From Words to Legal Artifacts: A Forensic Linguistic Analysis of Settlement Agreements in Sultan Kudarat

This study explored the legal domain of Maguindanaon settlement agreements to uncover how language constructs and legitimizes authority, codifies obligations, and enacts validation practices within community-based legal discourse. Guided by the lens of forensic linguistics through Critical Discourse Analysis, the study explored 51 authentic settlement documents encompassing land, marriage, and financial disputes. Findings revealed that the agreements linguistically legitimize jurisdictional authority by invoking recognized institutions such as barangay councils, Islamic courts, and revolutionary or military leaders, whose presence transforms texts into performative acts of governance. The terms and conditions, meanwhile, delineate obligations, remedies, and sanctions through direct, measurable, and culturally resonant language that balances state legality with moral responsibility. These clauses encode fairness, transparency, and reconciliation, transforming social norms into enforceable legal commitments. Finally, validation and evidentiary practices such as signatures, witnessing, recordkeeping, and the inclusion of official seals discursively transform oral understandings into binding artifacts. The interplay of linguistic authority, moral endorsement, and documentary proof demonstrates how Maguindanaon legal culture harmonizes customary law, Islamic jurisprudence, and state mechanisms. Overall, the study underscores the role of language as both a medium and a mechanism of justice, revealing that Maguindanaon settlement agreements are not merely records of resolution but performative texts that enact law, legitimacy, and communal harmony.