SIPA 2008

Militarization: a constant threat to the education of the IP in Surigao del Sur

LIANGA, SURIGAO DEL SUR—The tribe people of Surigao del Sur made history on March 17, 2008 when through the non–government organization (NGO)–sponsored high school program ALCADEV or Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development conducted its first graduation ceremony.

Such event was the product of a long struggle of the Church and some NGO’s to put up schools for elementary and secondary education befitting the indigenous people (IP) or lumad. Read On

Environmentalists, Lumads gear up vs entry of mining firms in Bukidnon

ST. PETER, Malaybalay City (MindaNews/January 5) — At least 38 mining firms have applied for permits to exploit precious metals in Bukidnon, which, if approved, would replicate what logging companies did in the 1970s: partition among themselves the province’s resource-rich areas for their profit-making ventures.
Documents furnished to MindaNews by the Diocese of Malaybalay also revealed that eight of these firms have applications in Malaybalay City where there is an existing no-to-mining resolution passed by the municipal council on March 4, 1998. (Malaybalay became a city on March 22 of the same year. Read On

Lumads call for abolition of indigenous peoples body

DAVAO CITY - A group of indigenous peoples in Mindanao called on the government to abolish the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the ten-year-old Indigenous People’s Right Act (IPRA).

Representatives of nine Lumad tribes flocked to the NCIP office in Davao City to express their opposition to the implementation of the law. “Indigenous peoples in Mindanao have nothing good to say about IPRA,” said Dulphing Ogan, secretary general of Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (Kalumaran).  Read On