Ifugao Law / (In American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 15, No. 1)

by Roy Franklin Barton

Transient Tenure

45. Tenure of sweet potato fields.—Sweet potato, or camote, fields are clearings on the mountain sides about the village. They are nearly always steep slopes, and quickly lose their fertility. For that reason, they are abandoned after a period that varies in different districts of Ifugao according as camotes are a more or less important factor in the subsistence of the people. Thus in Banaue, where camotes form a very large part of the subsistence of the people, the fields are cultivated for five or even six years, if located near the village; if more distant, they are abandoned after about two years. In Kiangan, where camotes do not play such an important part in subsistence, the fields are in any case abandoned after one or two years. The reason for abandoning the fields is that the soil wears out soon, so that the camotes grow small, and the yield does not repay the labor spent in cultivation. But in case a large area about the village be cultivated, rather than face the necessity of going far from the village to make clearings, the old fields are tended to a point at which the yield becomes almost nil. After abandoning a field, the owner still has a claim on it, but only until such time as the field grows up in weeds, in which case the labor spent by him in making the clearing may be fairly presumed to have been undone. After abandonment, the field regains its fertility slowly. The first person who begins clearing the field again becomes its possessor for a new term of years. It is exceedingly rare that quarrels arise over camote fields. Camote fields are sometimes sold, but it is not the land that is sold, but the crop with temporary possession of the land.

Transfers of Property for a Consideration

There are two kinds of transfer of family property for “consideration”: the balal (pawn), and outright sale.

46. The balal.—In case a man finds himself under the necessity of raising a considerable sum of money—usually in order to provide funds for a funeral feast or a sacrifice—he frequently borrows the sum, giving a rice field into the hands of his creditor as a security and as a means of paying the interest on debt. The creditor holds, plants, and harvests the field until the debt be repaid. The field is to all purposes his, except that he cannot sell it. He can, however, transfer it as a balal into the hands of another. But he must transfer it for the same or a less amount of money; that is, if he has loaned fifty pesos on the field, he must not borrow more than that sum, unless, of course, he be able to secure the owner’s consent. This is a very wise provision of Ifugao law that insures the prompt return of the field to the owner as soon as he be able to get together the amount needed to redeem the field. An example will make this clear. A borrows fifty pesos of B, giving his field as a balal into B’s charge; B gives it as a balal to C for the same or a less amount, who gives it as a balal to D and so on. When A is able to repay the debt, he goes to B and delivers him the sum plus the fee of the agent through whom the deal was effected. With this amount, including the fee, B goes to C, C goes to D, and so on. Were B to have borrowed without A’s consent more than fifty pesos, say seventy pesos, and were he not financially able to obtain the difference (twenty pesos) between his debt to C and the debt that A had just paid him, there would be an excellent beginning for a quarrel that might end in lance throwing.

Real estate of this kind continues in the hands of the creditor until the debt be paid. Transfers of the same piece of land may go on indefinitely. The transfers are witnessed each time by the agent who obtains the loan for the person in whose charge the field is. This agent receives as his fee about five to twelve per cent of the value of the loan obtained. He is the only witness necessary. His fee is paid him in the first place by the creditor. But the fee is added to the amount loaned, and must be returned by the debtor when the debt is paid. As soon as the agent has received his fee, it is his duty to inform his oldest son, in case he be of sufficient age, otherwise his wife or a brother, of the terms of the transaction. This is a precautionary measure against his death and the consequent leaving of the transaction without a witness.

Each creditor is liable to his debtor for the return of the field upon the payment of the sum due, the case being precisely parallel to the liability of the indorsers of a check or a note, one to another.

Suppose, however, that the field be planted in rice. In such an event, the owner must leave the creditor in possession of the field until the crop shall have been harvested. In case the field be newly planted, it is sometimes returned to the owner on the agreement that he care for the growing crop, harvest it, and give the creditor half. If the field be spaded, but not planted, the owner may pay his creditor for the cost of the labor expended in spading the field, together with a bonus as interest.

The amount loaned on a field never equals the value of the field. Usually it is about half the value. It makes no difference how long a field remain in the status known as balal, the field, subject to the conditions of the preceding paragraph, must be returned to the owner or his heirs whenever the amount loaned be returned. Sometimes a field remains a balal for two or three generations.