DAVAO CITY — Around a hundred of indigenous peoples will gather on July 28 to 31 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 three-day conference, dubbed as State of the Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA), will be in time for Arroyo’s 8^th State of the Nation Address (SONA).

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.

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.

The following SONAs, however, failed to mention even a single word regarding the issues affecting the IPs.

Almost seven 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.

SONA is nothing but a catalogue of mining opportunities that only worsens the living condition of the IPs across the Philippines. The entries of mining operations bring nothing but human rights violations, destroy the culture and lives of the IPs and degradation of the environment. 

In Southern Mindanao alone, infantry battalions 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, nine communities with 1,337 families forcibly evacuated and six baranggays were hamletted.

During the conference, which is organized by Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC-KsK), the IPs will pool together their recommendations, resolutions and calls to action shall be the principal output of the event.  The paper shall be handed over to party list representatives, local legislators and local government units during its culmination activity. ###

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