TAMA NA: Agaw Gubat, Agaw Lupa, Agaw Buhay
Land, water, forests, and all natural resources called commons are the economic assets of the poor especially the Indigenous Peoples who for thousands of years have been using these resources in the spirit of sharing and service. However, when the colonizers came and privatized these commons especially during these neo-colonization contemporaneous times, there is the continuing exclusion of these commons at the expense of the Indigenous Peoples who are now living in extreme poverty. After decimating the 17 million hectares dipterocarp forests, the home of the billions of species of flora and fauna, the source of food and the “pharmacy” of the IPs, millions of hectares of ancestral domains land have been transformed into massive plantations to satisfy the consumerist needs of the people in advanced countries while we cannot even produce basic staples to feed our hungry people.
We in the ecological movement are voicing our firm opposition to the destruction of the vital commons which are so essential for our survival. Without water, fertile land and crop and plant genetic diversity, economic development will become impossible. We must stop extreme poverty and the massive oppression of the Indigenous Peoples. When I invited no less than the amazing journalist, Mr. Ceazar Soriano early 2021, he heard the narratives of oppression of the different tribes in Mindanao which he had shown in 3 episodes in his weekly program, MAGANDANG GABI PILIPINAS entitled, “AGAW LUPA, AGAW TUBIG, AGAW BUHAY.” Here is the summary of the IPs’ narratives: “Since 2016, a total of 101 individuals especially IP leaders have fallen victims to extra judicial killings with around 169 victims of frustrated EJKs, 227 IPs have been illegally arrested, detained and abducted and 27 reported being subjected to torture.” For what? For resisting the continuing illegal land grabbing of their ancestral domains.
Let us revisit some of these painful narratives. In San Vicente, Sumilao, Bukidnon, the Manobo Tribe headed by a lady Datu named Bae Merlita Mayantao stood up to defend their 5,000-ha. ancestral domain which was fenced into a ranch by a powerful corporation. When the tribe protested in 2016, barrage of bullets rained upon them and 3 protesters died and 3 wounded including two of her children. Until now, it was so painful to know that nothing has been done and I was told they are seeing the killers going around freely who are members of a well-known Security Group. But such is just a tip of the iceberg. If you go to the 4-lane highway in Butong, Quezon, Bukidnon, more than one thousand families of the Manobo-Pulangiyon Tribe are living under shattered tents for more than six years now eating only “camote” once a day. Why? Because they were ousted from their 1,111 ha. – ancestral domain by a powerful multi-million pineapple plantation company, Kiantig Development Corporation, owned and managed by the incumbent Mayor, Pablo Lorenzo III. Recently, after six years of advocacy and legal struggle, the long-awaited Certificate of Recognition has been issued by the National Commission of the Indigenous Peoples, signed by no less than the Chairman, Sec. Allen Capuyan and six NCIP Administrators which recognizes the ownership of the Tribe of their ancestral domain. With that concrete and categorical Certification, can the tribe now enter their ancestral domain. No! When the chieftains together with NCIP lawyer served the notice to the corporation printed in a tarpaulin, the notice has been torn-off into shreds by the armed men of the corporation.
On April 19,2022, the Manobo Pulangiyon Tribe finally decided to enter an adjacent four-hectare vacant area nearby so that their children can safely sleep at night as 5 children have already been hit by running cars. A day before that, they informed concerned agencies of government, the PNP, the military, the Mayor of Quezon, Bukidnon of their plan as such was described as a “win-win” approach as the area is vacant where they can plant some vegetables for their subsistence. As they were entering the adjacent vacant area together with their hungry children shouting, ‘MAAWA NA PO KAYO, GUTOM NA PO KAMI LALO NA ANG AMING MGA ANAK,” barrage of gunfire met them from the armed men of the corporation and for 15 minutes, they were shot-up as the shooting guards were shouting, ‘LABAS, BANG, BANG, BANG,” thereby, five were hit including women and children. The presence of the PNP and military men made no difference as they did nothing to stop the gunfire.
Why is this horrible social injustice being committed against the Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao? Let us revisit what has been featured recently in the Washington Post authored by an amazing journalist.
Peter S. Goodman/Journalist
As published in Washington Post by Mr. Peter S. Goodman in New York on December 30, 2023, entitled, “The Colonial Roots of Philippine Poverty,” it was declared that “the desperation confronting tens of millions of landless Filipinos stems in part from policies imposed by the powers that controlled the archipelago for centuries – first Spain and then the United States. Because the United States opted not to engage in the redistribution of land, families that collaborated with colonial authorities retain oligarchical control over the soil and dominate the political sphere. Policies engineered to make the country dependent on American factory goods have left the Philippines with a much smaller industrial based than many economies in Asia.” Such truism is the root cause of poverty in a very rich ecological country that has become so poor because of the modern-day American Imperialism that is now under the oligarchical control of a few elites. American Imperialism in the Philippines that controls more than one half of the world’s resources has either made Third World countries like our country as either Market or Target. Market means, our country has just become a dumping ground of finished products and our rich resources are extracted following an extractive economy. Target means our country has just become US military base which will be the target when war erupts.
