Kim’s Dream Orlan Ravanera
Why Are the Indigenous Peoples Living in Extreme Poverty & Oppression?
The Indigenous Peoples worldwide may be considered in modern day as primitive but they are spiritually and energetically advanced, giving high reverence to Mother Earth and highly connected with nature and one with all life. Such is contrary to the so-called highly advanced and civilized societies that are giving high veneration to the profit motive, sacrificing nature and the people to the altar of greed and profit. Amidst unbridled materialism and consumerism, there is so much denigration of spirituality where the super-ego (the devil) is in control, tied-up to the whims and caprices of the mundane in utter disregard of the sublime, amidst morale collapse and religious apathy.
Indeed, the Indigenous Peoples were once the masters of the land that they were using then in the spirit of service and sharing. It is their firm belief that no one can own the land, for how can you own something that will outlast you: you could not own the land, the land will own you when you die. In Banaue, Mountain Province, the Igorots had even developed the “8th Wonder of the World – the Rice Terraces.” Oneness and interconnectedness with nature was the essential principle governing their lives. Such oneness did reach out even to the stars as they know when to plant by just looking at the stars- the formation of the “Big Dipper.” When that “cup-like” formation of stars is tilted in such a manner that as if water can flow, it is the time to plant as it is a sign that it will rain. Wow, so amazing.
We have much to learn from the Indigenous cultures and when these are assimilated as whet happened in Canda, no less than Pope Francis ”beg for an apology for the evil done by the Christians.” The Indigenous Peoples have understood and experienced the oneness and inter-connectedness of life between human and non-human species. An 1848 speech attributed to Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe captures this oneness: “How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If you do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle f the water, how can you buy them? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through he trees carries the memories of the red man. This we know, the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites our family. All things are connected.”
The Indigenous Cultures speak well of high spirituality as exemplified by the biblical line, “feel the abundance of life” which is the abundance of nature and not the abundance of malls and supermarket as there were no malls or supermarket during the time of Jesus.
Now buried in unbridled materialism and consumerism, humanity is glaringly suffering from collective insanity as the homo sapiens, the most flawed of all of God’s creation, is controlled by the ego, immersed in the capriciousness of the mundane, sacrificing life to the altar of greed and profit that has brought Mother Earth into the precipice of its 6th extinction as we are now “one minute before midnight,” as described by thousands of concerned scientists worldwide. The culprit is climate change and the non-stop privatization under the insane ideology known as corporate globalization that sees the world as something to be owned and the market only as driven by profit.
Based on deep analysis by social scientists worldwide, “ corporate globalization is based on new enclosures of the commons, enclosures which imply exclusions and are based on violence. Instead of a culture of abundance, profit-driven globalization creates culture of exclusion, dispossession, and scarcity. In fact, globalization’s transformation of all beings and resources into commodities robs diverse species and people of their rightful share of ecological, cultural, economic and political space. The ownership of the rich is based on the dispossession of the poor.”
This in-depth analysis gives us a clear picture on why since 2016, some 101 DATUs/BAEs/Chieftains of the Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao have been victims of EJKs(Extra-Judicial Killings) when they would stand against the grabbing and transformation of their ancestral domains into massive plantations. In San Vicente, Sumilao, Bukidnon, for example, a powerful corporation fenced the 5,000-ha. ancestral domain of the Manobo Tribe headed by Bae Merlita Mayantao in 2016. When they protested one early dawn, the Corporation’s Security Force called the Tagbagani Security Group released rain of bullets upon them and then and there, three were killed outrightly and three wounded. The latest killing incident happened in Don Carlos, Bukidnon, when my allies in the ecological movement Datu Wennifredo Sumael and Datu Alim Saway were killed for going against those oppressing them. In Butong, Quezon, Bukidnon, more than 1,000 families of the Manobo-Pulangiyon Tribe have been living under shattered tents in the last six years, eating only once a day as their 1,111hectare-ancestral domain has been landgrabbed and transformed into massive plantation by the Kiantig Development Corporation to earn millions of dollars owned and managed by the incumbent Mayor of Quezon, Bukidnon.
In Kalilangan, Bukidnon, Sitio Kibaritan which has long been a community with an elementary school, a chapel and a day-care center is being transformed into a military reservation which according to the LGU Mayor, Atty. Raymon Charles Gamboa, has never been a part of the 42,265 ha.- military reservation After more than 5 decades of tilling the land which has already vested prior right to the native farmers, the men in uniform were so aggressive to convert their farms into military reservation but recently they found out that their farms will be transformed into hybrid banana plantation by a global corporation in cohort with the USEC of DAR and military officials.
The above narration is just a “tip of the iceberg” on how oppressed the Indigenous peoples are. The privatization of their ancestral domain is going-on without let-up as corporations including the rich and powerful politicians in Cagayan de Oro are now buying the IP’s lands in consonance with corporate globalization.
Through corporate globalization, some 200,000 hectares of the choicest of lands in Mindanao are now converted into massive plantations planted with high value crops to satisfy the consumerist needs of the people in advanced countries while we cannot even produce basic staples for our hungry people, Don’t you know that the Philippines is the biggest rice importer country in the world and that 90% of our milk are imported. This is the reason why 85% of the Filipino children are malnourished according to Food and Nutrition Institute.
The 17 million Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines are now living in extreme poverty and oppression. Corporate globalization must not treat them as disposable wastes. SILA PO AY TAO HINDI BASURA. Their cultural heritage that has exemplified oneness with all of God’s creation, which is true love, must now be redeemed as it speaks of high spirituality. Let us now come together to liberate the poor Indigenous Peoples from poverty and oppression but first, let us liberate ourselves from the fallacies of life and religions.
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