Woman Lumad chieftain Bai Bibiyaon Ligkayan Bigkay from Talaingod, Davao del Norte has died, the Indigenous group Sabokahan IP Women announced December 6.

Bigkay died in an undisclosed place last November 20 “surrounded by loved ones,” the group said.   

She was buried in an undisclosed location after her death, which was in accordance with her wishes, Sabokahan IP Women added.  She had not returned to Mindanao since 2018 because of threats of arrests.  

The famed “Woman Warrior of Talaingod,” who became the face of the Lumad struggle for decades, was believed to be about 90 years old at the time of her death.

Bibiyaon was born in Natulinan in Talaingod, the ancestral home of the Matigsalug and Manobo tribes. 

In her biography, Ina Bai, her father was a tribal chieftain. At a young age, she showed her potential to lead when she would speak her mind in meetings and in resolving conflicts in the tribe and joined the resistance against logging companies encroaching their territory.

She was known as the first woman to lead as chieftain. 

Bigkay explained how she got her long name during an event in 2017 in Manila where she was conferred the Gawad Tandang Sora Award for her defense of their ancestral domain.

She said “bai” is a title conferred to Mindanao women of stature, while “bibiyaon” is her title as chieftain of her tribe. Thus, her title Bai Bibiyaon was attached to her name Ligkayan Bigkay.

Bigkay participated in the Lumad Mindanao Peoples Federation (LMPF) Assembly in 1986 in Kidapawan, North Cotabato that united the Indigenous groups in Mindanao to resist threats of ethnocide from logging, plantation and militarization in their lands.

The assembly also resolved to use the term “Lumad” meaning “born of the earth” to unify the 18 ethno-linguistic tribes in Mindanao.   

Bigkay was instrumental in the formation of the Salugpungan Ta Tanu Igkanugon in the early 1990s, a collective of Talaingod chieftains that united to resist the expansion activities of the logging firm Alcantara and Sons (Alsons). The Salugpungan waged a “pangayaw” against Alsons private guards.

In the 2000s, Bibiyaon was one of the Salugpungan leaders that pushed for the establishment of Salugpungan community schools with the help of religious groups and NGOs that supported them in the past.

Bigkay understood education is important to pass on their struggle to their next generation. “The youth need to be literate in order to protect their communities from further deception,” Sabokahan IP Women noted.

Bibiyaon also pushed education to help empower women. Sabokahan said the Bibyaon’s personal advocacy was to eliminate the traditional “buya” or arranged marriage.

“Rather than being confined to domestic roles and marriage, they could now become community health workers, teach scientific sustainable farming methods to improve the community’s food security, and school teachers,” the group said.

Bibiyaon’s stature made her a vital part in the formation of indigenous organizations, such as Katribu, Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas and SANDUGO Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination.

She was the founding chairperson of Sabokahan To Mo Lumad Kamalitanan or “Sabokahan Unity of Lumad Women.”

When the Salugpongan schools were threatened by militarization, Bigkay joined the Manilakbayan campaign where Lumad leaders and students went to Manila to seek dialogue with officials and support from various institutions for their cause.

She had stayed in Manila since 2018, Sabokahan said, as there were threats of arrests after relatives in Talaingod were forced to sign affidavits calling for her “immediate rescue.”

She stayed with Lumad students who were “adopted” in bakwit schools in Manila, with students and teachers from various universities volunteering to teach the students.

The students called Ligkay as “inno” or grandmother, and remembered her waking up as early as 4 am to pound betel nuts, clean the surroundings, and prepare the materials for making indigenous beads.

Behind her fierce stature, the students learned much from their “inno” who never complained of their situation in Manila, who would sing the uranda, teach them how to craft beads, and tell them stories of their ancestral land, the Pantaron Range in Talaingod.

Bigkay had never married, saying “she has everything within her to survive with her hands, feet and head,” Sabokahan Women said. “She was happily married to the struggle and inherited hundreds of grandchildren who looked to her for guidance.”

For her lifetime commitment to defending the Lumad and the ancestral domain, Bigkay was conferred the Most Distinguished Awardee of the Gawad Bayani ng Kalikasan or “Environmental Heroes Award” in 2018 by the Center for Environmental Concerns, and is the third recipient of the Gawad Tandang Sora Award in 2017 from the University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Social Work and Community Development. (Tyrone Velez/MindaNews)

Laguindingan Airport to expand passenger terminal building

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 05 February) — Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista led the ground breaking ceremonies for the P12.75-billion expansion of Laguindingan Airport in Laguindingan, Misamis Oriental on Sunday.

Bautista said the passenger terminal building would be expanded with an additional 720 square meters in its pre-departure area, increasing its capacity from 500 to 860 passengers at any given time.

“The upcoming expansion project will not only provide better passenger experience but will also push further our goals toward sustainability,” Bautista said during the ceremony.

Laguindingan Airport is the second busiest airport in Mindanao, second only to Davao’s Francisco Bangoy International Airport.

In 2019, the airport served 2.3 million passengers according to government figures.

The airport serves as the gateway to the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Iligan, and Marawi and the provinces of Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Lanao del Norte, and Lanao del Sur. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)

Co-ops seen to boost dairy production in Bukidnon

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 05 February) – The Department of Science and Technology has organized 64 farmer cooperatives to boost the dairy production in Bukidnon.

DOST-10 science specialist Judelin Cabugwas said the farmers were given trainings in basic dairy product handling, food safety hazards and good manufacturing practices.

“Ongoing product development and innovation are being conducted and a product launching event will later introduce the dairy milk products formally, “ Cabugwas said.

The Dairy Confederation of the Philippines said dairy products are the second largest imports of the country, next only to rice. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)

Agusan Norte Lumad put up souvenir shop

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 05 February) — Lumad in Agusan del Norte set up a souvenir shop to sell their handmade crafts in Purok 1, Barangay Poblacion 1 in the town of Santiago.

The women of Mamanwa, Manobo and Higaonon tribes banded together to  open the souvenir shop called the “Hungos tu Kabujagan” to sell hand-crafted beads, embroidered bags, tribal dresses and costumes.

The Philippine Information Agency in Caraga reported that the women formed the Agusan del Norte IP Women Organization to manage and ensure the supplies of their handicrafts.

The PIA report said the women received artisan and skills training from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)

Mati City fisherfolk receive fishing boats from local government

CAGAYAN DE ORO (MindaNews / 05 February) – Fisherfolk in Mati City, Davao Oriental are facing a bright economic future after the city government and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources donated P8 million of fishing vessels for their use.

The vessels, which included a big fishing boat with seven smaller boats, were turned over to Don Enrique Lopez Small Fisherfolk Association, a fishermen association at the fish port complex in Mati City. 

Mayor Michelle Rabat said the boats were freely given to the fishermen to augment their income. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)

The post NEWS BRIEFS | 5 February 2024 first appeared on MindaNews.

16^th of 18 parts

Part XVI

Chapter 7. It is Time for New Relationships

To complete the story of the formal peace process, it would have been fitting to also provide an account of the progress of implementation of the Peace Agreement. But until the plebiscite on the revised Organic Act of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanaw is duly held and the results officially proclaimed, the process is not deemed complete and any account will be hanging and inconclusive. Our option is to merely give an overview of the status of implementation and proceed to the discussion of the other important dimensions of the peace process as a whole.

Status of Implementation

As of this writing, House Bill No. 7883 has been passed (in July 1999) in the House of Representatives and has been filed in turn in the Senate. It has undergone first reading and is presently being processed by the Committee on Local Government. While we cannot tell when the new legislation will be enacted by Congress and signed into law by the President, we are assured that all this will be accomplished before the local elections of May 2001.

The integration of the 7,500 MNLF mujahideen into the AFP and the PNP is, as of March 2000, 91% completed. A total of 5,250 MNLF members have been integrated into the Armed Forces. By the end of year 2000, the full integration of the MNLF elements shall have been attained. A total of 1,250 former MNLF elements have been integrated with the Philippine National Police (PNP). The remaining 250 took their oath last March 2000.[1]

The Office of the President issued E.O. 371 proclaiming a Special Zone Of Peace And Development (SZOPAD) in   the southern Philippines, and creating the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD) and the Consultative Assembly (CA). The performance of the SPCPD and the CA has been full of controversy. The government claims that it has fulfilled its part to the letter; the MNLF counters that the government has never provided sufficient funds and guidelines to enable it to succeed. This matter constitutes an entirely new subject for research. We are attaching here a copy of the Joint Monitoring Committee Report. (Appendix F). Let us now move on to other important dimensions of the peace process.

Where Stand the Lumad in the GRP-MNLF Peace Process?

A quick look at the population figures of the 14 provinces covered in the territory of the autonomous region will indicate that there are at least 12 Lumad ethno-linguistic groups which constitute 5.37 percent of the total population. They are the Subanen in the Zamboanga peninsula; the Higaunon in Iligan City; the Teduray in Maguindanao, the B’laan in the provinces of Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato and Davao del Sur; the Bagobo of Davao del Sur; the Tagakaolo of Davao del Sur; the T’boli of South Cotabato; the Manobo of Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanao; the Batak, Tagbanua and Tau’t Bato in Palawan. If we include the non-Muslim segments of the Palawani in Palawan and the Kalagan in Davao del Sur, the total is twelve. The Muslims are only 26.89 percent and the Christian settlers make up the balance of nearly 70 percent.[2]

The MNLF-led Bangsamoro struggle have always touched the Lumad communities in similar ways that the Moro sultanates did. In the time of the sultanates, many of them were subjects and tributaries of the sultanates. Now, in the implementation of the GRP-MNLF Peace Agreement, they are also bound to be affected. While it is true that the autonomous region is designed purposely “for the Muslims of Southern Philippines,”[3] from whose ranks emerged the MNLF that fought the war of liberation,” it cannot be denied that both GRP and MNLF must also acknowledge and make room for 75% of the population, the Lumad and the Christian settlers, respectively, in the life and governance of the autonomy.

As citizens of the region, they are enjoined by law to take part in the plebiscite on the revised organic act. Whether or not they will become part of the autonomous region, the Lumad will continue to coexist with the Muslims. The same goes for the Christian settlers.

The Oil Connection; Government Response to Energy Crisis

At the height of the AFP-MNLF war in October 1973, which we have already discussed in Chapter 1, the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) imposed an oil embargo on all countries supportive of Israel. The realization that the Philippines is almost wholly dependent on two Arab countries for its oil requirements compelled President Marcos to launch an ambitious energy development program designed to harness the country’s natural energy resources, specifically hydro and geothermal power. The search for oil was also done in earnest. The strategic end in view was obviously to increase our domestic energy capability and reduce our dependence on imported oil. But these moves would hit the indigenous peoples where it hurts most. These meant further displacement of the latter in their own lands.

In the Cordillera, the government launched, apparently without the benefit of extensive consultation with the people on the Chico River Dam project, and drew probably the biggest opposition ever to a government development project. In Mindanaw, the government implemented a series of power generation projects in quick succession. The massive hydroelectric plants Agus I to VII along the length of Agus river from Marawi City to Iligan City was probably the biggest with their combined capacity of 944 megawatts. The six dams along the Pulangi (river) which flows from Bukidnon to Cotabato City generate a total of 1,003 megawatts and service irrigation systems came next. Other smaller projects followed with their combined capacity of 714 megawatts. The 22 sites, excluding the geothermal plants, in Mindanaw are expected to generate a total of 3,006 Megawatts. The biggest sources of geothermal energy is Mt. Apo, calculated to sustain 170 wells that will provide steam to four power plants and turn out 220 megawatts of electricity.[4] The latter attracted enormous opposition from the Lumad inhabitants around the mountain which in their belief and tradition is as sacred as a cathedral is to Catholics. Today, as a result of these successful tapping of hydro, geothermal and other local energy resources, we are told that the country’s dependence on foreign oil has been reduced by at least 43 percent.[5] If properly substantiated, the most recent discovery of additional gas reserves as well as oil in commercial quantities at the Camago-Malampaya deep-water gas field off Palawan could provide, President Estrada said, another 15 percent of the country’s oil needs.[6]

Requirements of Development

Industrialization is inevitable and strategic for the development of Mindanaw. It is possible only with a continuous flow of electrical energy. From the sources of energy to the distribution of electricity, we can feel a very intimate interconnection between the peace process and the economic development.

Water, the source of power that turns the giant generators are dependent on the integrity of the watersheds. Keeping watersheds alive require the nurturing care of people, people who share a common desire to keep the water flowing for the common welfare.

The most strategic watersheds are located in the lands of the Moro inhabitants and the Lumad communities. This is accentuated by the current reality that our primary forest cover is down to 18.3 percent, far below the minimum required for a sound and sustainable ecology. This brings into sharp focus the fundamental necessity of reforestation. Maintaining the watersheds and undertaking forest regeneration activities will mean not only preserving the water resources in all lakes and major river systems, it will also provide a sustained supply of water for agriculture, another strategic component of Mindanaw economic development. The best illustrations of the latter are the cases of the Agusan and Cotabato river basins. Sustained effort from a diverse population will only be possible if they are unified by a common dream.

What this all boils down to is that peace in Moroland is as vital a component as a requirement for the restoration and preservation of the watershed areas that will, in turn, assure us of the continuous flow of electricity. This for its part will fuel the industries. The cycle can continue ad infinitum.

The interests of Moro and Lumad communities that are mostly occupying watershed areas, too, where they have been driven to by population movements from the lowlands in the last 100 years, cannot be detached from the interests of lowland rice farmers who are dependent on irrigation systems, which are in turn dependent on water flowing from these watershed areas.

The cycle we have presented here may not be complete but the concept suggests that we view Mindanaw peace and development as an organic whole, not in separate little pieces.

This brings us to the Tri-people approach.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. A peace specialist, Rudy Buhay Rodil is an active Mindanao historian and peace advocate)

TOMORROW: The Tri-People Approach: Citizens’ Participation in Creating a Culture of Peace 

[1]Status Of Implementation Of The 1996 GRP-MNLF Peace Agreement (as of March 2000). Office Of The Presidential Adviser On The Peace Process. p. 1.

