16 Oct 2007

We should be like the Lumads

While Manila’s headlines buzzed with the NBN deal scandal and Malacanang payoffs, an assembly by lumad leaders under PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao was taking place in Davao City.

At the meeting, lumad leaders from the Mandaya, Mansaka, D’babawon, Ata-Manobo, Ata-Matigsalog, Tagabawa, Obo-Manobo, B’laan, and Bagobo tribes articulated the greater challenges that they face in defending their ancestral lands. They cited intrusions into their lands by foreign corporate interest groups through plantations, mining, logging, and dam projects. Their other common problems were militarization and the IPRA (Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act).

It was not hard for them to connect militarization and foreign corporate interests. They are harassed by the military as they assert the boundaries of their ancestral lands which have been marked by their traditional laws and respected by community members and neighbors. These are the same areas targeted by foreign corporations for their projects.

The IPRA requires lumads to register claims to their ancestral land before they are given a deed of ownership. Funny. Lumads were here before us. It is the state who should recognize indigenous people’s right to their ancestral lands. In fact, one lumad commented, they were here even before God. Indeed they were here long before the Spanish conquistadores brought along their Christian God.

More contentious about IPRA is that it introduces private land ownership, contradicting the indigenous peoples’ concept of land as communal property for the common good. The process creates a new breed of a few landed elites, who could easily sell-out for their own personal interests.
 

The lumads are unfazed. They ended the assembly united, determined, and confident in their struggle to defend their ancestral lands and their culture. Lumads are Filipinos. ►►

They are one of us. Their victory is ours too, and the country will be in a much better shape if we are one like them.###

JLP/Concerned Artists of the Philippines

Press Release

October 6, 2007

LUMADS TO FACE GREATER CHALLENGES

OF DEFENDING ANCESTRAL LANDS

Amidst threats of globalization and militarization

To identify key problems faced by the lumads and come up with a course of action on how to strengthen their unity they are beset by intensifying problems on development aggression and militarization, the PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao will be holding its 5^th General Assembly from October 6 to 10, 2007 at Hope Mountain, Tugbok, Davao City.

Datu Monico Cayog, a Bagobo Datu and Secretary General of PASAKA stressed the greater challenge in defending their ancestral lands and the future of the new generation of lumads.

PASAKA also engages the government.  “Ten years after the enactment of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act, our plight is no better than before. In fact, we are at a far worst state --- more of us are landless, threatened of our peace and security due to impending development projects that even more swiftly encroach upon our lands because of IPRA.”

IPRA is internationally acclaimed for being the first legislation in the world that gives due recognition to indigenous peoples’ rights.

In his visit to the Philippines from 2-10 December 2002, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples has this to say: “Whilst some progress has been made in this respect, it is also clear that the legal recognition of ancestral domains and land titles has been a slow and cumbersome process, full of pitfalls and ambiguities, which often drive indigenous communities to despair of the usefulness of IPRA (RA 8371) as an effective legal instrument.”

Cayog also cited the sorry plight of the lumads in areas targeted by “pseudo-development” projects such as the case of the lumads in   Brgy. Sta.Cruz, Davao Del Sur where the construction of a hydro-powerplant is underway.

He also noted the soaring number of mining applications in Mindanao which he said is certain to result to the eventual death of lumad life and culture.

“The transfer of mining in the direct control of President Arroyo, will cost luamds their ancestral lands, and our sovereign right as a nation,” Cayog said.

Cayog reiterates Stavenhagen’s report: “Many communities resist being forced or pressured into development projects which destroy their traditional economy, community structures, and cultural values, a process that has been aptly described as development aggression.”

Download statement

Download: 1994/45. Draft United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples
 

Press Release

October 9, 2007

LUMAD LEADERS: 

STOP THE SELL OUT OF OUR ANCESTRAL LANDS

A delegation of lumad leaders representing 23 lumad organizations in Southern Mindanao and North Cotobato trooped to the office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) today to decry their appalling plight which they attribute to the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).

Calling for the scrap of IPRA which they say facilitates the entry of mining, logging and other destructive projects in their ancestral lands were lumad leaders from the Mandaya, Mansaka, D’babawon, Ata-Manobo, Ata-Matigsalog, Tagabawa, Obo-Manobo, B’laan, and Bagobo tribes, under the umbrella of PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao.

Ata-Matigsalog leader Bibiyaon Likayan Bigkay appeals to the NCIP, “We want to register our community’s united stand that we will not apply for any title under IPRA and that we disallow any mining and logging operation in our community.”

Bibiyaon Bigkay expressed fears that their lands might have already been applied for by other lumad leaders who are propelled by personal interests to own more lands, similar to what happened in other lumad communities.

According to PASAKA, the case of the indigenous Subanens of Siocon, Zamboanga highlighted the “deceptive nature” of IPRA. In this case, the tribe’s Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) failed to stop the entry of Canadian mining firm, Toronto Ventures Incorporated (TVI) in Mt. Canatuan which is a sacred ground for the Subanens.

“This experience opened the eyes of many indigenous communities who thought IPRA was a sincere response to their clamor for the recognition of their ancestral lands,” Newly-elect PASAKA Chairperson Mel Elio from the Bagobo tribe stated.

In 2006, the Salugpongan Ta Tanu Igkanugon, a municipal-wide lumad organization in Talaingod in Daval Del Norte issued a formal petition withdrawing its application for a CADT.

The Ata – Manobo tribes composing Salugpongan opted to use as a shield their own traditional laws. ­Salugpongan datus demanded instead for the government to respect their existing rights to land and self-determination, which goes far beyond the scope of IPRA.

“The main contention of many indigenous tribes against IPRA is that it contradicts the indigenous peoples’ basic concept on land, land use and ownership. While land is a communal property for lumads, IPRA introduces private ownership and in the process creates a new breed of a few landed elites, sows division within the community; especially through the lumad vigilante and paramilitary groups being formed as a so-called “defense units” of CADT areas,” Elio said.

The protest action at the NCIP is a culmination of PASAKA’s 5^th General Assembly wherein the lumad leaders addressed their common problems on development aggression, IPRA and militarization.

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