CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/27 July) -- Indigenous Peoples leaders gathered at the Manresa Retreat Conference Center blasted this government’s obsession with opening ancestral domain lands to corporate plunder. “There is an integral link between ancestral domains and our life, culture and livelihoods, but to the government our resource and biodiversity rich lands are only seen as sources for profit. We will remember the Arroyo administration for the rapacious greed that has brought deprivation, dislocation, and death to lumad communities”, lamented Dulphing Ogan, secretary general of Katawhanung Lumad sa Mindanao.

Frustrated that the plight of indigenous peoples in the Philippines had never been reflected in any of President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Addresses (SONA), indigenous peoples leaders have come together to hold their own State of Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA) with the theme “Continuing the historical struggle for the right to self determination”.

In her 2001 SONA, GMA promised to distribute 100 Certificate of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADTs) per year but instead of securing lumads in their ancestral domains, the SIPA participants felt more vulnerable now during her last SONA than they ever had been. “Puros kabalaka, puros kakuyaw alang sa kaugmaon para sa tribu ug sa mga teritoryo sa mga lumad ang nahatag sa mga proyekto ni Arroyo ngadto sa mga inahan.” (Because of Arroyo’s projects, we lumad mothers are always full of fear and anxiety for future of the tribe and our territory), shared Patricia Bulay of the Subanon Getaw Tasan from Midsalip, Zamboanga del Sur.

Another IP women leader, Bae Rose Undag of Kahiusaan sa mga Higanonon Incorporated (HKI) from Claveria, Misamis Oriental said this of the current woman president, “nine years of GMA presidency has given us lumad women nothing but utmost neglect.

Others protested the force, bribery and deceit used by the government and company personnel in the entry of extractive projects into IP territories and the break-up of communities and division among tribal leaders and members resulting from these. Specifically targeted is the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) that has become more identified with facilitating entry of corporate interests and in sowing disunity in IP communities rather than protecting indigenous peoples and their territories.

Aside from displacement of communities caused by these projects, the resistance of IP communities had been dealt with violence and human rights violations. The Indigenous Peoples Rights Monitor has documented the killings of137 IP community members from the year 2001 until May 1 of 2009, among these are 13 women (4 were pregnant) and 19 youth. 16 cases of extra-judicial killings of IP leaders were also documented.

For the SIPA participants this is the true state of their people – ever increasing violence in the corporate pursuit of the plunder of ancestral domains abetted by the government. “Ang among yutang kabilin wala nay nahibilin, unsa pa ang yutang mabilin para sa sunod na henerasyon” (There will be nothing left of our ancestral domains, what would we leave the next generation with?) added Duphing Ogan. “We will make sure this is GMA’s last SONA. We will make her accountable for her offenses and crimes against us.”

The SIPA is organized by the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC-KsK/FoEI). Two conferences are being held simultaneously in Cagayan de Oro and at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City. (Romel Cardenas de Vera is LRC-CDO campaigns paralegal)

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