[2] Taken from Table 10. Household Population by Mother tongue, Sex and City/Municipality, 1990 Census of Population and Housing, Republic of the Philippines, National Statistics Office, Manila, June 1992.

[3] Tripoli Agreement, Second paragraph.

[4] Struggle Against Development Aggression, A Tabak Publication (Quezon City: 1990), pp. 39-43.

[5] Manila Bulletin, 10 March 2000.

[6] Philippine Daily Inquirer, 6 May 2000

Done in 1992 at Iligan City, published initially as two versions. First as the abbreviated edition published by The Minority Rights Group, London entitled The Lumad and Moro of Mindanaw, July 1993. The Philippine edition carrying the full draft was printed by AFRIM in Davao City 1994. This was later updated in 2003, summarized in an epilogue. This is the third revision, now with an expanded Epilogue.

Part 1

THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE PHILIPPINES: An Overview

The indigenous peoples in the Philippines, now also known officially as indigenous cultural communities (ICC), are said to constitute ten per cent of the estimated total national population of 60 million, per Census 1990. They are more popularly referred to as cultural minorities.

Once the masters of their own lives, now the majority of them are poor and landless. In the old days, many of them lived in the plains. But as a result of population pressures and resettlement programs from among the majority, they have moved to the forest areas. Now, their forests are devastated and their cultures are threatened.

And so, they have learned to fight for survival. Their voices reverberate from north to South, from the Cordillera to the Lumads to the Muslims (or Bangsamoro) of Mindanaw and Sulu.

They demand recognition of their right to self-determination; they demand respect for and protection of their ancestral domains, of their cultures, of their very lives. Within the last twenty years, one group after another of the ICCs have launched their struggles for self-determination, upholding as the most crucial issue their fundamental human right to their ancestral domain.

Interpretation on the meaning of “self-determination” differs. The Moro National Liberation Front consistently takes it to mean independence for the Bangsamoro from the clutches of what they regard as Filipino colonialism, although its leaders agreed to reduce this to regional autonomy in the Tripoli agreement of December 1976.

Advocates in the Cordillera and among the Lumad, however, emphasize their demand for genuine autonomy. But what they all have in common is the conscious realization that their collective happiness must come principally from their own efforts, not from the State.

Who are the Indigenous Cultural Communities?

Created in 1957, the Commission on National Integration (CNI) made an official listing of the National Cultural Minorities (NCM). Note in the Table I below that Luzon and the Visayas have 19 groups, and Mindanaw has 27, which can be further subdivided into 10 Moro and 17 Lumad [for the origin of the name “Lumad”, see Chapter 2]. In the 1960 census, four years after the establishment of the CNI, the NCMs numbered 2,887,526 or approximately ten percent of the national population. The matter of names and number is not a settled issue in the Philippines, which will explain the existence of such names as Kulaman in Mindanaw, which is just another denomination for Manobo in that part of Davao del Sur and two other places in Cotabato called Kulaman, and the addition of more later on. The census itself has never been consistent in its denominations.

Table 1

CNI Official Listing of National Cultural Minorities

It is generally known that the Bangsamoro people are made up of 13 ethno-linguistic groups. An explanation is in order why the above list shows only ten. Two of these groups are to be found in Palawan, namely, the Panimusa and the Molbog (Melebugnon or Molbuganon). A third, the Kalagan in Davao del Sur are partly Muslim and partly non-Muslim. The Panimusa, too, are partly Muslim and partly not. Finally, the Badjaw (they prefer Sama Dilaut) are generally not Muslims but because of their identification within the realm of the ancient Sulu sultanate, they have often been regarded as part of the Islamic scene in the Sulu archipelago.

The present majority-minority situation is a product of western colonialism that has been carried over to the present. In the time of Spanish colonialism, it was more an unintended product of colonial order. In the time of the Americans, it was the result both of colonial order and colonial design.

When the Republic of the Philippines assumed sovereign authority, the various administrations not only carried over whatever the Americans had left behind, they also institutionalized the status of cultural minority within Philippine society. In this section we seek to retrace our steps and see how the whole process came about. We start with a broad picture of our current linguistic situation.

Current Linguistic Situation

Inhabiting an archipelago of 7,100 islands which are divided into three broad geographic zones called Luzon, Visayas and Mindanaw, the Philippine population is, according to a linguistic expert, linguistically diverse, distributed, conservatively speaking, into between 100 and 150 languages. However, the expert clarifies, “one should not exaggerate this diversity, since the vast majority of the Filipinos at present are speakers of one of the eight `major languages’ — Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Bikol, Iloko, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan  — while 3 percent of the population comprise the speakers of the rest of these languages — the so-called `minor languages’ — most of whom are pagans or Muslims.”  Of the eight, five, namely, Tagalog, Bikol, Iloko, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan inhabit the Luzon area, and  three, namely,  Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray belong to the Visayan region.

The linguistic diversity is not, however, reflected in their skin. Complexion-wise, the majority of the Filipino natives are Malay brown; a much smaller percentage are dark like the Negritos or Aeta of Luzon, the Batak of Palawan and the Mamanwa of Mindanaw.

Linguistic studies have further reduced this diversity with their common conclusion that all Philippine languages “belong to the Austronesian language family”, also known as Malayo-Polynesian. Some of these languages are mutually intelligible, but most are not.

Social Situation at Spanish Contact

Using the situation at the end of the Spanish regime as a frame of reference, the various communities in the Philippine Archipelago may roughly be divided into two broad groupings, those who were colonized, and those who were not.

Those who were colonized generally belong to the barangay communities which composed the eight major groups cited above.

And those who were not may further be subdivided into those who fought and were not subjugated, and those who successfully evaded contact with Spanish forces thereby escaping colonization. Either way they remained free throughout the period of Spanish colonization. The first sub-group consisted of the Muslims of Mindanaw and Sulu and the Igorots of the Cordillera.

The second sub-group were those who are presently known as Tribal Filipinos. By an ironic twist of history it was the unconquered and uncolonized who were later to become the cultural minorities of the twentieth century. But before we go into the broad details of how this happened, let us first look at their social situation at the time of Spanish contact.

We start with the barangays, to be followed by the Muslims, then by those which have been characterized by Dr. William Henry Scott,  a well-known scholar of Philippine history, as the warrior societies, the petty plutocracies and the classless societies.

Tomorrow: The Barangay Communities

(Done in 1992 at Iligan City, published initially as two versions. First as the abbreviated edition published by The Minority Rights Group, London entitled The Lumad and Moro of Mindanaw, July 1993. The Philippine edition carrying the full draft was printed by AFRIM in Davao City, 1994. This was later updated in 2003, summarized in an epilogue. This is the third revision, now with an expanded epilogue.)

6th of 16 parts

Chapter 2 Part VI First Foreign Intrusion: The Spanish Challenge

The Spanish colonizers represented the first serious challenge to Moro dominance not only in Mindanaw but also in the entire archipelago. Armed clashes between them begun from the very first year of Spanish presence in 1565. The Moros contested their colonial ambition up to 1898. Part of the overall Spanish strategy in Mindanaw was to establish bases there, especially in areas where Moro influence was weakest. Mainly through missionary efforts, Spain succeeded as early as the first half of the 17th century in establishing footholds in the eastern, northern and western parts of Mindanaw.

The total number of Christians, 191,493 in 1892 who were largely converts from the indigenous population, represent the success of the Spanish in putting a large portion of Mindanaw within their jurisdiction. Did this affect the state of indigenous occupancy?

In a very real sense, no. The visible change was in the expansion of Spanish state domain and the contraction of Moro, either Magindanaw or Sulu, sultanate jurisdiction. Needless to say, this formed part of the Spanish basis for claiming the entire archipelago and ceding the same to the United States in 1898.

Resettlement Programs of the Government

The real displacement process started during the American colonial period. Between the years 1903 and 1935, colonial government records estimated between 15,000 and 20,000 Moro dead as a consequence of Moro resistance to the American presence.

Some of the recorded battles in Sulu, particularly the battles of Bud Dajo in 1906 and Bud Bagsak in 1912 were actual massacres, one-sided battles that they were.

Next to the actual destruction of the lives of the people, it can be said that as great a damage, if not more, was done by the resettlement programs.

These wreaked havoc on the Lumad and Moro ancestral domains in such an unprecedented scale that they literally overturned the lives of the indigenous peoples. A broad account will show that the government, colonial or otherwise, must somehow bear the responsibility for this turn of events.

Initiated by the American colonial government as early as l9l3, it was sustained and intensified during the Commonwealth period, and picked up momentum in the post-World War II years. Altogether, there were a number of resettlement programs.

Severe drought in Sulu and Zamboanga and grasshopper infestation in Davao in 1911-1912 adversely affected rice supply in the Moro Province and this gave General John Pershing, who was then Governor of the Moro Province, the excuse to call “for the importation of homesteaders from the overpopulated Philippine areas.”

The year 1913 saw the passage by the Philippine Commission of Act No. 2254 creating agricultural colonies aimed, officially, at enhancing the rice production effort already started in the Cotabato Valley.

The actual campaign for settlers into the first agricultural colony in the Cotabato Valley started in earnest in Cebu where corn has been the staple food. Knowing the Cebuano weakness for corn, their staple food in Cebu, the American colonial government paraded around Cebu a cornstalk, thirteen feet tall, propped up with a bamboo stick, to convince the people of the fertility and productivity of the soil. But in addition to being farmers, the volunteers had also to be skilled in arnis, an indigenous form of martial arts. Fifty persons responded.

Specific sites selected were Pikit, Silik, Ginatilan, Paidu Pulangi and Pagalungan, the very heart of Magindanaw dominion in the upper Cotabato Valley, and Glan at the southernmost coast of the present South Cotabato province.

In its supposed attempt to integrate the various sectors of the population, distinct population groups were purposely mixed in the colonial sites. In Colony No. 2, for example, composed of Manaulanan, Pamalian, Silik, Tapodok and Langayen, Cebuano settlers and Maguindanaw natives lived together. Strangely, the settlers were allotted 16 hectares each while the Maguindanawon were given only eight hectares each.

The government provided initial capital and some farm tools on loan basis. They were also assured of eventually owning homesteads.

There were American soldiers married to Filipinas who did not wish to return to the United States. They were provided for through Act 2280 with the opening the following year of the Momungan Agricultural Colony in what is now Balo-i, Lanao del Norte. There were signs that this project ultimately failed when in 1927 the governor opened the area for sale or lease to anyone under the terms of the Public Land Act.

Unable to further finance the opening of more colonies, the Manila government passed Act 2206 in 1919 which authorized Provincial Boards to manage colonies themselves at their expense. Lamitan in Basilan was thus opened by the Zamboanga province, Tawi-Tawi by Sulu, Marilog by Bukidnon, and Salunayan and Maganoy by Cotabato between 1919 and 1926.

No significant government resettlements were organized until 1935. Settlers nevertheless migrated either on their own or through the Inter-island Migration Division of the Bureau of Labor. As a result, aside from already existing settlement areas like that in the Cotabato Valley, or in Lamitan in Basilan and Labangan in Zamboanga del Sur, and Momungan in Lanao, we also see several in Davao, specifically in the towns of Kapalong, Guianga, Tagum, Lupon and Baganga; also, in Cabadbaran, Butuan and Buenavista in Agusan, and Kapatagan Valley in Lanao.

The next big initiative was the Quirino-Recto Colonization Act or Act No. 4197 of 12 February 1935 which aimed at sending settlers into any part of the country but with special reference to Mindanaw, that is, as a solution to the Mindanaw problem, as their peace and order problem with the Moros was called.

But before any implementation could be attempted, the Commonwealth government came into existence and it decided to concentrate on opening inter-provincial roads instead.

The National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA) created by Commonwealth Act No. 441 in 1939 introduced new dimensions into resettlement.

Aside from the usual objectives, there was the item providing military trainees an opportunity to own farms upon completion of their military training. The Japanese menace was strongly felt in the Philippines at this time and this particular offer was an attempt by the government to strengthen national security.

Under the NLSA, three major resettlement areas were opened in the country: Mallig Plains in Isabela, and two in Cotabato, namely, Koronadal Valley made up of Lagao, Tupi, Marbel and Polomolok and Ala (now spelled Allah) Valley consisting of Banga, Norallah and Surallah. By the time the NLSA was abolished in 1950, a total of 8,300 families had been resettled.

The Rice and Corn Production Administration (RCPA) of 1949 was meant to increase rice and corn production but was also involved in resettlement. It was responsible for opening Buluan in Cotabato, and Maramag and Wao at the Bukidnon-Lanao border.

Before the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA) came into existence in 1954, the short-lived Land Settlement Development Administration or LASEDECO took over from NLSA and RCPA. It was able to open Tacurong, Isulan, Bagumbayan, part of Buluan, Sultan sa Barongis and Ampatuan, all in Cotabato.

NARRA administered a total of 23 resettlement areas: nine were in Mindanaw; one in Palawan; five in the Visayas; one in Mindoro; and seven in mainland Luzon.

A product of the Land Reform Code, Land Authority took over from NARRA in 1963. For the first time, resettlement became a part of the land reform program. The creation of the Department of Agrarian Reform in 1971 also brought about the existence of the Bureau of Resettlement whose function was to implement the program of resettlement.

Moreover, the Economic Development Corps (EDCOR), a special program of the government to counter the upsurge of the Huk rebellion — a brainchild of Ramon Magsaysay, then Secretary of National Defense under President Elpidio Quirino — must also be mentioned. This program was responsible for opening resettlement areas for surrendered or captured Huks (insurgents) in such areas as Isabela, Quezon, Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato and Maguindanaw. Those in Mindanaw were carved out in the heart of Magindanao and Meranaw ancestral territories.

The formal resettlement programs spawned the spontaneous influx of migrants who came on their own. It is estimated that more people came this way than through organized channels.

To be able to appreciate the process of displacement among the indigenous groups, one can do a comparative study of the population balance in the provinces of Cotabato, Zamboanga, and Bukidnon over several census years.

