Two Filipino Farmers Both Drown After Twelve Agonizing Minutes Underwater In Ancient Breath-Holding Ritual To Settle Land Dispute As Horrified Crowd Films Every Second

A land row that should have been settled by paperwork or a village council ended in twin drownings yesterday when two indigenous farmers plunged into a remote Philippine river and refused to surface during an ancient breath-holding ritual known as Sulif.

Tonny Bulanon Mansag, 69, of Sitio Ulo Tubay, and Gaspar Tusan Palasanon, 49, of Sitio Katimbol, both residents of Barangay Datal Anggas in Alabel, Sarangani province, entered the Glamang River at around 10 a.m. on Friday, 16 October. Neither came back alive.

According to the Alabel Municipal Police Station, the two men – members of the Tagakaulo indigenous community – had already failed to resolve their dispute over a parcel of farmland at the barangay level. They then agreed to submit to Sulif, a traditional trial by ordeal in which the disputants submerge themselves and hold their breath. In the belief system of the Tagakaulo and related Blaan communities, the water itself is said to judge who is in the right: the one who surfaces first is typically considered the loser.

What began as a solemn community ceremony quickly turned into a grim spectacle. Dozens of villagers lined the muddy banks of the narrow jungle river, many standing knee-deep in the shallow water, others perched on the steep earthen slopes beneath dense tropical canopy. Almost everyone held a phone aloft, recording as the two farmers disappeared beneath the surface. Minutes ticked by. The crowd grew restless. Still no heads broke the water.

Roughly twelve minutes after they went under – an almost unimaginable length of time for an unassisted breath-hold – bystanders finally intervened. Residents waded in and hauled the limp bodies from the murky river. One elderly woman was filmed cradling one of the men, sobbing uncontrollably as others tried to help. Both victims were rushed to hospital. Mansag was declared dead on arrival at Sarangani Provincial Hospital. Palasanon was taken to a facility in General Santos City, where he died hours later.

Graphic footage of the aftermath, first posted on Facebook by local residents, rapidly went viral across Philippine social media and then internationally. In one circulating clip, a large crowd can be seen packed along both banks, some still filming as people move through the water. Online, an Arabic-language account that amplified the video claimed that witnesses heard the men attempting to surface but were prevented by those overseeing the ritual, because each man “represented his family.” One spectator, according to the same account, simply announced “It’s a tie” once both men were confirmed dead, a darkly macabre verdict that has since been widely shared.

Police say the precise rules of this particular Sulif and the exact nature of the land disagreement remain under investigation. Indigenous leaders have offered condolences while urging caution. Fulung Romy Martin, president of the Sarangani IP Professionals Association, acknowledged that Sulif has long been part of Blaan and related customary justice systems intended to restore peace, but added that “when tradition takes life, it has lost its purpose” and that culture must remain consistent with the law and the right to life.

The tragedy has reignited debate in Mindanao about the tension between ancestral practices and modern legal protections. Land is livelihood for farming families in these upland communities; once a dispute reaches the point where ordinary mediation fails, some still turn to rituals that treat the natural world as final arbiter. In this case, the river delivered no verdict, only two deaths.

Authorities continue to investigate. For the families of Tonny Mansag and Gaspar Palasanon, the disputed land is now secondary to an irreversible loss that began, in the eyes of the watching crowd, with two men simply walking into the water and never coming back up.