Freshly harvested bananas attached to an assembly line. Credit Photographs by Jes Aznar.
Worker’s cleaning and packing bananas for delivery.
The blessed island of Mindanao has been repeatedly mentioned as now controlled by corporate globalization which is producing high value fruits like pineapple and banana to supply the consumerist needs of the people in advanced countries while we cannot even produce enough basic staples for our hungry people.
The fertile land of Bukidnon on the island of Mindanao. Credit Photographs by Jes Aznar.
Indeed, the Philippines is the biggest rice importer in the world and 90% of our milk are imported, the reason why 85% of the Filipino children are malnourished. Mr. Goodman has mentioned the pitiful incidence in Butong, Quezon where thousands of tribal Filipinos are living under shattered tents along the hi-way, so poor and hungry because their 1,111 hectares of their ancestral domain where their ancestors are buried, has been illegally grabbed by a rich powerful corporation.
The author has underscored that corporate globalization has conquered Mindanao where the choicest of lands have been converted into massive plantations by powerful corporations in cohort with powerful oligarchs which is not only happening in Butong, Quezon, Bukidnon but almost everywhere else.
Mt. Pud-ong, KIBARITAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (SINCE 1984).
What is so painful is what is happening now in Sitio Kibaritan, Malinao, Kalilangan, Bukidnon. The 195-hectared farmland that has been farmed for more than 50 years by the Indigenous Tribe has been converted into military reservation which is contrary to the declaration of the LGU and agencies of government that such was already a community with an elementary school, a chapel, and a day-care center. Such declaration of military reservation was in utter disregard to the prior right of the occupants that had caused the deaths of three innocent children when an UXO bomb exploded without even a warning of the presence of the bomb.
The community is now living in hunger and extreme poverty as their farms have been fenced and every time, they would attempt to enter to harvest their crops, they are being pushed around and even mauled. Every night, there are gun fires that have already cause so much anguish and phobia especially to the children who have stopped going to school anymore. Question? Is their land for military reservation? No. They have discovered that such will be converted into massive hybrid banana plantations as the military officials and the DAR Under Secretary Jeffrey Galan have signed an agreement with a corporation. Is corporate globalization being done now through militarization?’
Hundreds if not thousands of Indigenous Peoples – the Higaonon, Manobo and Talaandig Tribes (HIMATA) are now so confused why the AFP has declared some 46,000 hectares of their ancestral domain as part of military reservation which is goes against the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (RA 8371 that declares that ”The State shall protect the Indigenous Ancestral Domain Rights of the Indigenous Peoples.” As what happened in Kibaritan, they ask, “Is militarization just a disguise to convert our lands into massive plantation for corporation globalization?” What is so painful is that those living in Tikalaan, Talakag, Bukidnon will be displaced soon as their ancestral domain will be converted into a military camp as the 4th Infantry Division situated in Patag, Cagayan de Oro will be transferred in Tikalaan as the 100-ha. 4th ID Camp has been sold to the Ayala Corporation for 100 billion pesos. Again, where is social justice contrary to the 1987 Constitution that declared that, “The State shall promote social justice in all phases of national development”?
These narrations are just “tip of the iceberg.” The land rights and water rights of the Indigenous Peoples are being violated all over Mindanao, the reason why the Indigenous Peoples are now the poorest of the poor. Every time they will resist, they are either being “red-tagged,” or killed. In fact, since 2016, some 101 chieftains and lady chieftains have been the victims of Extra Judicial Killing (EJKs) but until now, no killer has been arrested. Thus, the Indigenous Peoples are now asking: “KAMI PO BA AY TAO O BASURA?” Indeed, is the enrichment of the oligarchs and powerful corporations means the dispossession and displacement of the poor Indigenous Peoples of their ancestral domain? Where is the rule of law?
We are so thankful to Mr. Peter Goodman for exposing this truism globally. What the intellectuals and social activists were shouting during the 70s are now being reiterated by the concerned people’s movement in the United States named, “OCCUPY,” which has expanded globally: “DOWN WITH US IMPERIALISM; WE WANT AN EGALITARIAN WORLD, WE WANT PEACE. LET US NOT MAXIMIZE CONSUMER GOODS BUT MAXIMIZE OUR VALUES; WE MUST NOW LIVE A DIFFERENT WAY OF LIFE AND DEBUNK MATERIALISM AND CONSUMERISM.”