Population Shifts Resulting From Resettlements

As a result of the heavy influx of settlers from Luzon and the Visayas, the existing balance of population among the indigenous Moro, Lumad and Christian inhabitants underwent serious changes. An examination of the population shifts, based on the censuses of 1918, 1939 and 1970, in the empire province of Cotabato, clearly indicates the process by which the indigenous population gave way to the migrants.

Add to this the cases of Zamboanga and Bukidnon and one will readily see how imbalances in the population led to imbalances in the distribution of political power as well as of cultivable lands and other natural and economic resources. These three give us concrete glimpses into the pattern of events in the entire region. The sole exceptions were those places which did not become resettlement areas.

Cotabato has been the traditional center of the Magindanaw Sultanate. Aside from the Magindanawon, its Moro population also include Iranun and Sangil. It is also the traditional habitat of several Lumad tribes like the Manobo, the Teduray, the Dulangan (Manobo), the Ubo, the T’boli and the Bla-an. It is, at the same time, the focus of very heavy stream of settlers from the north.

As a matter of fact, it was no accident that the American colonial government made it the site of the first agricultural colonies. It had all the markings of a present day counter-insurgency operation which at that time was Moro armed resistance to American rule.

Zamboanga was also the traditional habitat of the Magindanawon where the Sultanate dominated the original Subanen inhabitants, especially in the southern portions. Sama, known as Lutao during the Spanish period, Iranun, Tausug and Subanen converts to Islam known as Kalibugan or Kolibugan composed the other Moro populations. Aside from its indigenous Christian population who were converts during the many years of Spanish missionary effort and the few Chavacanos who were Ternateños brought in from the Moluccas Islands during the 17th century, the bulk of its Christian population came from numerous migrations in the twentieth century.

Bukidnon had been the traditional territory of the Manobo and the Bukidnon (also known as Talaandig and/or Higaunon). Its having been integrated into the special province of Agusan was an affirmation of the dominance of the Lumad population there during the first decade of the twentieth century. Its handful of Bangsamoro population are generally Meranaw to be found in the towns, especially Talakag, bordering Lanao del Sur. The census also registered a heavy inflow of migrants, mostly from the Visayas.

The Case of Cotabato

In 1918, what used to be known as the empire province of Cotabato (now subdivided into Cotabato, South Cotabato, Sarangani, Sultan Kudarat and Maguindanaw) had a total of 171,978 inhabitants distributed in 36 municipalities and municipal districts. The 1939 census registered a total population of 298,935 distributed in 33 towns.

And, finally, the 1970 figures showed a total population of 1,602,117. The fantastic leaps in population increase cannot be explained by natural growth, only by the rapidity of the migration process. How did this affect the balance of population?

In 1918, the Muslims were the majority in 20 towns, the Lumad in 5, and the migrants in none. Not much change was revealed in the 1939 census; the Muslims continued to be the majority in 20 towns, the Lumad increased to nine as a result of political subdivisions, and the migrants had three. The 1970 figures indicated an unbelievable leap. Now, the Muslims had only 10 towns to their name; not a single one was left to the Lumad — although it showed 31 towns with Lumad population of less than ten per cent, and the migrants now dominated in 38 towns.

The history of population shift in Cotabato was reflected throughout Mindanaw, revealing a pattern consistently unfavorable to the indigenous population. Total Islamized population was placed at 39.29 per cent in 1903; this was down to 20.17 percent in 1975. Lumad population was 22.11 percent in 1903; it fell to 6.86 percent in 1975.

More specifically, what particular areas had Muslim majority? Or Lumad majority? By the census of 1980, the Muslims had only five provinces, and 13 towns in other provinces. And the Lumad had only seven towns.

Role of Big Business in the Displacement Process

Mindanaw teemed with natural wealth. Both American military commanders and government administrators saw this very early in their stay in Mindanaw. No less than Leonard Wood (1903-1906), the first governor of the Moro Province and John Pershing, his successor, acknowledged this. Wood, as a matter of fact, was recorded as having remarked that “it is difficult to imagine a richer country or one out of which more can be made than the island of Mindanaw.”

Both officials tried to influence amendments to the existing land laws in order to induce investors into the region. The American dominated Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce tried, not once but twice, “to have Mindanaw and the adjacent islands become a territory of the United States.”

In 1926, a U.S. Congressman introduced a bill seeking the separation of Mindanaw and Sulu from the rest of the Philippines. This was part of a larger effort to transform the region into a huge rubber plantation. The great number of investors in Davao, both individual and corporate planters, the most famous of which being the Japanese corporations which transformed Davao into an abaca province represent the most visible example of large scale efforts during the colonial period to cash in on the region’s natural resources.

During the post-World War era, timber concessions may have delivered the penultimate blow to the already precarious indigenous hold over their ancestral territory. Logging became widespread in the region in the early 1960s. As a result of resettlement, indigenous populations naturally receded from their habitat in the plains upward into the forest areas. Logging caught up with them there, too. In 1979 alone, there were 164 logging concessionaires, mostly corporate, in Mindanaw with a total concession area of 5,029,340 hectares, virtually leaving no room in the forest for the tribal peoples.

It should be pointed out that the region’s total commercial forest was estimated to be 3.92 million hectares! To ensure smooth operations, logging companies were known to have hired indigenous datus as chief forest concession guards.

Pasture lands covered also by 25-year leases come as a poor second to logging with 296 lessees in 1972-73 for a total of 179,011.6 hectares.

How have these affected the indigenous peoples? No less than the Philippine Constabulary Chief Brigadier General Eduardo Garcia reported to the 1971 Senate Committee investigating the deteriorating peace and order conditions in Cotabato that the “grant of forest concessions without previous provisions or measures undertaken to protect the rights of cultural minorities and other inhabitants within the forest concession areas is one of the principal causes of dissatisfaction among the cultural minorities.”

A Magindanawon datu from Cotabato, Congressman Salipada Pendatun, cited the same government failure to “provide precautionary measures in the grant of concessions and pasture leases as contributory to the problem.”

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. A peace specialist, Rudy Buhay Rodil is an active Mindanao historian and peace advocate.)

Tomorrow: (Part VII) Contradiction Between Government Development Projects and Indigenous Interests

7th of 16 parts

(Done in 1992 at Iligan City, published initially as two versions. First as the abbreviated edition published by The Minority Rights Group, London entitled The Lumad and Moro of Mindanaw, July 1993. The Philippine edition carrying the full draft was printed by AFRIM in Davao City, 1994. This was later updated in 2003, summarized in an epilogue. This is the third revision, now with an expanded epilogue.)

Part VII Contradiction Between Government Development Projects and Indigenous Interests

As a result of the government’s attempt to reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil, both administrations from President Marcos to Aquino have undertaken energy development projects tapping both water and geothermal resources.

Famous among these projects, made so by determined indigenous opposition to them, were the Chico Dam project in the Cordillera, the Agus Hydroelectric projects along the Agus River in Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte, the Pulangi River projects and the Lake Sebu dam project, all of which are located in the heart of the territories of indigenous cultural communities.

And now, there is the Mt. Apo geothermal project.

Consequences Upon the Lumad and the Moro of the State System of Landownership and Land Use

It is important to note here that no Lumad ethno-linguistic group has ever reached the level of a centralized socio-political system such as that attained by the Moro people. At the turn of the century, their communities were mostly clan-size, and they were mostly dependent on swidden farms, hunting and gathering for their livelihood, and not much has changed since.

This would therefore explain the high vulnerability of the Lumad communities to external intrusion. The net effect of successful external intrusions was that individual communities ceased to be masters in their own ancestral lands and of their own lives; they had lost their self-determination. How do they feel about this? Let us hear from them and from the people who have worked with them or have done extensive studies about them.

Recorded in the “Santa Cruz Mission Report” of l973 were these accounts by a Magindanawon and a Bla-an (South Cotabato).

The Magindanawon said: “I want to tell you what I am feeling. Many years ago, the Christians came here to our place. They made many promises and encouraged us to join them, to unite and cooperate with them. They paid money to the Datu and they claimed our land. I hope you can understand. Our lands are all sold or mortgaged to the Christians. Now we do not have any land on which to work.”

The Bla-an added: “I want to tell you about our people as they were before the settlers came. We are the largest number of people then. We lived in the wide plains of Allah and Koronadal Valleys. It is true that we were not educated but then we were happy; we made our own lives, we lived in our own way.

“Then the settlers came, our lives became unhappy. We ran to the mountains because we were afraid of settlers. Even today, the Bla-an people are scared of the government officials. Our lands were taken away because of our ignorance. Now we are suffering. We have been forced to live in the Roxas and General Santos mountain ranges.

“Now we have only a few hectares of flat land to grow our food. And even with this little land, the government is running after us and they tell us that land is not ours. It is the government’s. They say the lands belong to the forestry. They will put us to jail. Truly we do not think that we are part of the government.”

The Senate Committee on National Minorities reported in l963: “Among the provinces visited, the most pressing land problems were reported in the provinces of Davao, Cotabato, Bukidnon and the island of Basilan.

“Natives in these provinces complained that they were being driven away by “influential persons and big companies” who have been awarded rights to lands which have long been occupied and improved by the members of the cultural minorities.”

A Teduray from Nangi, Upi (now North Upi), Maguindanao, had a similar story to tell: “Years ago, our ancestors inhabited the land now called Awang, a few kilometers away from Cotabato City. Settlers came waving in front of them a piece of paper called land title. They (our ancestors) did not understand it. Like most of us now, they were illiterate. But they did not want trouble and the mountains were still vast and unoccupied.

“And so, they fled up, bringing their families along and leaving precious and sacred roots behind… We have nowhere else to go now. The time has come for us to stop running and assert our land right to the legacy of our ancestors. If they want land titles, we will apply for it. Since we are illiterate, God knows how we will do it. That is why we are trying our best to learn many things around us. By then, we will no longer be deceived and lowland Christians can be stopped from further encroaching on our land.”

Dr. Stuart Schlegel who took down this account made additional observations: “The Teduray’s accommodation of the increasing number of lowlanders from elsewhere, the settlers’ acquisition of the ancestral lands, as well as the entry of logging corporations in the area were the beginning of the loss of Teduray lands, and eventually, the loss of their livelihood. When the settlers came, they only cultivated a parcel of Teduray land. Today, the Teduray can only cultivate a small portion of the settlers’ lands.

“Since most of the farm lands are now owned by the settlers, the landless Teduray hire themselves as tenants of the lands…”

Dr. E. Arsenio Manuel who did extensive work on the people he called Manuvu’ shared his equally revealing observations: “Just at the time that the Manuvu’ people were achieving tribal consciousness and unity (late 50’s), other forces were at work that were going to shape their destiny. These outside forces can be identified as coming from three sources: the government, private organizations and individuals.

“The pressure from the City Government of Davao to bring people under its wings is much felt in its tax collecting activities, and threats from the police. Private organizations, mainly logging companies, ranchers, and religious groups are penetrating deep into the interior since after the l950’s.

“With the construction of loggers’ roads, the opening up of central Mindanaw to settlement has come to pass. Christian land-seekers and adventurers have come from three directions: from the north on the Bukidnon side, from the west on the Cotabato side, and from the south on the Davao and Cotabato side….”

Zeroing in on the effects of government laws, Dr. Manuel continues: “Actual abridgement of customary practices has come from another direction, the national laws. The cutting of trees so necessary in making a clearing is against forestry laws, the enforcement of which is performed by forest rangers or guards. Logging companies, to protect their interests have taken the initiative of employing guards who are deputized to enforce the forest laws. So enforcement of the same runs counter to native practices so basic to the economy system of the Manuvu’. The datus are helpless in this respect.”

Many  Christian land-seekers who usually followed the path  of the loggers purchased tribal lands for a pittance. The datus, even if they were able to control the membership of barrio councils in their areas, could do nothing to annul such sales which normally were contrary to tribal laws.

Tribal land is not the only casualty in the displacement process. Even native ways, laws and institutions tend to be replaced by new ones.

The Moro fared only slightly better than the Lumad in that they were able to retain more territory in their hands by comparison. But as the figures will indicate, they, too, despite longer experience in centralized leadership, lost substantial territory.

To sum up, where once the Lumad exercised control over a substantial territorial area encompassed in the present day’s l7 provinces, now they only constitute, according to the l980 census, the majority in only seven municipalities. And where once the Moros had jurisdictional control over an area covered in the present day’s 15 provinces and seven cities, now they are left with only five provinces and 13 municipalities.

Present Status and Gains of the Lumad Struggle

Among the Lumad, much work has been done to influence recent legislations that would benefit them and the cultural communities as a whole. The process has also strengthened people’s organizations.

For the first time in Philippine constitutional history, the l973 Constitution of the Philippines carried  a sympathetic acknowledgment of the unique character of the tribal peoples of the country in a single provision, as follows: “The State shall consider the customs, traditions, beliefs, and interests of national cultural communities in the formulation and implementation of state policies.”

But this provision, however, was more of a concession rather than a genuine recognition of their fundamental group rights. As a matter of fact, a Presidential Decree (no. 410) was issued in l974 purportedly to protect the ancestral lands, yet no implementation took place because no Letter of Implementation was ever issued.

The nation-wide protests against the dictatorship of the Marcos regime affected the Lumad. The reverberations of the bitter Cordillera fight against the Chico dam project was felt in Mindanaw. The T’boli, for instance, had to contend with the Lake Sebu dam project. The Manobos of Bukidnon had to bear the terrible prospects of one day seeing the water overflowing the banks of the Pulangi river into their fields as a result of the Pulangi river dam project in the heart of Bukidnon.

Thus, when President Marcos was thrown out of power and President Corazon Aquino was installed, a Constitutional Commission was created to draft a new democratic Constitution. The various Lumad organizations took active part in the public consultations held during the drafting of the Charter. Lumad-Mindanaw was an active member of the AdHoc Coordinating Body for the Campaign on the Inclusion of National Minority Peoples Rights in the Constitution. When it was established in 1986, it was made up of 78 local and regional Lumad organizations.

