Pio Gabad Arce

A Manobo Cheiftain named Buaya is performing Pangayaw or vendetta killing. In this contemporary suspense, Pangayaw may be culturally sanctioned but the Philippine Government is not about to sit and watch the Davao River flowing with blood.

Buaya is a tragic villain. His childhood is littered with deaths. Someone declared a Pangayaw on his fahter eliminating his mother and his father’s mistress. The tragedy did not stop there for the other tribe killed his cheiftain uncle and everyone else in his family. His hatred for Man-Okil, the man from the other tribe who started the trouble, makes him obsessed with the ritual killing. Buaya’s Pangayaw demands he kill Man-Okil, all his relatives and anyone who stands in the way. The government sends fresh graduate Romeo Del Rosario. If this soldier fails, the government will use him as a scapegroat. Del Rosario on the other hand will not let that happen. He graduated Cum Laude for a reason. Even when his comrades don’t follow his lead, he still goes by the book. But whatever it takes, he must capture Buaya.

Enter another character in the story who will change Buaya’s life for better or worse. Apino Banayao graduated in a Manobo Bible School as a pastor and was sent to Gumitan to set-up a pastorage. He meets and nurses the injured Buaya. Buaya listens to the Pastor and his family in singing and teaching about the bible unfortunately the call to kill brings him back to the jungle and there, all the characters go down in one big showdown.

In the end, Buaya surreneders himself to the Pastor and asks to be killed. The Pastor, hurt from loosing his son to Buaya, greives but forgives Buaya. The killing was over. Liutenant Del Rosario cuffs Buaya and takes him away.

Set in the warn and dense jungle of Southern Mindanao, the books vividly describes the scenes and the horrors each character experiences. Buaya’s life was filled with blood from childhood to adulthood. It took someone to declare Pangayaw and the other party would retaliate. Each party retaliates until the cycle becomes a blackhole ruining everyone and everything in its path. Even the innocent are not spared. Arce’s Blood for Blood shows this cycle in Buaya. This action filled book is a must in Philippine Literature.… (meer)