IPs counter GMA’s SONA
July 28th, 2008 Posted in IP Rights, Policy Advocacy
DAVAO CITY — As President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivers her 8th State of the Nation Address before the Congress in Manila this afternoon, indigenous peoples (IPs) here on Monday have expressed seven years of frustration and dismay over the lack of fulfillment of Arroyo’s promises to the Indigenous peoples.
In a ritual, shortly before the opening of the State of the Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA), Bae Menicia Tecson, a Mandaya from Lupon town in Davao Oriental, pray to the Gods to help them prevent the entry of intruders who may exploit their ancestral domain and destroy the culture of the IPs.
The Lumad leaders laid a native sleeping mat then placed white cloth and placed four leaves in the four corners of the white cloth. The leaves, Tecson said, represent the four directions – north, south, east and west.
They ended the ritual by wrapping the four leaves with the white cloth.
“The wrapping of the leaves with the white cloth symbolizes the overcome the evils of the society including the promises of President Arroyo,” Tecson explained.
Datu Angkong Limikid, a lumad leader from Maragusan in Compostella Valley, said the Arroyo government must fulfill its promise to the lumads particularly the awarding of the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT).
“The government should hasten the awarding of CADTs,” Limikid appealed. “President Arroyo should fulfill her promises made as early as her first SONA.”
On the other hand, the IP leaders lamented that the processing of mining applications has been more efficient and faster. As of December 2007, 240 mining tenements have already been issued in Mindanao. Almost 60 % of these are within the ancestral domains of the indigenous people.
But in her SONA today, the President did not specify the actual number CADTs have been issued. Instead, she lumped the CADT issuance along with land distribution under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) citing 525,000 hectares of land have been distributed.
During President’s Arroyo SONA in 2001, she said that the government will distribute 100 Certificate of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADT) every year. But records from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) show that the latter has awarded 11 CADTs all over the country. While in 2004, NCIP has only awarded 18 CADTs – six of which are in Mindanao.
SIPA is a three-day gathering of around a hundred of indigenous peoples at Camp Alano, Toril this city to expose the real state of the lives of the indigenous peoples in Mindanao, who seemed to be always missing in President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s area of concern and programs.
The IPs are also joined by other participants coming from indigenous peoples’ organizations, church groups, support groups, legal organizations, local government units, relevant government agencies, academe, media, individual advocates and activists.
The SIPA, with a theme “IPRA and BEYOND: Asserting Our Right to Self-Determination,” will also partly assess the implementation of Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) as it marks its 10th year anniversary in October. Keith Bacongco / LRC-KsK#