It was mainly through their joint initiative, as well as other groups advocating indigenous people’s rights, supported by sympathetic advocates in the Constitutional Commission that the l987 Constitution  incorporated vital provisions directly addressed to the Bangsamoro and tribal communities all over the country.

Two significant sections may be cited here as examples of legal provisions that are considerably closer to that sought by the Lumads representing a radical departure from the aforecited provisions of the Constitution of l973. Article XII, Section 5 of the 1987 Constitution states: “The State, subject to the provisions of this Constitution and national development policies and programs, shall protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral lands to ensure their economic, social and cultural well-being.

“The Congress may provide for the applicability of customary laws governing property rights or relations in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domain”.

The other provision is Article XIV Education, Science and Technology, Arts, Culture and Sports), Section l7, as follows: “The State shall recognize, respect, and protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to preserve and develop their cultures, traditions, and institutions. It shall consider these rights in the formulation of national plans and policies.”

For the Teduray group which alone was included in the autonomous region in Muslim Mindanaw, the gains are to be found, for the moment, in the provisions of the Organic Act. For example, the Organic Act for Muslim Mindanaw carries one full article on Ancestral Domain. At the same time, Tribal customary laws shall at last be codified and become part of the law of the land.

The names “Lumad” and “Bangsamoro” have at last been accepted in the legal dictionary of the country. Along with this, an exemption from agrarian reform was granted by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of l988 (Chapter II, Sec. 9) “to ancestral lands of each indigenous cultural community”.

These gains must, however, be placed within realistic perspective. It is true that they represent a substantial advance from the provision of the 1973 Constitution. But whether or not they can deliver what the indigenous people really want is another matter.

Within the same Charter may be found, for example, a provision that can easily nullify the intention of the state recognition of ancestral lands. Section 2, Article XII (National Economy and Patrimony), clearly states that “all lands of the public domain, waters, minerals, coal, petroleum, and other mineral oils, all forces of potential energy, fisheries, forests or timber, wildlife, flora and fauna, and other natural resources are owned by the State. With the exception of agricultural lands, all other natural resources shall not be alienated.”

This nullifying effect has been concretely illustrated in the definition of ancestral domain and ancestral lands in the Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanaw (Sec. 1, Article XI) where the beautifully packaged definition of ancestral domain in the first part of the paragraph is neatly cut down in the latter part of the same paragraph, just as soon as the State asserts its possessory right.

Tomorrow:The Journey Towards Moro Self-Determination

8th of 16 parts

(Done in 1992 at Iligan City, published initially as two versions. First as the abbreviated edition published by The Minority Rights Group, London entitled The Lumad and Moro of Mindanaw, July 1993. The Philippine edition carrying the full draft was printed by AFRIM in Davao City, 1994. This was later updated in 2003, summarized in an epilogue. This is the third revision, now with an expanded epilogue.)

Part VIII

Chapter 3. THE JOURNEY TOWARDS MORO SELF-DETERMINATION

Aside from their being Muslims, the Moro people are especially proud of two other accomplishments in history. First, long before the Spanish colonizers arrived in the Philippine archipelago, they have enjoyed a high level of centralized social system as exemplified by the Sulu Sultanate which dated back to 1450, and the Magindanaw Sultanate which although born only in 1619 was preceded by the two powerful principalities of Magindanaw and Buayan at the Pulangi valley. And two, by their singular success in maintaining their freedom against repeated Spanish attempts to subjugate them for three hundred thirty-three years.

Triumph of Western Colonialism

But like the rest of the inhabitants of the archipelago, they, too, became victims of the machinations of two colonial powers at the turn of the century. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris, or, with one stroke of the pen, figuratively speaking, all inhabitants of the islands without exception — the Moros no less — became colonial subjects of the United States of America. Subsequent American moves were designed to clear away all forms of opposition to the assertion of American rights of possession and the establishment of American colonial rule. In the case of the Moro people, the direction was towards assimilation with the general body politic which in this instance was oriented around the Filipino identity.

Thus began a radical turn in Moro life which quickly cleared the way for their minoritization. Moro leaders’ recognition and acknowledgement of American sovereignty shifted centers of authority from them to American officials and institutions. Control over land and its disposition became the sole prerogative of the state authority. Private property prevailed over communal ownership, and usufruct lost its institutional base. Police power became the exclusive domain of police institutions, more specifically the Philippine Constabulary.

Moro Resistance

There was widespread armed resistance against the American presence during the first fifteen years, despite compromises by their leaders, notably the Sultan of Sulu, Datu Piang of Maguindanaw and Datu Mandi of Zamboanga. Between 1903 and 1936, Moro lives lost from the fighting were estimated by the Americans to be between 15,000 to 20,000 dead. In the words of an American officer, “no one dreamed that the Constabulary was to engage in hundreds of “cotta” (fort) fights and to quell twenty-six uprisings of sufficient seriousness to be listed as `campaigns’ before it turned over the task of establishing law and order, still uncompleted, to the Philippine Army in 1936.” Most notorious or most famous of the encounters, depending on one’s point of view, were the battles of Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak in Sulu; the struggle of Datu Ali in Magindanaw, and the Lake town campaigns in Lanao.

American success in arms were effectively balanced with equally determined efforts in civil affairs, more specifically, tapping the datus for key roles in colonial government, educating their children, and exposure programs for the more obstinate datus to make them more cooperative in the more subtle ways.

Datu Participation in Colonial Government

Formerly prime minister to the Sultan of Sulu, Hadji Butu was chosen Special Assistant to the American Governor of the Moro Province in 1904. He was Senator representing Mindanaw and Sulu from 1915 to 1920. Acknowledged as a top leader of the  Maguindanawons in the Cotabato Valley, Datu Piang started his service as third member of the Provincial Board of Cotabato in 1915, then became a member of the House of Representatives in 1916 representing Cotabato. A ranking datu in Lanao, Datu Benito represented Lanao in the same House. Other datus served in various capacities a good number of them starting as third member of their respective provincial boards. These personalities all actively supported the educational program of the Americans.

Education, A Tool of Pacification

American officials never underestimated the efficacy of education as a tool of conquest. A military veteran of the Mindanaw campaigns, Col. Harold H. Elarth, made this observation: “With the older generation held in check by armed force and the younger being trained in these schools, civilization and a semblance of law and order began to spread over Moroland.” General Arthur McArthur who for a while in 1901  headed American troops in the Philippines felt that there was “nothing in the department of administration that can contribute more in behalf of pacification than the immediate institutions of a comprehensive system of education  and saw education as “so closely allied to the exercise of military force in these islands”. Thus, while tapping Moro leaders for important roles in the colonial government, special arrangements were made to enable sons and daughters of these leaders to obtain education.

The case of Sulu was instructive. A girls’ dormitory managed by a Christian Filipino matron and financed by American ladies in New York was established in 1916 in Jolo. This contributed substantially in breaking down Moro prejudice against sending their daughters to school. The pupils were selected from the leading Tausug families, among them Princess Indataas, the daughter of Datu Tambuyong, one of the principal datus of the Sulu Sultanate; Princess Intan, the sister of Datu Tahil. Even then, Datu Tambuyong played safe; he required the American authorities to sign a long document which promised that his daughter would not be allowed to dance or talk with men, among others. The support given by the leading datus certainly made the dormitory a great success. At the same time, it inspired some of the girls to become teachers.

American success among the general Moro population may be gauged from the enrolment figures themselves. In 1900, we are told that “in the Moro areas of Mindanaw some 25 schools were opened the first year with more than 2,000 pupils attending.” In the school at Jolo, very few of the 200 pupils were Moros because their parents suspected that “American schools would try to convert their children from Islam to Christianity.”

Three years after, “52 schools are now in operation in the Moro province… with a total enrollment of 2,114, of which number 1,289 are boys and 825 are girls. One thousand seven hundred and sixty-four of the students enrolled are Christians, 240 are Mohammedans and 110 pagan Bagobos.

In 1906, Act No. 167 (20 June 1906) on compulsory education for children of school age, not less than 7 and not older than 13, was implemented in the Moro Province.

In 1913, 1,825 Moros and 525 pagans were enrolled in the public schools of the Moro Province. In 1918 the enrollment of the Moros in the five provinces (of Sulu, Zamboanga, Cotabato, Lanao, Davao) had increased to 8,421 and pagan pupils to 3,129.

By 1919 the Director of Public Education boasted that “six of the highest ranking Mohammedan princesses of the Sultanate of Sulu were teaching in the public schools, one of them a niece of the Sultan.”

Exposure Tours

Inviting independent-minded Moro leaders into exposing themselves to “high civilization” was called education trips designed to soften resistance to colonial policy. Usually selected to receive these invitations were Moro datus and other headmen who were loud in their objections to political and or social union with Christian Filipinos. Datu Alamada and Datu Ampatuan of Cotabato were two of those datus who as a result of these trips were transformed into avid supporters of colonial policy. Datu Alamada, in particular, was reportedly insistent in his requests for schools, homestead surveys, and colony organization for his people.

These devices, among others, proved to be most effective in redirecting the proud Moro spirit from active armed resistance to acquiescence. Like all others in the same category throughout the islands, Moro loss is twofold. They lost control of their own destiny and resources. They became a people, neatly labeled, first as wild or non-Christian Tribes in American times, then through R.A. 1888 in 1957 as national cultural minorities who were to be prepared towards eventual integration with the mainstream of the Philippine body politic. They ceased to exercise their right to self-determination. How did they feel about this situation?

Tomorrow:

Part IX: Early Moves Towards Recovery of Self-Determination

14th of 16 parts

Rudy Buhay Rodil

(Done in 1992 at Iligan City, published initially as two versions. First as the abbreviated edition published by The Minority Rights Group, London entitled The Lumad and Moro of Mindanaw, July 1993. The Philippine edition carrying the full draft was printed by AFRIM in Davao City 1994. This was later updated in 2003, summarized in an epilogue. This is the third revision, now with an expanded Epilogue.)

Chapter 6. Prospects for Problem Resolution and Peace

Let us start by asking basic questions. What do the indigenous communities want? The Moro people?  The Lumad? What they seek is that they be recognized as they are, with their distinct cultural identities, with their own traditional territories, and that these are basic to their survival and dignity.

What the Moro People Want

Speaking for the Moro people, the MNLF originally wanted an independent Bangsamoro Republik whose territory shall be the entirety of Mindanaw, the Sulu Archipelago and Palawan or simply Minsupala. 

For reasons not yet so clear, they agreed to modify this to regional autonomy starting with the Tripoli agreement covering only a territory of 13 provinces and nine cities. Due to failure to agree on details, this agreement was never fully consummated.

In another round of negotiation, this time with the Aquino government, the MNLF shifted to full autonomy in the same Minsupala region. The ratification of the 1987 Constitution with its own provisions on regional autonomy got in the way and the talks collapsed again.

This revolutionary organization has consistently rejected the Constitution as the basis for any talks. Presently, there are occasional cries for the implementation of the Tripoli agreement.

Other revolutionary groups, like the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have consistently demanded the implementation of the Tripoli agreement. The MNLF allegedly keeps trying to get full membership status at the Organization of Islamic Conference. The MILF has consistently advocated implementation of the Tripoli agreement.

And the MNLF-Reformist Group has apparently shifted to purely parliamentary activities; its leader was appointed director of the Office of Muslim Affairs in the Aquino government and he continues to serve in the government service. 

In the meantime, the constitutionally created Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanaw is in place in the four provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

But what is to be  done with thousands of other Muslims outside the autonomous region?

What the Lumads Desire

Through Lumad Mindanaw, the Lumads have said that they want the government to recognize their ancestral lands. They desire genuine self-determination within the territorial integrity and under the sovereignty of the Republic of the Philippines. They prefer self-government within their ancestral lands, in accordance with their customary laws. What concrete form this will take within the government structure, however, remains to be seen.

They have their immediate concerns, too. They want the return of all lands taken from them through deceit, harassment, illegal manipulations, or simply grabbed. Also, lands within tribal territories which have been mortgaged, confiscated and declared public lands because of loans for commercial trees like falcatta, rubber and ipil-ipil.

They want the government to revoke permits secured by individuals and companies operating logging, mining, pastures, rattan gathering and other agri-based industries within tribal territories. They may operate within areas of ancestral domain only with the permission of individual tribes through their legitimate organizations.

The migration of settlers into the ancestral domain of the tribal people must be controlled.

Having seen their indigenous culture laughed at by those of the majority, having observed how their children’s indigenous culture has been eroded year after year within the school system, they also feel the need to keep alive and uphold their own dances, songs, material culture, history, and their own system of workshop, and healing the sick. 

These, many of them believe, should be learned, respected and taught as part of the DECS (Department of Education and Sports). This way their children will be educated and still remain indigenous in identity.

The government should disband paramilitary units and stop militarization in Lumad territories. Stop giving support to fanatic groups which have caused our dispersal. Halt recruitment of Lumads into paramilitary units. Stop the incorrect application of the Lumad pangayaw (revenge raids).

The government should cease recognizing fake Lumad organizations and fake datus which have become standard practice not only to foil or diffuse legitimate Lumad aspirations but also to advance selfish interests among government officials and their influential friends, not the least of which being the acquisition of Lumad ancestral lands.

Lessons From the Past

There are at least two sides to the problem, the government and the indigenous cultural communities. And for this reason, both sides must also be responsible for the solution.

What lessons can be drawn from the Lumad and Moro experiences? 

First, there is no concealing  the fact that it was and has been the machinery of the state that has been responsible for the minoritization of the indigenous peoples. There is no need to harp on whether said machinery of state was colonial or otherwise. The reality is that the policies and laws which brought misfortune to the indigenous communities were initiated indeed by the colonizers, first by the Spaniards and then by the Americans. But the greater misfortune is that the Philippine government continued the same policies and laws which multiplied ICC misfortunes. And now that the western colonizers are gone, only the Philippine government is left to resolve mountains of accumulated  problems.

