By REV. FERDINAND ANNO
www.nordis.net

Terrorized in their home villages, throngs of Lumads have moved from their militarized mountain communities into the cities calling the attention of local governments to their plight. After a long perilous “Lakbayan [ng Pambansang Minorya),” the Lumads have moved close to the gates and ears of Malacanang – when the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples intervened with its penned-by-who?  “resolution” ( No. 08-009-2021) to say to the Lumads, “you are fakes.”

Outside of the academic consensus and popular use, the Visayan word, “Lumad”, used generically to refer to the indigenous peoples of Mindanao names many things about indigenous Mindanaoans. 

Firstly, the self-ascription, Lumad is a name for the process of self-empowerment that is happening among Subanen, Blaan, T‟boli, Mandaya, Mansaka, Tiruray, Higaonon, Manobo, Bagobo, Bukidnon, Tagkaolo, Ubo, Banwaon, Kalagan, Dibabawon, Talaandig, Mamanwa and Manguangan and other ethnolinguistic groups in Mindanao.

Secondly, Lumad is a name for the pan-indigenous Mindanaoans’ united voice against development aggression and destruction of indigenous peoples’ ancestral lands.

Thirdly, Lumad names the realization among indigenous Mindanaoans that they cannot win the war against development aggression if they stay divided and allow themselves to be further divided into unrelated if not enemy groups.

 A people united is bad news to “greedy money” (big business) and its bureaucratic machinery. A people divided is easier to subjugate and exploit. On the urging of business and political interests, the authorities need to make a move and break up the unity of indigenous Mindanaoans before it becomes a full-blown problem to the former. They need to cut off the umbilical cord or the lifeline that connects one nation (ethnolinguistic group) to the other.    

This is a classic “divide-and-rule” policy.

Historically, this age-old divide et impera strategy of conquistadores made possible the brutal subjugation of Filipinos by both the Spaniards and Americans. We allowed ourselves to be divided until we were too divided, too small, and too weak to resist their aggression. The Spaniards and the Americans have pitted the colonized and Christianized population of the lowlands against indigenous peoples who, for centuries, have successfully repulsed the colonizers’ attempts to invade and subjugate their lands and peoples. Today, it is the neo-colonial government that is employing this policy against its indigenous populations.  The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, a government agency that has done nothing but serves as an agent for big business and an instrument of fascist repression, has dutifully done its homework with its March 2, 2021 Resolution “denouncing the use of the term “Lumad” to refer to indigenous peoples of Mindanao.”

These days in Lent remind us of Jesus-led Galileans moving into the city of Jerusalem, “and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and [most likely] be killed …” When some from among them and who claim to be part of the Galilean throng said, “[no! we cannot go into the city] this shall never happen to you.” But the leader of the Galileans turned to them and rebuke them saying, “Get behind me, Satan! ” 

No, not even NCIP, can prevent the Lumads from raising their voices at the gates of “imperial Manila” saying, “We are Subanen, Blaan, T‟boli, Mandaya, Mansaka, Tiruray, Higaonon, Manobo, Bagobo, Bukidnon, Tagkaolo, Ubo, Banwaon, Kalagan, Dibabawon, Talaandig, Mamanwa and Manguangan but we are also Lumads. We are one and united in our struggle for self-determination and the defense of our ancestral lands.” # nordis.net