abra (PIA) --The town of Tubo is recognized as the most peaceful town not only in Abra but in the entire Cordillera region as conferred by the Philippine National Police during the Police Regional Office of Cordillera (PRO-Cor) Command Conference on January 18, 2023.

For this achievement, the Municipal Local Government Unit (LGU) headed by Mayor Liberty La-os attributed it to  their cultural governance known as the “Dap-ay” System.

This is the system of governance among the Maeng tribe that dates back decades ago. It involves the principle of elders-led decision making, tribal unity and collective leadership among indigenous peoples’ leaders and elders.

This cultural governance involves the participation of the Council of Elders of the community by guiding the children and the youth until they grow, as well as their guiding norm in times of difficulties,” La-os shared during the 1st quarter meeting of the Provincial Peace and Order Council.

Through the Dap-ay, the elders inculcate in the minds of the people through their guidance that committing crime is not acceptable in the community, thus resulting to a zero-crime rate in the municipality.  

“Our town is generally peaceful due to the cultures of the Maeng People who believe that prosperity and development is an outcome of a peaceful and orderly community,” La-os explained.

 The municipality also holds the record of a drug-free municipality and it has never been affected by illegal-drug activities. All of the 10 barangays were certified and declared by PDEA as never been affected.

Aside from the dap-ay system, the Maeng tribe of Tubo is also founded by other peace-keeping programs such as the ‘Siglat mo Monitoring Program’ which regularly checks on the local governance of Barangay and the Lapat system which is a community-based resource management system of regulating and prohibiting the harvesting of forest and water by-products to maintain biodiversity. (JDP/CAGT – PIA CAR, Abra)