Second, there is also no denying that the weaknesses manifest in these communities made them fair game for the so-called majority, highly vulnerable, easily manipulable. Indigenous communities have their own numerous documented accounts of how they were deceived into parting with their lands.

Third, there were not lacking those elements of the majority who had no scruples pursuing selfish gains at the expense of the former, as there was also a good number of individual members of the ICC who held positions of traditional leadership and broke custom law to dispose of ancestral lands for selfish gain, thus further weakening their own people’s defenses. The more contemporary phenomenon is the emergence of fake datus who are in turn encouraged and supported by government for purposes other than for the benefit of the ICCs. 

Fourth, now,  as a result of all these, the ICCs, especially the Lumad, find themselves at the receiving end, so far, of two distinct but inseparable contradictions, both seemingly irresolvable, the two conflicting systems of property: (a) public domain vs. ancestral land; (b) Western-oriented property law vs. indigenous custom. 

Fifth, now the ICCs must hold on to their respective ancestral lands as they would to their own dear lives for there is so little that is left. Genuine self-determination seems to be the best option. But they have no illusions that this is going to be easy work. Unity within their own ranks have to be improved.

Prospects of Legislative Reforms?

Responsive legislative reforms, especially where it involves the present demands of the Indigenous Cultural Communities, leaves much to be desired. A quick review of some related legislations will illustrate how painfully slow it was for the state machinery to extricate itself from the colonial past.

There is a grave need for a well-studied national policy on the Indigenous peoples. However, despite a number of favorable provisions found in the 1987 Constitution, Congress failed to pass the two bills on ancestral domain. The legislators missed a golden opportunity to break away from the orientation advanced by the Commission on National Integration. This is not an isolated situation.

In the crucial sphere of land laws, provisions affecting the ICCs remained essentially the same from 1903 to contemporary times. It even worsened with the introduction of the 18 percent limit for mountain slopes set by President Marcos classifying those above as forest lands, and therefore inalienable.

It can be said that the root of the present land problem is the Regalian doctrine. It has been at the heart of the Philippine property system since the arrival of the Spanish colonizers to the present — at the expense of indigenous institutions. The natural resource classification has been a sacred provision, carried over from the American-made Philippine Bill of 1902, integrated into the 1935 Constitution, embedded in the 1973 Charter, and is very much a part of the 1987 Basic Law of the land. Forest and mineral lands or lands of the public domain are non-disposable and inalienable. Only agricultural public lands may be privately owned.

The 1987 Constitution in the first paragraph of section 3, Article XII, provides: “Lands of the public domain are classified into agricultural forest or timber, mineral lands, and national parks. Agricultural lands of the public domain may be further classified by law according to the uses to which they may be devoted.

Alienable lands of the public domain shall be limited to agricultural lands.

Private corporations or associations may not hold such alienable lands of the public domain except by lease, for a period not exceeding twenty-five years, renewable for not more than twenty-five years, and not to exceed one thousand hectares in area.

Citizens of the Philippines may lease not more than five hundred hectares, or acquire not more than twelve hectares thereof by purchase, homestead or grant.”

“Taking into account the requirements of conservation, ecology, and development, and subject to the requirements of agrarian reform, the Congress shall determine, by law, the size of lands of the public domain which may be acquired, developed, held, or leased and the conditions therefor.”

What happens to the indigenous occupant? He becomes a squatter in his own land. All proceedings under the Public Land Act are based on the assumption that the land is, or at least used to be, part of the public domain. By applying the Public Land Act even to ancestral lands occupied since time immemorial, it is assumed that even these lands are held from the State.

It did not matter that the ownership of the indigenous occupants to their ancestral lands predated the advent of the Republic of the Philippines or even its predecessor the Spanish Regalia, from whom all claims to land are supposed to originate.

Making the Regalian doctrine an even more bitter pill to swallow is the fact that ancestral land has never come under the effective control of Spanish colonial government. “Ownership, therefore, to ancestral land has long been vested and, in most cases, was never interrupted”. 

But under the Regalian doctrine, such claim of original ownership has no legal standing.

In the past, the classification of lands into timber and mineral automatically converted ancestral lands into inalienable public domain.

As if these were not enough, and after they have been driven to the forest areas by the pressure of settlers, the Marcos regime introduced through the Revised Forestry Code and the 1976 Ancestral decree a detail that lands on 18 percent mountain slope are automatically declared forest and, hence, inalienable, and those below the 18 percent slope mark may further be declared as inalienable public land by the mere expedient of declaring them as public reservation areas.

Given the constitutional shield on the Regalian doctrine, it seems certain that any major change in the property system will have to be premised on a constitutional amendment. Until then, what are the prospects of legislative reform? Or of the government recognition of ancestral lands? Much will depend on the state of enlightenment of the next Congress to understand the nature of the problem and manifest political will in favor of the indigenous peoples.

However, the outlook is bright for consolidation activities among the indigenous peoples. There are also other fields of endeavor which do not require legislative action. Intervention from the Executive branch of government will suffice.

It is a well-known fact, for example, that government-approved Social Studies textbooks in Philippine grade schools carry a lot of distortions of facts, or simply omissions on matters related to the Lumads or Moros. If this is immediately remedied, a lot of negative sentiments about them can be eliminated from the minds of young children.

Government-recognition of fake datus which has caused a lot of confusion and demoralization among the people can easily be withdrawn and rectified.

Consolidation of Forces Among the Indigenous Communities

Inner transformation within the ranks of the ICCs has been going on for some time now. The Bangsamoro are visibly the more militant, given their long and extensive experience in centralized activities and in confronting external enemies, but even they must face divisiveness from within.

The split of the MNLF which led to the establishment of other factions like the MILF and the MNLF-Reformist Group are more than eloquent proofs of this.

The Lumad tend to be more gentle. But both are experiencing a fast pace in the awakening process.

Among the Lumad, events unfolded fast from the time of the church-initiated first inter-tribal assembly in 1977, which only had a handful of participants, then churchily called “Tribal Filipinos”, to the founding congress of Lumad Mindanaw in 1986.  Lumad-Mindanaw was constituted by a coalition of, initially, 78 local and regional all-Lumad organizations. 

The name “Lumad” was born by consensus from the realization of a need by people who discovered from the similarities of their marginalized situation a common cause and a common destiny.

The coalition was born in the context of the Marcos dictatorial regime, in an atmosphere of militarization, human rights violations, poverty, land-grabbing, undue intrusions by multinational corporations, and government neglect. And the aspiration and struggle for self-determination was seen both as a desirable process and an ultimate goal.

Processes in their assemblies followed traditional custom. Sharing and analysis of problems and finding solutions to these were consciously consultative, participatory, and consensus oriented. No one is left out. And growth in consciousness is more or less even.

In the recent past, too, a good number of support groups emerged to help the Lumad out in their struggle, the most active being KADUMA-Lumad. Their number have also multiplied. More public forums like the Second Ancestral Land Congress where public officials were deliberately invited can be held.

Their local and regional organizations, but more especially Lumad Mindanaw itself, will play significant roles in pressuring government to recognize their ancestral lands, or in bringing about the acceptable resolution of the contradiction between public domain and ancestral land. At the same time, similar experiences of the Moro peoples somehow point towards the same directions.

Undoubtedly, it is not easy at this point to gauge how the MNLF or the MILF will move forward in its struggle. At present the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanaw is in place. The revolutionary organizations seem to be inactive but MNLF leaders are reported every year  to be following up their application for membership in the Organization of Islamic Conference. There is occasional cry for the implementation of the Tripoli agreement but there continues a search for political processes that can truly respond to their legitimate demand for a more genuine autonomy.

Meanwhile, the indigenous peoples in Mindanaw pursue their quest for an authentic peace — where sustainable development takes place as a social process, initiated, activated and sustained by themselves, the very people who seek it. It can be the process of self-government initiated, activated and sustained by the people themselves in accordance with customary laws and with due respect a corded their ancestral lands.

Indeed, it will take time. As their struggles have taken much time. But the Bangsamoro and the Lumads of Mindanaw have long exhibited incomparable patience and  tenacity and there is no reason why these virtues will not serve them well until they obtain their just due: a life of peace and prosperity.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. A peace specialist, Rudy Buhay Rodil is an active Mindanao historian and peace advocate.)

Tomorrow: Part XV: Selected Bibliography

16 of 16 parts
Epilogue 1

(Done in 1992 at Iligan City, published initially as two versions. First as the abbreviated edition published by The Minority Rights Group, London entitled The Lumad and Moro of Mindanaw, July 1993. The Philippine edition carrying the full draft was printed by AFRIM in Davao City 1994. This was later updated in 2003, summarized in an epilogue. This is the third revision, now with an expanded Epilogue.)

Part XVI. Updated Epilogue-I

In the Bangsamoro front. 

The first big event was the signing of the Final Peace Agreement between the GRP and the MNLF on September 2, 1996. After nearly five years of intensive negotiations both in Jakarta and in the Philippines, from exploratory to talks proper,  the GRP and the MNLF finally came to terms on the implementation of the 20-year old Tripoli Agreement of 1976. The two parties agreed to have a transition mechanism called Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD) while the amendment of the Organic Act of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) was being processed through Congress, and 7,500 MNLF combatants were to be integrated into the government, 5,750 into the Armed Forces of the Philippines and 1,750 into the Philippine National Police.

The implementation was a bit stormy in certain places but the tempest blew over in time. An uproar, mainly from the Christian population, was generated by the transition mechanism called the Southern Philippines Council for Peace and Development but when the opposing population realized that their interest was not really compromised, they simmered down.  MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari who refused to vacate his seat as ARMM Governor for reasons not yet fully clear up to now led an abortive rebellion, escaped to Malaysia, was arrested there by the Malaysian government and handed over to the Philippine government. He subsequently landed in jail; he is still there as of this writing. The Organic Act became a law in 2001; a plebiscite was held in August 2001 and Basilan and Marawi City became the new additions to the territory of the ARMM, and a new batch of ARMM officials was elected into office.   By the first quarter of 2003, the last batch of the 7,500 MNLF combatants who were trained and integrated into the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police was deemed completed.

The second big event was the all-out war against the MILF declared by President Joseph Estrada. Negotiations with the MILF followed immediately after the signing of the Peace Agreement in 1996 but this was marred by several major encounters between the MILF forces and the AFP, until finally, in March 2000, after the military re-captured the town hall of Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte from the MILF, President Estrada thought it best to declare an all-out war against the former. A full-scale war raged for more than three months, leading to the military capture of 46 MILF camps.  More than one million residents, Muslims, Lumad and Christian inhabitants were dislocated. MILF forces  may have suffered humiliation but remained basically intact. Estrada has been impeached, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took over as the new president, the peace talks have inched forward a little with two major agreements on security and rehabilitation but is far from done. Ancestral Domain, a critical item in the agenda, has yet to be discussed.  A new round of fighting broke out in February 2003 which spilled over as far as Lanao del Norte.  Meanwhile,  Salamat Hashim  had passed away in July 2003, and Vice Chairman for Military Affairs Al Haj Murad Ebrahim has assumed the chairmanship of the organization. There is a lull in the fighting.  A resumption of  negotiation was scheduled for the first week of October but it is now December and there is no concrete indication that a date has been  fixed. The presidential election is only a few months away. Doubts have been expressed from the MILF end, albeit unofficial, that a peace agreement would be signed  with the Arroyo administration. This is where things stand at the moment.

In the Lumad front

The third big event was the enactment into law of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) in October 1997. This is the first law in the 20^th century that reversed the effects of PCA 718 of April 1903 which, as we will recall, declared as void all land grants made by traditional leaders, if done without consent from government. With IPRA, ancestral lands may be titled.

Prior to the enactment of IPRA, the government already initiated positive efforts towards providing security to ancestral domain claims of the Indigenous Peoples. It is a bit late in coming, still short of what the Indigenous Peoples really want, but it is definitely a step forward. It started with DAO 2 (short for Department Administrative Order No. 2) issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in January 1993. Its title is self-explanatory: Rules and Regulations for the Identification, Delineation and Recognition of Ancestral Land and Domain Claims.  After complying with the procedures, claimants would be awarded a certificate of ancestral domain claim.

Since that time up to June 6, 1998, a total of 181 Certificates of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADC) have been issued totaling 2,546,036 hectares, nearly 500,000 hectares shy of the three million hectares originally targeted by the Order for its five-year effectivity.

Of the total of 85 CADCs that have been issued to the Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao,  the largest is the Matigsalug Manobo claim with an area of  77,143 hectares.  .

With the enactment of IPRA, authority to issue titles, not just certificates to ancestral domain claims have been turned over to the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP). Not too long ago, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo awarded Certificates of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT), granted through the NCIP,  to three indigenous tribes in Mindanao during the culmination of the two-day Mindanao Indigenous Peoples congress on October 30, 2003. These are  the Matigsalug-Manobo from the municipalities of Kitaotao, Kibawe, and Quezon in Bukidnon; Talaandig from  Talakag, Bukidnon; and Arumanen-Manobo from the municipalities of Carmen,  Aleosan, Alamada, and Libungan, in Cotabato.

The fourth significant event was the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Peace Forum organized by Panagtagbo at Camp Alano, Toril, Davao City on 17-19 January 2001. This assembly issued a manifesto (See full text in Appendix N ) which made several important assertions, one of them being a reiteration of their desire for self-governance within their respective ancestral domains in accordance with their customary laws, and the other – and this is new – the creation of their own autonomous region, apart from the ARMM. For the first time, too, Panagtagbo succeeded in getting the Lumad position heard in the GRP Panel that is conducting peace talks with the MILF through the membership of Datu Al Saliling as member of the Technical Working Group on Ancestral Domain. They had wanted full panel membership but only a seat in the working group was available. They have also been able not only to present their position to the MILF but also to conduct dialogues with local units of the MILF to remind them of traditional pacts – called dyandi and pakang — with Maguindanao Moro leaders in the past with respect to ancestral domain boundaries. This mode of assertion of Lumad rights is unprecedented and bears monitoring.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. A peace specialist, Rudy Buhay Rodil is an active Mindanao historian and peace advocate)

TOMORROW: Update Epilogue II A Mindanao Historian’s Views; Quick Recalls on the Basic Issues of the GRP-MILF Peace Process

16 of 16 parts
Epilogue 3

(Done in 1992 at Iligan City, published initially as two versions. First as the abbreviated edition published by The Minority Rights Group, London entitled The Lumad and Moro of Mindanaw, July 1993. The Philippine edition carrying the full draft was printed by AFRIM in Davao City 1994. This was later updated in 2003, summarized in an epilogue. This is the third revision, now with an expanded Epilogue.)

