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By J.P. FAJILAGUTAN & A.R. CAMPO
www.nordis.net

QUEZON CITY — Vegan groups and food enthusiasts in the National Capital Region organized a cooking event on April 16 to highlight food security issues brought about by destructive projects in the indigenous peoples’ lands.

The day’s menu includes indigenous dishes from the book Heirloom Recipes of the Cordillera, published by Partners for Indigenous Knowledge, Inc. (PIKP), Philippines Task Force on Indigenous Peoples (TFIP), and Voice.

Aside from the healthy and sumptuous foods, Flora Kulinarya contained lectures on the impacts of destructive projects and the food systems in the Cordillera.

Raven Desposado, Tignayan dagiti Agtutubo ti Kordilyera para iti Demokrasya ken Rang-ay (TAKDER) National Coordinator, explained food security is an integral part of the indigenous peoples’ struggle for self-determination and their lands and resources.

“Ang seguridad sa pagkain ay lagi’t laging kaugnay ng pakikibaka para sa karapatan sa lupaing ninuno,” he said.

(Food security is always connected to the struggle for ancestral land rights.)

Citing government data, he said there are 96 awarded, 17 operational, and 79 in development and pre-development stage hydroelectric power projects. The government also approved three geothermal projects in the region.

Desposado said these projects would infringe on rivers, destroy forests and agricultural lands, and affect the quantity and quality of the harvests in the affected areas.

The TAKDER leader also identified large-scale mining as a consistent and critical threat to food production in the landlocked provinces of the Cordillera. He said these projects change the physical landscape, displace villagers, and cause cultural disintegration.

He elaborated that when opposition to corporate plunder grows strong; the Philippine government strategically deploys state forces that perpetrate wanton human rights violations.

Cordillera Peoples Alliance Chairperson Windel Bolinget added, “food security is only possible when genuine self-determination and indigenous peoples’ collective rights are respected. He reiterated the need to include food security in the discourse on human rights because the denial of indigenous peoples’ rights is also a denial of the right to food.

TAKDER, BINNADANG Amianan, TFIP, Bukas na Hapag, Gulay lang, and Gulay Yan organized this episode of Good Food Sundays at Mandala Park, Mandaluyong City, as part of the build-up activities for the 39th Peoples’ Cordillera Day. # nordis.net