About SIPA
In 2001, during her State of the Nation Address (SONA), Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo promised to issue 100 ancestral domain title before the year ends. Almost seven (7) years have passed and only 29 CADTS have been issued, eight (8) of which are in Mindanao covering 1 million hectares or only 1% of the entire ancestral territory of the indigenous peoples. On the other hand, 240 mining tenements have already been issued in Mindanao as of December 2007. Almost 60 % of these are within the ancestral domains of the indigenous people.
Mt. Hamiguitan, one of Mindanao’s eight (8) key biodiversity areas is now being threatened by the nickel mining project of BHP Billiton and AMCOR.
As of 2005, there are still one hundred nine (109) Industrial Forest Management Agreements and Industrial Tree Plantations Lease Agreements covering a total of 460,225 hectares in Mindanao.
The succeeding SONAs made no mention of the state of indigenous peoples in the Philippines. Most statements delved on economic development and addressing national security and basic needs. In the 2006 SONA, Pres. Arroyo stated that “Mindanao is our priority for agribusiness investments in the south.” But the bare truth dared not be told. Hundreds of thousands hectares of land in Southern Mindanao
Region alone are targeted for conversion into jathropa and palm oil plantations. These concessions are allotted to the few corporations granted with permits and licenses.
Hundreds of thousands of ancestral lands have also been also planted with bananas, pineapples, coffee and fruit trees; sacred sites are now home to hydro-power plants and geothermal plants. Militarization is
escalating as the government tries to ensure the safety of its foreign investments. In Southern Mindanao alone, infrantry batallions are deployed in thirteen (13) IP areas. The Indigenous People’s Rights
Monitor has documented a total of 51 cases of human rights violations against indigenous peoples in Mindanao in 2006. Of the 51 cases, 18 lumads were victims of summary execution, 9 communities with 1,337 families forcibly evacuated and 6 baranggays were hamletted.
In its report in 1995, the Canada-Asia Working Group stated that th Philippines remain to be “major evictor of indigenous peoples from their ancestral domain in the name of development”. After more than a
decade, indigenous communities and other upland rural poor communities continue to be the key victims of development aggression.
Under the Philippine Constitution, it is the State’s responsibility to protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral lands. The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) which was
passed in 1987 provides the recognition of their rights to their ancestral domain. But the scale of development projects that are allowed to intrude into ancestral territories exposes the systematic
campaign of the government to disenfranchise local communities and open up the country’s natural resources to willful plunder by local corporations and MNCs/TNCs. Corporate control is fast altering the
shape of local economies and wresting economic opportunities away from those who stand to lost most, especially women and children. The sad fact remains: the investment-led developments in Mindanao continue to deprive the indigenous peoples of their rights and ancestral territories.
Another pressing issue is yet again on the recent proposal for Charter Change. The call for federalism, should this take effect, will have dire implications on indigenous peoples rights to their ancestral
lands. We have yet to hear about provisions for the representation of the indigenous peoples on these debates, most especially on land ownership and foreign investments.
The SONA has been used by the Arroyo government as an instrument to peddle to the foreign investors as well as domestic capitalists, lies about the peace and order, the development goals and the achievements
of her government. Arroyo also uses this to the other countries for her foreign relations. The true story has to be told.
In July, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will deliver her 8th SONA. LRC-KsK/FoE-Philippines sees it fitting to take this opportunity for the indigenous peoples in Mindanao to take center stage and present to
the public the real state of the indigenous peoples. While PGMA will again present her government’s extractive, corporate-led, import-dependent and export-oriented development agenda, the indigenous peoples in Mindanao will also lay down the agenda of their historical struggle for the right to self-determination and genuine political recognition.
On July 28-31, 2008, a three (3) day conference will be held on in Camp Alano, Toril Davao City bannering the theme “IPRA and BEYOND: Asserting Our Right to Self-Determination”. It will be attended by
more or less one hundred (100) participants from indigenous peoples’ organizations, church groups, support groups, legal organizations, local government units, relevant government agencies, academe, media,
individual advocates and activists.
The State of the Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA) activity will also partly assess the implementation of IPRA as it marks its 10th year anniversary in October.
A conference statement reflecting the true state of the indigenous peoples on Mindanao, their recommendations, resolutions and calls to action shall be the principal output of the activity. The paper shall be handed over to party list representatives, local legislators and local government units during its culmination activity.#
Download program here.