Part XVIII

Update 2020 Epilogue – III: Panagtagbo A  One Big Event 2004 to 2020

BARMM is historic!

Not only for Bangsamoro.

Also for Mindanaw-Sulu

Definitely for the Republic of the Philippines.

After seven presidents (Ferdinand Marcos, Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Benigno “Pnoy” Aquino, Digong Duterte – still in place)…

After 19 Government Negotiating Panels (from 1975 to 2014) talking with the Bangsamoro Fronts, mainly the MNLF and the MILF…

After the Tripoli Agreement, the Final Peace Agreement, the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro unto BARMM (the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao)…

After three decades of experience with the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)…

Viewing the quick sequences of Ten Decisions in April 2012,  Framework Agreement in October 2012, then Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro  in 2014. Finally, the BARMM in 2018, … ratified in a plebiscite on 21 January 2019 and 6 February 2019… 

My sensing… as a Mindanawon historian, as part of the negotiation process part of the way… as an advocate… the peace talks’ responses to painful conflicts, every step, including backward step and forward step, there are no failures, not even MOA-AD in my experience, the SAF-44 at Mamasapano, Maguindanao… there are always positive learnings. The emergence of our humanity comes at its own time. Call it ripening. Call it realization.

In the 44 years of peace negotiations, 21 years from January 1975 to 2 September 1996;  22 years from January 1997 to 27 March 2014, followed by the Bangsamoro Organic Law  processing by Congress and signed by President Digong Duterte on 27 July 2018, and ratified in a plebiscite on 21 January and 6 February 2019 …  still ongoing … 

It took both parties to agree on what is the problem they were trying to solve. Technically the disagreements were always between the Constitution and the dream of self-determination among the Bangsamoro.  But in reality, there other emotions we try to hold back to give way to rationality. The small pieces, the agreements, step by step, came into place, despite disruptions, including armed engagements, sometimes called impasses.  Then, forward again… and the final agreements.

Feel the global dimensions… recall…The GRP-MNLF was always with the participation of the OIC via the Quadripartite Ministerial Committee, started with four, then expanded to six. Libya and Indonesia played crucial roles. The GRP/GPH-MILF peace talks was always done in Malaysia…. Which expanded with the participation of other states, mainly the International Monitoring Team (IMT) led by Malaysia, followed by Brunei Darussalam,  then Indonesia, Japan, Libya, Norway and the European Union.

Looking Forward via Education

Education is naturally an integral part of the mission of BARMM.  Hitting the creation of the new generation at the heart… This is reflected in the PROPOSED BANGSAMORO EDUCATION CODE (draft as of 18 September 2020, already filed in October 2020 as a bill for deliberation in the parliament) for the establishment of a complete integrated system within the Bangsamoro. It accurately reflects the seeds of the new Bangsamoro Organic Law.

I am particularly touched by the sensitiveness of the leaders…grounded indeed … it is wholistic but there is this conscious focus on the curriculum of the indigenous peoples… and it is being futuristic…

·      operate around indigenous culture, knowledge, systems, and practices existing in the Bangsamoro region… include mental and psychological and environmental contexts of the learners.

·      Language medium. Teaching and learning shall be the mother tongue for Kindergarten and Grade 1 to 3 learners. Primary medium of instruction and learning beginning Grade 4, shall be English…Filipino and mother tongue may also be used

·      Ministry support for the creation of a tribal university system to address the higher educational needs of non-Moro indigenous peoples.

Peace Education

Peace education for all shall also be an integral part of the Basic Education Curriculum of the learners nurturing them in the life of nonviolent culture, social justice, and respect for human rights, freedom, and inclusivity.

Among the Lumad

I was there and felt deeply this event of Re-affirmation of Kinship of the Moro and Indigenous Peoples of Mindanao at Talaandig Ancestral Territory at Tulugan, Sungko, Lantapan, Bukidnon, 7-8 March 2012, participated by delegates from the tri-peoples. I call this another peace process in itself (more indigenous to use the word husay), a panagtagbo, a convergence of those affected by conflict.  This was this message, embossed in bronze, prominently displayed:

KINSHIP COVENANT

The Indigenous Peoples and the Moro of Mindanao hereby acknowledge the following principles and doctrines of Kinship as basis of their cooperation, understanding and unity as descendants of the early inhabitants in the island of Mindanao:

Principle 1. Kilalaha (Mutual Recognition and Respect)

Principle 2. Sayuda (Mutual Sharing of Information)

Principle 3. Buliga (Cooperation)

Principle 4. Uyaga (Mutual Protection & Preservation of Life)

Principle 5. Pabatunbatuna (Mutual Obligation to Help the Needy)

Signed this 8^th day of March 2012 in the heart of the Talaandig Ancestral Territory

at Tulugan, Sungko, Lantapan, Bukidnon.

Now we are ready for a new chapter. Together.

Husay and panagsuon.

Kalinaw Mindanaw!     

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. A peace specialist, Rudy Buhay Rodil is an active Mindanao historian and peace advocate)

TITLE: Mga Lumadnong Sugilanon nga Mahinuklogon
AUTHOR: Melchor M. Morante
Published by Aletheia Printing and Publishing House, Davao City
Virtual book launch on 30 December 2020 at 4 p.m.

KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 16 December) —  A genre of its own emerges from Melchor M. Morante’s latest book Mga Lumadnong Sugilanon nga Mahinuklogon, a collection of short stories in Cebuano Bisaya.

Written by an author with decades of experience working with Mindanao’s marginalized communities, these roman-a-clef stories are to date the largest collection of works of what I will hitherto call Historical Injustice Fiction.

These stories – and the literature they end up becoming – are now welcome additions to Mindanao’s collective memory, serving to help address many of this island’s many historical injustices: Landgrabbing, historical and cultural erasure, extrajudicial killings, socioeconomic inequality, and linguistic hegemony all touched in stories casually told as reflective recollections.

Using fiction as a means of documenting and bringing historical injustices into wider public awareness is not new, but with Mga Lumadnong Sugilanon nga Mahinuklogon, a new direction is emerging: specific incidents of atrocities or injustices in Mindanao, specially those not widely known or remaining unrecorded, are portrayed and tackled with the sobriety of literary detachment, such that human insight may be distilled from them, specially for Mindanawon readers.

As I have said in different occasions, the culmination of literary form is impact, and in order to achieve that impact, that form must be scrutinized. Taking at look at how Morante’s stories succeed, and see where they can improve, would also serve to take this emerging genre forward.

We note, first of all, the language, and with just this the stories in this collection already have much impact.

For the longest time, Mindanao’s Fiction in Cebuano Bisaya has been largely monolingual, a result of Bhabhan hybridity of Mindanao’s writers from the ‘standard’ Cebu tradition of the language’s literature, but also a cause by which Mindanao’s own tradition remains so, producing this endless cycle of uprootedness. This is an often ignored dimension to the reality of contemporary Mindanao literature’s longstanding failure to reflect Mindanao’s linguistic realities.  With the more recent works of writers like Jondy Arpilleda (who blurs the lines between Bisaya and Tandagnon) and Macario Tiu (who proudly uses the Tagalog-laced Bisaya of Davao), this remove between literary medium and linguistic reality is slowly being addressed

But Mga Lumadnong Sugilanon nga Mahinuklogon takes this one step further, with the author making it his express aim in the collection’s introduction to show more of Cebuano Bisaya’s increasing hybridization with other languages in Mindanao. With Tagalog, English, and Hiligaynon mixing with Monuvu, Blaan, Subanen, and Dulangan in the Cebuano narrative, this collection’s medium is, to date, the closest any book has come to what Mindanao actually sounds like.

We want more of course, and in many accounts that demand is addressed not to the text, but to the community. Mindanao’s indigenous languages (this collection shows) is not being heard enough in Mindanao, a result of their slow erasure in the wake of policies of linguistic hegemony (the premium put on English, the imposition of Tagalog as a national language, and the emergence of Cebuano as Settler lingua franca resulting from unmediated resettlement). Morante’s stories also succeed by showing how Mindanao’s languages have become subaltern even in Mindanao. We are compelled to do something about it.

Where, perhaps, the collection can improve on the matter of language is with the following of emerging standards of orthography and in being representative of the picture of diversity.

I cannot speak for the other Lumad languages, but for Obo Monuvu (which I am learning), I can point out that it would be ideal if the author follow the orthography for the language developed by tribal leaders in partnership with the Summer Institute of Linguistics. Greetings such as ‘moppiyon sollom’ (which are used in the stories) are increasingly being spelled by the language’s writers following this orthography, which the tribe themselves designed to better reflect their phonology.

The discourse on what orthography to follow is also deeply intertwined with discursive power, and it would be consistent with this collection’s aim – and for Historical Injustice Fiction in general – to spell words in the  language the way the language community itself would like them to be spelled.

Although it is not really the problem of the collection (which is already considerably diverse), it must also be pointed out that the book is still far from representing the sheer multiplicity of tongues in Mindanao, one of the world’s  linguistic diversity hotspots. Not featured in the book are the Moro languages, many Lumad languages, and Settler languages endemic to Mindanao like Chavacano and the Mindanao Tagalogs. But that only means that we hope more works will come out featuring those languages’ confluence with Bisaya.

In terms of form, the stories in the collection often fall short of narrative development. Each story is rich in ethnographical and historical material, with much of those having their own conflicts. But the stories suffer from overreliance on them, and perhaps the author’s own general sense of detachment from the events unfolding. Although it must be quickly pointed out that the author is in no way apathetic, on the contrary there is much sympathy for the conflicts unfolding in each piece from the narrator. Only that it seems that the narrator is too often merely the bystander, and being another level removed from the human experience, the reader can only really eavesdrop into what that bystander is hearing.

The emotional gravity of such situations as the death of the grandson in ‘Lakewood’ and the evacuations recounted in ‘Buklog’ do not come out, in the first case because the narrator (and consequently the reader) has not been shown to have developed any deeper attachment to the dead child, and in the latter case because the reader is not given the opportunity to be in the narrative present of the incident being recounted.

The same is true of the character development of the eponymous ‘Kampo,’ whose change of personality the reader (like the narrator) can only speculate about but do not really full experience.

Balancing the volume of historical and ethnographic material to discuss on the one hand and creating a human conflict at the heart of the story on the other will be a central and recurring challenge to any future writer of Historical Injustice Fiction.

Where I think writers like Morante can move forward on that count is to find a conflict through which the author can add their take on the discourse of the subject matter, the insight they draw from the issue, or perhaps their idea how it could be resolved.

The wealth of material to discuss also makes it very tempting for the writer of Historical Injustice Fiction to dump information that, while of great interest, may be unnecessary to the story and may in fact drag the story down and lose the reader’s interest. This the case in ‘Kampo,’ where the discussions on the religious characters’ work gets more attention than Kampo’s own sudden change in personality.

The introduction of the collection gives full disclosure that the stories are all Roman a Clef, with the names of characters and places changed to respect the privacies of people. But the author is actually inconsistent on this account, as in some stories he renames entire towns (‘Malpet’ for ‘Magpet’ in North Cotabato in ‘Natik Ansaban’ to name one) but in others he even uses the town’s real name, (‘Lakewood,’ for instance).

Altering the names would, I think, only cause unnecessary frustration, specially as many of the incidents being described are in fact publicly verifiable.

The subject of the first story in the collection, ‘Natik Ansaban,’ was particularly easy to identify, specially for a reader like me doing research into Kidapawan history. The Katindu Dispute, which started in the 1960s and was only resolved in the 1990s, involved the Monuvu Ansabu clan, lead by Datu Amasing and Datu Mambiling Ansabu, and the land-grabber Augusto Gana, who became mayor of Kidapawan from 1971 to 1992 (in the story his caricature, Hulyo Alegre, became governor, but in real life his wife Mila Ocampo Gana became a provincial board member, and together they were influential in the province).

‘Satur Neri’ is inspired by the martyred priest Fr Nery Lito Satur, who fought a long crusade against logging in Bukidnon. The displacement of the Subanen resulting from the insurgency in Mt Malindang portrayed in ‘Buklog,’ as well as the exploitation of the burial jars in Sultan Kudarat are all well documented.

But the others whose real details I and other readers are not privy to only cause frustration, as there is a desire built up to learn more about these real incidents, specially considering the author – who has spent decades working with communities – offers a historically important perspective never before heard. This was particularly the case with ‘Kampo,’ whose real location I could not ascertain.

I find that changing the names, specially of places and public figures, would be counterproductive to the project of raising awareness about historical injustices, as for such an endeavor you want to be as informative as you can for all of posterity. There is a sense in this collection that the author understood this in many of the stories, which did not really hide any names.

Outside of form, writers who would attempt to write works of Historical Injustice Fiction must be conscious of the complexities of discourse in Mindanao, and the dynamics of representation and the subaltern.

Which is why there is a need to properly translate this book’s title to English.

‘Lumadnong Sugilanon’ would be simply translated to ‘Lumad Stories’ by less aware editors. But such a translation would create the false impression that these stories are by the Lumad and articulate Lumad worldviews. This, for the Settler author, would be tantamount to Settlerjacking .

This danger is especially true if these stories were handled by anthology editors and literature teachers without nuance (and there are many), and it would only add to the pervading problem of cultural misrepresentation if this collection were not curated properly.

And proper curation is what this collection deserves, as they are very insightful stories about the Lumad (a much better translation of the title!), ones told from a very empowering perspective.