Indeed, the Filipinos have been buried in unbridled materialism and consumerism and the fallacies of life. The liberation time has come as now being trailblazed by the OCCUPY MOVEMENT in the United States. In fact, after ten years, some 7,762 members of the Occupy Movement have already been imprisoned. But they continue to advocate for what is right, what is just and what is true as they have awakened. It is their contention that humanity is now falling into the precipice of its 6th extinction which will happen either through nuclear war or environmental catastrophe.
The only countervailing force now is to awaken the people from deep slumber. Let us therefore know that a human being is not just form but spirit (CONSCIOUSNESS) that must be connected to the UNSEEN BEING, THE FORMLESS. Know therefore who truly we are and be connected to that Transcedental Dimension where the Universal Intelligence governs. Let us now debunk the EGO (Satan) as Satanic greed has indeed ruled the homo sapiens.
Let the message of King Solomon reverberate when he said in Ecclesiastes “Fame, wealth and power are meaningless, utterly meaningless. What is important is how we have served the least of our brethren.” When that happens, we will end up in the loving embrace of the Unseen Formless Being, called God.
If such a legal order from the NCIP could not even be implemented, the Manobo-Pulangiyon Tribe has now decided to do what the Panaw Multipurpose Cooperative had done for justice and sustainability. Let us revisit the Cooperative’s amazing successful story.
The 147-hectare flat agricultural terrain at the foot of Mt. Kitanglad in Sumilao, Bukidnon as an ancestral land where the Higaonon Indigenous Communities, as early settlers, had lived sustainably for hundreds of years. It was their forefathers, but not anymore. A series of evictions came beginning in the 1930s up to the 1970s when powerful clans in Bukidnon turned the land into cattle ranch and grazing areas. With the advent of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, struggle to regain back the blessed land began in the `1990s but the powerful clans’ grip of the land had been tightened through legal maneuverings. Thus, in 2007, 55 landless farmers who were members of the Cooperative did a decisive move that would reverse the flow of history that always favored the rich and the powerful. This time, the appeal for justice was to a bigger court – to the Filipino people themselves.
“Walk for land, walk for justice,” was their battle cry when they began their 1,700-km. hike from Sumilao, Bukidnon to Manila that lasted for two long months or 55 days. Day and night they would walk under the excruciating heat of the sun and braving the coldness of the night. Upon reaching Manila on Dec. 5, 2007, and set-up camp at the DAR Central office in Quezon City, the Sumilao farmers walked further to Malacañang on Dec. 17,2007 in a church-led procession escorted by hundreds of supporters including bishops, priests, nuns, seminarians, and students. They met then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for dialogue. Finally on Dec. 18,2007. The President through her Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita issued an Executive Order to revoke the conversion order of 144 hectares the farmers were fighting for and put the land back under the CARP. Their cause had ceased to be theirs alone but became a national outcry getting outpourings of support from all sectors. The long oppressive years had finally ended for the Sumilao farmers.
But the journey to liberate the oppressed Indigenous Peoples has just begun. Let the trail-blazing “walk for a cause” by the Sumilao farmers be a model. Therefore, soon thousands of Indigenous Peoples will march to Manila to bring to the fore the painful realities of oppression to the Filipino people that will unify the poor and the oppressed firmly believing that the PEOPLE UNITED, CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED! TAMA NA ANG PANG-AAPI DAHIL ANG MGA INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AY TAO AT HINDI BASURA! They are human beings and not disposable wastes! Let us now fight for what is right, what is true and what Is just for God’s greater glory!
Thus, we are serving notice to one and all that liberation time has come. We have decided that on March 25, 2025 thousands of indigenous peoples in Mindanao will march to Manila called Walk for a Cause to banner this painful truism that the indigenous peoples are just treated as disposable wastes. Enough is enough of corporate globalization as the enrichment of these corporations described as the “Masters of Mankind,” means the impoverishment and displacement of the indigenous peoples in Mindanao. Let us banner the truth because the truth shall set us free, indeed, Veritas Liberabit Vos.
Our collective decision to walk for a cause, has already merited outpourings of support from all sectors. We are firmly saluting the honorable Mayor of Kalilangan, Bukidnon, Atty. Raymon Charl Gamboa, Vice Mayor Hon. Joel Padsing, Sr., and most Rev. Fr. Nelson Madlos for expressing their oneness with us, after all the harassments, physical injuries, the untimely deaths of three innocent children and the continuing oppression inflicted upon us. It is better to stand for our human rights rather than to die of hunger. TALAGA PO NAMAN – MABUTI PANG MAMATAY NA LUMALABAN SA AMING KARAPATAN, HINDI MAMATAY SA GUTOM AT PANG-AAPI. TAO PO KAMI, HINDI BASURA! SANA NAMAN, DINGGIN PO NINYO ANG AMING IYAK, AWA AT PAGKAKAISA SA AMING HINAING!
