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Indigenous peoples air issues in Cordillera Day 2005

MALIBCONG, Abra (April 25) — Not minding the rocky, winding road leading to this year’s Aldaw Kordilyera in a village here, clusters of indigenous tribes from around the country and even abroad, came to solidify unity in a political celebration of some sort.

Joan Carling, Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) chair, noted this year’s event marked a significant increase in the participation of indigenous tribes coming from as far as Palawan, Mindoro, Bukidnon and even from Taiwan. The event gathered over 6,000 delegates who trooped into the hinterlands in tension-gripped Abra province.

Tadek (Takderan ken Aywanan ti Daga, Ekolohiya ken Kultura) the Bangilo tribal organization, has volunteered to tender the two-day celebration in Barangay Buanao, Bangilo district.

Anselmo Gaen, Tadek chair, said the event not only revivifies issues confronting indigenous peoples up north, but also massive mining and military operations.

Basic social services he said, aggravate the lowly condition of IPs as far as health, shelter and education are concerned.

Anselmo Balansi, 40, from Talakad, Bukidnon, and a member of the Kigaunon tribe said his group came to draw lessons from the experiences of other indigenous communities in relation to the plunder of resources by foreign companies. Corporations like Dole Phils., Palm Oil and Busco White Sugar threaten to steal ancestral domain claims from the Lumad, he said.

Diosdado Koryo, 40, from Batarasa, Palawan, and a member of the Palaw-an tribe feared a hydro-metal geodetical processing plant by Biotuba Nickel Mining Corp., would efface their domain. He said strengthening the IP culture through sharing experiences with others, is a formidable force against further aggression.

Joel Esguerra, 38, chieftain of the Dumagat tribe from Casiguran, Aurora said logging concessions by IDC Co. and Newmont Phils., would inundate their ancestral domain. Twenty-four households are affected by the impending logging operation.

Undo Rodrigo, a member of the Manobo-Pulangiyon in Kibawe, Bukidnon said the proposed Pulangi Dam V is set to erase an ancestral domain inhabited by 2,280 families.

From Taiwan, In Muni of the Paiwan tribe was overwhelmed by the solidarity of various local indigenous groups to defend ancestral domain rights. At least ten tribes in Taiwan are bound to be dislocated due to claims of their government declaring tribal domains as part of National Parks.

Weakening the FPIC

Carling said her group denounced attempts by Malacanang, through the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), to weaken the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as an integral process of acquiring mining claims.

A resolution seeking to uphold FPIC as a requirement in mining applications, involving consensus-building among villagers was borne out in the event. Initially, some 2,000 signatures were gathered for the petition.
Carling said a revised FPIC seeking only the representation of impact areas in consultation is meant to undermine and subvert the indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination. # Jong dela Cruz for NORDIS

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