Mga Lumadnong Sugilanon nga Mahinuklogon is a triumph of Settler fiction, because few Settler stories ever portray the Lumad with the same level of respect, admiration, and empathy as much as these stories do. In these stories you see most of all that the Lumad are people, with very human struggles that any reader can relate to.

Even the ignorance of the Lumad is cause for the Settler’s respectful amusement. In ‘Kampo,’ the narrator shares the eponymous Dulangan Manobo character’s excitement to see the sea (which he had never seen up close before). When Kampo wonders if he can use sea water to cook Sinigang, the narrator delights at this fresh way of looking at something he had always taken for granted. Charming moments like these remind us, both of our shared humanity and the many differences we can celebrate.

What make these stories particularly special is how much it reveals – and exemplifies – about the Settler perspective. The narrator is conscious of his Settlerhood, and has the wisdom to be wary of the perils of projecting his own aspirations on the communities he is working with. In these stories, most of the talking actually comes from the perspective of the Lumad characters (either as dialogue or as recounted by the narrator), and the narrator rarely adds his own perspective into the details.  The author being a seasoned community worker, this comes as no surprise. And this is an attitude every Settler, specially the well meaning ones who will endeavour to take up the challenge of writing Historical Injustice Fiction, will need to assume.

It is of course de rigueur for anyone writing about cultural communities to be judicious in the ethnography they depict, because fiction has a way of distorting public understanding of anthropology. This is especially true for works of Historical Injustice Fiction, as cultural distortions are themselves acts of historical injustice (an injustice I think such fictionists as  Erwin Cabucos, Jude Ortega, and the late Antonio Enriquez were often guilty of). The author behind the nom de plume Melchor M. Morante is a seasoned anthropologist, so that rarely poses a problem for this collection.

The Settler author is also rightly candid about the devastating effects of Settlerhood and the poor environmental and economic policies of the colonial Philippine nation-state imagined from Manila on the indigenous cultures of Mindanao. In one story, poorly thought out land titling policies are shown to have led to landgrabbing. In another, the coming of public health institutions are shown to be killing ancient healing traditions (very timely as the national government is now considering recognizing indigenous healers as Preservers of Intangible Cultural Heritage). And yet in another, the Manila-centric and Urban-centric nature of cultural institutions are shown to be the cause of looting of historical and archaeological artefacts.

One of the most poignant scenes in the whole collection is in the story ‘Lakewood,’ when the Manilenya nun casually makes a feminist commentary on the Subanen legend being recounted. Not only is this a demonstration of typical Manilenyo naivety and unwitting cultural imposition, the narrator’s response – that cultures are to be respected if they are to be understood – is wisdom every Mindanawon should aspire to.

But particularly fascinating is how, in these stories, the author offers a glimpse into Mindanawon Catholic attitudes towards the Lumad and their indigenous spirituality. The early days of Christianity in Lumad Mindanao were characterized by coerced conversions and systematic discrimination. In this collection, we see how the Catholic church and its institutions have actually taken a complete u-turn in dealing with indigenous spirituality, one for the better. Instead of dismissing the Lumad spiritual traditions as ‘paganism’ or ‘witchcraft,’ there is often an awed fascination on the part of the narrator, a member of a religious order. This already goes beyond mere tolerance, the author is showing how Mindanao’s Christian Settlers (specially its more mature Catholics) are starting to celebrate the many ways of being human and aspiring towards the Infinite here in Mindanao. This collection, I think, argues quite eloquently how Mindanao should be developed as an important center for theology.

Just the last word in the book’s title, Mahinuklogon, opens up so many possibilities. ‘Paghinuklog’ is conventionally translated to ‘contemplation,’ with a note of ‘repentance,’ and in Settler Bisaya is a term invariably belonging to the semantic field of Kwaresma (the Lenten Season), in other words of religious reflection. And yet it is tantalizingly similar to the Subanen ritual of the Buklog (the title of one of the collection’s stories), and if not a cognate, is certainly evocative of that grand indigenous ceremony. By just that one word, the book’s title serves to subtly remind Mindanawons how much we actually share with one another despite our ethnic and religious differences, and how much we would discover if we only overcame prejudices and try to understand one another.

Mga Lumadnong Sugilanon nga Mahinuklogon is the first literary book to come out from Mindanao since the coming of the global Coronavirus Pandemic (part of the ongoing Cultural boom in Mindanao).

And rightly so: in a time when we are dealing with many deaths and compelled to stay at home to read and reflect, literature that is lived – like these works of Historical Injustice Fiction – becomes more relevant.

Because when you talk about historical injustice, you cannot help but usher in the coming of healing.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Karlo Antonio Galay David documented five previously unrecorded civilian massacres, the obscure lives of many local historical figures, and the details of dozens of forgotten historical incidents in his hometown of Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, where he is currently working as local historian for the City Government. He has a Masters in Creative Writing from Silliman University, and has won the Don Carlos Palanca and Nick Joaquin Literary Awards. He has seen print in Mindanao, Cebu, Dumaguete, Manila, Hong Kong, and Bangkok)

KIDAPAWAN CITY (Mindanews/17 January) With the Philippine government’s all-out war against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), Lumad communities in Mindanao have become vulnerable areas of conflict. They are the figurative string in a tug-of-war of the State forces on one side and CPP/NPA on the other side, pulling hard to win their support. But what is in there that one tries to win?

Lumad communities are generally situated in geographically-isolated areas with lack of access to social services, mainstream economic opportunities, education and political participation. Ironically, these communities are gifted with abundant commercially-viable natural resources like minerals, forests, rivers and streams which make them vulnerable to development aggression.

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, Indigenous Peoples (IPs) remain to be the poorest and most disadvantaged peoples. They have been “subject to historical discrimination and marginalization from political processes and economic benefit. They often face exclusion, loss of ancestral lands, displacement, pressures to and destruction of traditional ways of life and practices, and loss of identity and culture. In extreme situations, social and political discontent has erupted into armed conflict.”

The Philippine Constitution declares that the State shall recognize and promote the rights of indigenous cultural communities within the framework of national unity and development. In 1997, Republic Act 8371, otherwise known as “The Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA)” was enacted which becomes the cornerstone of national policy on IP. The law mandates the promotion of indigenous rich cultures and traditions as well as the development and protection of their ancestral lands. The struggles, particularly by IPs themselves, to pass IPRA was so passionate it even took the lives of a number of IP leaders and advocates.  It was a product of intensified campaigns which one of the authors of the law, then 2^nd District Congressman of North Cotabato, Atty. Gregorio A. Andolana, described as “the living instrument of IPs’ struggle for their right to self-determination”.

Recently, however, Lumad communities are facing a new challenge and vulnerability brought by intensified anti-communist insurgency in their areas. The government’s campaign dubbed as “End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC)” under Executive Order No. 70 or “whole-of-the-nation approach” has apparently widened the divide among IP leaders and communities. The situation was aggravated by the government’s designation of the CPP/NPA as terrorist organization. Many of them are “red-tagged” as sympathizers of the CPP/NPA or alleged communist fronts.

The government’s anti-insurgency approach is obvious and simple: bring all agencies to the communities to provide social services and livelihood projects to win their hearts and minds; intensify information and education campaigns, in short, “propaganda,” to counter communist ideologies; gather more “surrenderers”  to show CPP/NPA has weakened their foothold in communities they used to dominate and declare them as “dismantled areas;” employ psychological warfare, in other words, “harassment,” against organizations and their leaders who will not cooperate in the campaign; and file trumped-up charges against alleged CPP/NPA supporters or sympathizers who will not “surrender.”

The disintegration of Lumad communities has been shown by the pronouncement of its leaders in a recent conference in North Cotabato. The gathering which was supposedly aimed at unifying the Lumads’ position on issues affecting their communities became a venue for propaganda, thus, creating more divisions. One leader claims that communists deceived them to rebel against the Philippines government. He said the church-based tribal Filipino program where he used to work for socio-economic development of Lumad communities were infiltrated by members of CPP/NPA and became its recruitment and organizing unit.

However, a fellow Lumad woman leader, shared a different story. She said the church-based tribal Filipino program has empowered them to fight for ancestral lands and promote their cultural values, customs and traditions. On the contrary, she said, the intensified military operations and crackdown of dissenters and perceived sympathizers of CPP/NPA in their communities have increased violations of human rights and limited their movement to do their usual economic activities. She and some members of her community experienced military harassment like compelling them to visit military camps to “clear” their names absent any charges. She has known many Lumad church and community leaders still languishing in prison due to trumped-up charges.

The Duterte administration has around one and a half years remaining in its timeline to end the communist armed conflict. At the center of this campaign are the Lumad communities in Mindanao. But looking at the way it is being pursued, it seems to be another regime of failure in addressing the insurgency problem.

First, there is apparent lack of sincerity in providing solution to the root causes of conflict. It employs piecemeal approach in addressing the socio-economic conditions of the communities. The “one time-big time” delivery of services of all government agencies in one community appears to be a charade or band-aid than a solution to a critical social illness. It has no clear direction and sustainability mechanisms. Experience tells us that without community participation in all phases of development from planning to implementation,  it is doomed to fail. It fails to provide a comprehensive development program taking into consideration the socio-economic conditions of the communities and their participation in its implementation.

Second, the crackdown on the perceived communists sympathizers and dissenters creates more enemies and hostile environment for peace. As one military strategist had said, “we cannot win the war through the barrel of the gun.” Violence begets more violence. Hatred brings more hatred. Filing of ridiculous criminal complaints, usually non-bailable offenses, against innocent civilians will only weaken the trust and confidence of the people in the government. As it goes, the anti-insurgency campaign prefers short-term targets and quotas than long-term solution and impact.

Finally, the government’s indiscriminate closure of Lumad schools baselessly accused of promoting communist ideology, coupled with massive social media propaganda campaigns, is another erroneous and myopic approach.

The right of Lumads to education is protected by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and other international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The UN stressed that as distinct peoples, Lumads “have developed their own knowledge systems, values, institutions, practices and economies, often based on sustainable management of natural resources” and they have “their own cultural methods of transmitting knowledge.”

The government’s anti-insurgency campaign, however, included closure of Lumad schools.

In addition, the military has been pitting the Lumad against their fellow Lumads in various parts of Mindanao. In North Cotabato, it organized the Bagani forces made up of Lumad members in the municipalities of Arakan, Magpet and Antipas. According to some members, they are under the supervision and control of a Datu who covers certain ancestral territory. Their task is to protect the Datu and the territory which includes intelligence information gathering against communist rebels. The military adopts this approach not only in North Cotabato but also in Northern Mindanao, Caraga and Davao regions.

A few weeks ago, a group of Bagani forces belonging to Tinananon-Manobo, arrested fellow members in Arakan, North Cotabato. The Bagani forces, despite having no authority in law, arrested two members and brought them to their “commander” for investigation, accusing them of  introducing a false organization and collecting membership fees.

As this situation escalates, Lumad communities remain to be vulnerable being the preferred battlegrounds of armed groups. Sadly, the gains that they have so far achieved in their struggle to address historical injustices are once again challenged and overwhelmed by another blunt of dirty war. This time, as pawns in a deadly game of fratricidal chess: Lumad vs. Lumad.

[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews.  Upper Right Hand is a revolving column of the Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM). Atty. Dionesio T. Alave, Jr. is the Chair of People’s Peace Network, an alliance of local church and civil society organizations in Kidapawan City which is actively involved in peace-building and promotion of justice and human rights. He has been a rural development worker since 1994 and a human rights lawyer upon admission to the bar in 2012.]

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 25 February) – One of the parents of 19 Lumad students who were “rescued” during a police operation from a “bawkit” school at the University of San Carlos (USC) in Balamban, Cebu City last Feb. 15 belied accusations that their children were kidnapped and taken to Cebu from their place in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.

Lorena Mandacawan told a press conference at the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Haran Evacuation Center in Davao City on Wednesday that they consented to sending their children to study in Cebu after the government forcibly closed their schools in their hometown.

Mandacawan is a member of the Parents and Teachers Association of the Salugpongan Community Learning Center.

The military has accused Salugpongan schools and other learning institutions for Lumad in Mindanao as fronts for recruitment into the New People’s Army (NPA).

Mandacawan recalled that parents brought their children to Davao City to continue their schooling and signed a “parent’s consent” in 2019 as “proof that we agreed that our children be brought by the teacher anywhere since our community schools have bunkhouses.”

She said that the teachers and the Lumad children were accompanied by tribal elders, one of whom was Datu Benito, her older brother.

She said she wanted the government authorities to express remorse for conducting the raid, asking them to respect the parents and their children who wanted to educate themselves.

“Maybe, you want our children to stay uneducated so that they can become like us who are ignorant, so that it will be easy for you to make us sign the papers when someone enters our community,” Mandacawan said, alluding to companies that are trying to exploit the resources in their ancestral domain.

Instead of resorting to “red-tagging” and “harassment,” she called on the government to support them by upholding their rights to education and environmental protection.

In a press release, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Debold Sinas said the children were brought to UCCP Haran in 2018 by a Salugpongan teacher only known as “Michelle,” and were transferred to Cebu City allegedly without the “knowledge and consent of the parents.”

He said the 19 “rescued” minors were brought from different parts Mindanao by members of the Salugpongan school “purportedly to undergo alternative learning” but were actually “undergoing some form of radicalization and revolutionary warfare indoctrination.”

He said the operation resulted in the arrest of seven persons who are now facing charges of kidnapping with serious illegal detention and trafficking in persons.

Mandacawan said the Lumad communities initiated the building of their schools in Barangays Palma Gil, Sto Niño, and Dagohoy in Talaingod to provide education for their children who have been deprived of it after the local government refused to support them.

She said they never supported the NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Rorelyn Mandacawan, a Salugpongan school graduate who is now Sabokohan Unity of Lumad Women spokesperson, said Lumad children and their teachers had been subjected to harassment even before President Rodrigo Duterte heightened efforts to suppress the communist movement.

She said their schools were bombed and peppered with bullets and some of their teachers and students were gunned down, leaving many of them traumatized.

