Poor Filipinos Should be the Primary Beneficiaries
Our land oozes with ecological resources, yet the people are so poor especially the 17 million Indigenous Peoples who are now living in extreme poverty. Why? Simply because they are so powerless to have access and control over their resources and worse, even being driven out from their ancestral domain or from their land where they already have acquired prior right. Who controls? Who decides? Who benefits? Absolutely not the people but a circle of few elites, few oligarchs and recently foreign corporations in cohort with powers-that-be, as what is happening now in Amai Manabilang, Lanao del Sur. The 1,000 Ilocano Settlers whose ancestors came from LaPanTar (La Union, Pangasinan & Tarlac) who were beneficiaries of Pres. Ramon Magsaysay’s Resettlement Program in the 1950s are now being coercibly driven out from their farmlands by the Southern Philippine Development Authority (SPDA) with the support of the Municipality of Amai Manabilang, the Philippine National Police and the Philippine Army’s 55th Infantry Battalion. Two foreign corporations, the Kennemer Food International Inc. (KFI) and Asia Pacific Precision Agriculture Group (ASPAC-AG) were prioritized by SPDA to transform the Ilocanos’ productive farmlands into massive plantations. The two corporations have already bulldozed some 400 hectares to the detriment of the farmers who have been coercively evicted, in gross violation of their Individual Prior Right (IPR). Every time the farmers would try to stop the bulldozing of their farms, they are being pushed, threatened and harmed including women, in the presence of the military and PNP personnel whose primary mandate is to protect the people. The farmers were just asking for the rule of law to prevail and if indeed, the SPDA has acquired ownership of their land, that office being under the Office of the President could easily get a Court Order. That office in fact tried to get one but was denied by the Honorable Judge for reason that the Court has recognized the prior right of the farmers.
It is so puzzling and painful to see how harassed and oppressed the Ilocano farmers are now, having developed their farmlands industriously, treating nature as like a “home” where their basic needs and that of the communities are provided for. They were the ones supplying sugar cane to two sugar cane factories and providing vegetables to the Davao, Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental provinces. Now they are poor and hungry and their children have to stop schooling. Recently their passionate leaders travelled to Malacañang to report such gross injustice to their Kababayan, His Excellency PresBBM but nothing happened. They are so puzzled and they are asking: WHO SHOULD REALLY BE THE PRIMARY BENEFICIARIES OF DEVELOPMENT IN THIS COUNTRY? THE FILIPINOS OR FOREIGN INVESTORS? They are asking: HOW MUCH MONEY HAVE THESE INVESTORS GIVEN TO SPDA? TO THE MUNPACIPALITY OF AMAI, MANABILANG? TO THOSE WHO SHOULD IMPLEMENT THE RULE OF LAW?
But what is happening in Amai Manabilang is just a “tip of the iceberg.” The non-stop grabbing of the blessed land is happening almost everywhere now in Mindanao, especially the ancestral domain of the Indigenous Peoples. In several narratives, this column has already exposed this painful truism. In fact, as then Chairman of the Cooperative Development Authority, I have invited in 2021 no less than an amazing journalist, Mr. Ceazar Soriano to document the sad plight of the Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao. He came then with some 10 media staff. He featured in three episodes in his PTV-4 weekly program “Magandang Gabi Pilipinas” a very enlightening presentation entitled, “AGAW LUPA, AGAW TUBIG, AGAW BUHAY,” narrating how oppressed our IPs are and every time they would resist against the horrible social injustices, they are being killed as some 101 Chieftains/Lady Chieftains have already been the subject of Extra Judicial Killings (EJKs) since 2016. Now we know. EJKs are not just being done in the Drug War but so horribly done in transforming our land into massive plantations in the name of development. What is so puzzling to the Indigenous Peoples was the military declaration of some 46,000 hectares in several municipalities of Bukidnon as Military Reservation when most of these areas are the ancestral domain of the IPs. We went around together with IP chieftains asking government agencies especially the National Commission of the Indigenous People (NCIP) telling them that such declaration is contrary to Art. 2 of the IPRA Law that recognizes the IPs’ ancestral domain. We have to be clarified as soon as possible because every time the IPs would stand for their rights, “red flags” are being established by the military accusing them as leftist.
In Sitio Kibaritan, Malinao, Kalilangan, Bukidnon, their 195-hectare farms which was already an integral part of community with a chapel, an elementary school and a day-care center have been declared as a military reservation and was fenced, contrary to the stand of the Municipal Mayor and agencies of government that such cannot be done as it is already a community and the farmers have acquired prior right. But such stand was utterly disregarded, thus, in 2016, three innocent children playing around were killed and two wounded due to the bomb (UXO) explosion planted by the military near the elementary school. Until now, no one has been made accountable. If such is really a military reservation, they were so puzzled to discover that their area was the subject of an agreement with foreign corporations to transform into hybrid banana plantation. The farmers have been advocating for social justice because they are now living in hunger and extreme poverty and every time they would resist, they are being pushed, kicked and even arrested and charged in court. ANG SABI PO NILA,” MABUTI PANG MAMATAY NA MAY PANININDIGAN KAYSA MAMATAY KAMI SA GUTOM!”
Indeed, the word development is the much-abused term now-a-days. Everything is done in the name of development and everyone claims to be doing just that, yet, the day to day life of the people speaks that it is not so. Let us revisit history that would put in clear categorical term how the term was used dreadfully that put to the height of mockery the very essence of development.
The IMF-World Bank spoke of it before, toppling down the forest to give way to Chico River Dam in the Mountain Province despite the serious resistance from the Ifugaos led by Macliing Dulag, the Chieftain of the Indigenous People whose ancestors developed the 8th Wonder of the World, the Rice Terraces. The Ifugaos, maybe primitive but they are culturally and spiritually advanced exemplifying their oneness with nature and even with the stars as they would know when to plant by just looking at the Big Dipper. When the cup-like formation of the Big Dipper is tilted that as if water will flow, then they knew then that it would rain. It was then the time of Marcos dictatorship when projects were just rammed down the throats of the populace and no amount of protest could stop such outpourings that had been described as development aggression. When Macliing Dulag dared to stop such aggression, he was brutally silenced through bullets.
That name was again invoked in putting-up the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant that cost the country more than two billion dollars, when the price should only be a billion or so. For interest alone, the Philippine Government is paying an amount yearly bigger than the annual budget of the Health Department for a mega project that has not at all produce even a single watt o electricity as it was established in an earthquake fault area, It was the height of travesty, a Trojan horse that has sucked the nation dry of economic blood burying us in heavy foreign debt that even the new born must pay for something that has not at all benefit the country.
ased on this painful truism, the Filipino people should now serve notice to one and all that DEVELOPMENT MUST BE FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE AND OF THE PEOPLE IN A DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN STATE, NOT FOR THE OLLIGARCHS, THE CARTEL, THE CONGLOMERATES AND NEVER FOR FOREGIN CORPORATIONS! LET US THEREFORE RECTIFY SOCIAL WRONGS, GROSS INEQUITIES AND SOCIAL INJUSTICES. LET US LIBERATE THE FILIPINOS FROM THE FALLACIES OF LIFE AND UNCONSCIOUSNESS – ALL FOR GOD’S GREATER GLORY AS CONSCIOUSNESS IS ALL THERE IS!