“We went to the city ourselves to study… because that’s our basic right as students. We don’t want only those students in the city to study. Come to think of it, Lumad students are just the same as the students in the city. We also want to learn so that we don’t become like our parents who never got the chance to study, cannot even read, cannot recognize letter A or Letter B. That makes us want to study even more because our tribe has high hopes for us, to govern our communities as leaders someday,” she said.

Videos of the “rescue” mission posted online showed the children and their companions yelling and crying while being taken away by the raiding team.

The Commission on Human Rights meanwhile said it found no evidence the children were indoctrinated in communist thought or forced to be at the USC campus, contrary to police claims.

The Makabayan bloc in Congress and other lawmakers have sought a House inquiry into the “Gestapolike” police operation. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)

LANTAPAN, Bukidnon (MindaNews / 9 March) – Drawing support from their years of friendship, the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) asked the support of indigenous peoples as they seek for a three-year terminal extension in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

BTA Parliament Member and Minister of the Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Timuay Melanio Ulama recalled their ties with the Lumads during the 10th year celebration of the Moro-IP-Settlers Kinship.

“Ten years ago we bonded together and today I asked again for that support,” Timuay told a gathering of Lumad elders in the Talaandig community in Barangay Songco here.

Tarpaulins indicating their support to the BTA proposal were all over the Talaandig village on Monday.

“We support the extension of the Bangsamoro transition,” reads one of the signs.

Other streamers congratulated the renewal of the Moro-IP-Settlers kinship.

Talaandig chief Datu Migketay Saway Victorino said the kinship between the three groups is being put to test again.

Victorino said like what the Lumads did 10 years ago when the BTA leaders were still seeking for the approval of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, they would be behind the latest advocacy of the Moros.

He said the Lumads in the past have always supported the Moros in their time of need.

“We again will help you in your quest for peace and development,” Victorino said.

The Moros, Lumads and settlers have been meeting here every March 8 to rekindle the special kinship between them, according to Victorino.

“No pandemic will stop our celebration,” he told the small Moro delegation who went to Songco last Monday. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)

MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 12 March) – Various groups have called for the release of a Lumad child from Mindanao from the custody of the Department of Social Welfare (DSWD) and Philippine National Police regional offices in Cebu City after the two agencies ignored a court order to reunite her with her father.

The Cebu City Regional Trial Court Branch 20, acting on a habeas corpus petition filed last March 4 by the child’s father, Lope, ordered Thursday the release of the minor.

The child was among the 19 Lumad students who were “rescued” during a police operation from a “bawkit” school at the University of San Carlos in Balamban, Cebu City last Feb. 15. They had sought refuge there after schools for Lumad in Mindanao were closed for being accused as fronts for communist indoctrination.

In a statement Thursday demanding the child’s release, the Save Our Schools Network said they accompanied the father who went to DSWD-7 to fetch his child bringing along the court order, but elements of the Philippine National Police Region (PNP) 7 blocked them.

The group said four police cars, seven policemen, four members of Task Force Kasaligan surrounded the DSWD office and threatened arrest, compelling them to leave.

The court, in granting the petition, said: “No matter how respondents wish to characterize the Lumad child’s confinement at DSWD, the fact remains that she does not have freedom of movement, she cannot see anyone from outside (not even her own father) without the approval of respondents, and she does not have freedom and privacy of communication. The Court cannot see how these deprivations of her constitutional rights are in the Lumad child’s best interest.”

The court said the Parental Capability Assessment Report on the father “does not merit any consideration.”

“It strains credulity to see it as a fair assessment of the Lumad father’s parenting capability since it is based solely on information provided by people who have not seen him for a long time,” it said.

The assessment, which described the father as a neglectful parent, was done by the Office of the Municipal Social Welfare and Development in Pitogo, Zamboanga del Sur.

The court added: “Where the respondents see neglectful behavior, the Court sees a father asserting his parental authority over his minor. Moreover, if DSWD-7 and PRO-7 truly believe that the alleged lack of information on the whereabouts of the child’s mother is another indicator of neglectful parental behavior on the part of the father, then this Court hopes for the sake of single parents who also do not know the whereabouts of their former partners that the DSWD-7 and PRO-7 do not see them as neglectful parents as well.”

On respondents’ position that the father’s alleged failure to show that he has a permanent source of income further shows his unfitness as a parent, the court said it “finds this position disturbing.”

“Is poverty now a disqualifying factor for parental authority? In any case, the Lumad father has alleged in his petition that he has been supporting his child by sending P1,000 to P2,000 a month directly to her or through her teachers. It appears to the Court that DSWD-7 and PRO-7 consider the Lumad father’s reticence in providing personal details as proof of his unfitness as a parent. But maybe DSWD-7 and PRO-7 should also consider another perspective: it could be that the Lumad father’s reticence is just a sign of his distrust to the agencies in view of the continued confinement of his daughter at DSWD. The last time this Court checked, distrust of authority figures is not a ground for depriving someone of their child’s custody.”

The court also said that “bare allegations alone” that the father is a CPP/NPA member cannot deprive him of “such a fundamental right as parental authority over his child.”

In a press release after the raid on USC, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Debold Sinas said the 19 Lumad students were transferred to Cebu City from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Haran Evacuation Center in Davao City in 2018 by a teacher from the Salugpongan Community Learning Center only known as “Michelle” allegedly without the “knowledge and consent of the parents.”

Sinas said the 19 “rescued” minors were brought from different parts Mindanao by members of the Salugpongan school “purportedly to undergo alternative learning” but were actually “undergoing some form of radicalization and revolutionary warfare indoctrination.”

But in a press conference at UCCP Haran last February 25, Lorena Mandacawan, a parent of one of the students said they consented to sending their children to study in Cebu after the government forcibly closed their school in their hometown. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews)

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 19 March) – Lumad leaders and eminent Mindanawon scholars are questioning the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples’ (NCIP) resolution red-tagging and banning the use of  “Lumad” to refer to Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in Mindanao, even as this Cebuano word has been used since the late 1970s as a collective term for at least 20 non-Moro IPs  across southern Philippines.

‘Lumad’ means indigenous or native.

The NCIP en banc passed on March 2 Resolution 08-009-2021 “denouncing the use of the term ‘Lumad’ to refer to indigenous cultural communities / indigenous peoples (ICCs/IPs)  particularly of Mindanao and enjoining the public to address ICCs/IPs by their respective ICC/IP affiliation or ethnolinguistic group.”

The NCIP claimed that the word’s “emergence and continued use is marred by its association with the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines), NDF (National Democratic Front) and NPA (New Peoples’ Army) whose ideologies are not consistent with the cultures, practices and beliefs of ICCs/IPs.”

It claimed that in looking at the historical context of how the term ‘lumad’ emerged, “it is but just and proper, to put order and in order to correct the injustice committed” by the CPP, NDF, NPA “and to put a stop to the corruption of the IP struggle,” that the NCIP “condemns and denounces the use of the term ‘lumad’ to refer to the ICC/IP groups of the Philippines and more particularly to the ICC/IPs of Mindanao.”

“Lumad,” however, refers only to the IPs of Mindanao, specifically, the non-Moro IPs.

The NCIP cited only one source in its presentation of the “historical context” of  ‘Lumad,’ – Datu Lito Omos, who is active in the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and who traces the etymology of “Lumad” to 1986.

“Lumad” as a collective word for non-Moro IPs in Mindanao was first used in the 1970s.

The NCIP resolution wants the public to stop using  ‘Lumad’ to refer to Mindanao’s IPs but urged the public to “use the respective ethnolinguistic group or Indigenous Cultural Communities, Indigenous Peoples, Katutubong Pamayanang Kultural or Katutubong Pamayanan when referring to IPs collectively.”

‘Lumad’ is the shorter version of ‘Katawhang Lumad’ which literally means Indigenous Peoples.

Idiocy

Redemptorist Brother Karl Gaspar,  a Mindanawon anthropologist, sociologist, theologian and artist, told MindaNews that when he first heard about the NCIP’s resolution’s red-tagging and banning the use of the word ‘Lumad,’ he  didn’t know exactly how to react.

“I thought I would laugh at the idiocy of our public servants in the NCIP who are mandated to serve our indigenous communities,” Gaspar said.

“At one level, kataw-anan gyod! (it’s really funny). I even thought morag nabuang na man ning mga taga-NCIP oy (the NCIP is acting like crazy). However, this is no laughing matter for it shows us how seriously misinformed the NCIP powers-that-be are in terms of the history of the Lumad Social Movement in Mindanao. One can even refer to them as ignoramus for not having checked available secondary literature, so that their move would have scholarly basis,” he said.

Gaspar wrote “The Lumad Social Movement” for a course under Professor Prospero Covar, acknowledged one of the pillars of Philippine Anthropology, while pursuing his PhD in Philippine Studies at the University of the Philippines in the late 1990s and having been a church worker since the 1970s, “I could claim to have a privileged historical view of how the term Lumad arose.”   The essay was first published by the Alternative Forum for Research in Mindanao in 1997 and re-published in Aninawon of the Ateneo Institute of Anthropology at the Ateneo de Davao University in 2018.

He is also the author of several  books on Lumads, including ‘Manobo Dreams in Arakan: A People’s Struggle to Keep Their Homeland” which won the 2012 National Book Award for Social Sciences,

Gaspar told MindaNews that when he realized that the NCIP was “taking this whole issue seriously and other branches of the State apparatus joined in the chorus to ban the word Lumad,  I then realized how the anti-terror law is claiming more and more victims. This time, not just human persons are red-tagged, but innocent words like Lumad can also be red-tagged.”

He asked: “are we seeing the unfolding of a State that will now decide for us as to the vocabulary that we can use in referring to various individuals, groups, institutions? And if they succeed in demonizing the word Lumad, what other words will  also be red-tagged? And if this is no longer enough for their counter-insurgency drive to succeed, is the next move to burn books where words like Lumad appear?”

Gaspar also noted that at various historical junctures not just in this country but in many other nation-states throughout the world, “red-tagging has resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians and the untold suffering of communities victimized by this red scare.”

 “Profusely used”

The NCIP  said “Lumad” has been “profusely used” by government offices, public officials and the public. President Rodrigo Duterte, who hails from Mindanao, even posed holding a sheet of paper marked with the message “Stop Lumad Killings”  in September 2015, while still mayor of Davao City. As President, he also refers to  IPs in Mindanao as Lumads.

The NCIP resolution claimed the word ‘Lumad’ was adopted by members of the Lumad Mindanao Peoples Federation (LMPF) on June 26, 1986 during its founding congress in Kidapawan, North Cotabato and that “an ensuing meeting of the LMPF was conducted at the University of San Carlos in Talamban, Cebu to lay down the framework to use the term ‘lumad.’ From then on, the term gained popularity and was widely used to refer to ICCs/IPs.”

Corrected: The NCIP resolution refers to ‘Lumad Mindanao Peoples Federation,’ not Foundation. 

The NCIP resolution  also claimed that the founding congress and subsequent meetings and activities of the LMPF “were initiated and sponsored” by the CPP, NDF, NPA.

There is no Lumad Mindanao Peoples Federation. There was a  LUMAD-Mindanao, a Lumad Mindanaw, and a Lumad Mindanaw Peoples Federation which, according to  Jimid Mansayagan,  chair of its Governing Council, was founded in September 1994 as a “genuine indigenous peoples organization with vision of asserting the inherent inalienable and collective rights to identity, land territory, self-determination and self-governance.”

The NCIP erred not only in the spelling of the name of their federation and date of founding but also in claiming that the LMPF is the handiwork of the left, Mansayagan said, adding the LMPF in fact was a product of the Lumad leaders’ renunciation of alliance with the left.

Land is Life

The University of San Carlos meeting that the NCIP resolution referred to was actually the 2^nd Land Congress on March 23 to 24, 1987, whose theme was “Land is Life.”

Mindanawon anthropologist Maricel Hilario-Patiño, told MindaNews that the Land Congress, was actually a follow-through of the policy consultation workshop called for by then Environment Secretary Carlos Dominguez (now Finance Secretary)  and attended by representatives of the Ungnayang Pang-aghamtao (UGAT or the Anthropological Association in the Philippines), along with “technocrats, professionals, academicians, big business concessioners, etc. in January 1987.”

The Land Congress in March was attended by “250 participants from 20 tribal organizations 10 support organizations and six representatives from the government sector” and among the personalities present were UGAT Founding President and 1986 Constitutional Commissioner Ponciano Bennagen;  Agusan del Sur OIC Governor Ceferino Paredes and his Provincial Attorney, Roan Libarios,  Gregorio Andolana, then Representative-elect of North Cotabato, Prof. Owen Lynch,  Fausto Lingating, Deputy Minister of the Office of Muslim Affairs and Cultural Communities and chair of the Consultative Assembly of Minority Peoples of the Philippines;

and representatives of various offices and the Policy Advisory Group of the DENR.

Omos in a press conference of the NTF-ELCAC said he was in this Congress and that UGAT convened the meeting.

What was discussed were the issues on ancestral lands and ancestral domains affecting not only the Lumads in Mindanao but also the other IPs nationwide.  The Congress was held just a month after the 1987 Constitution, which now vowed to address the historical injustices against the IPs nationwide, was ratified in a plebiscite.

The Land Congress was funded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources through Secretary Dominguez, The Asia Foundation, SVD Provincialate, SSPS Cebu Communities, Episcopal Commission on Tribal Filipinos and University of San Carlos while the manuscript of the proceedings was printed courtesy of the Office for Southern Cultural Communities.

Hilario–Patiño  said that among the highlights of the Congress was the validation of the proposed Executive Order Creating the Commission on Ancestral Domain.

“Many leaders I have talked to described that this was the first draft of IPRA (Indigenous Peoples Rights Act),”  but she quoted Bennagen as saying that when this was submitted to President Aquino she said she would rather that it would pass through Congress because issuing Executive Orders is “like a Marcosian move.”

It took 10 years before Congress passed IPRA.

‘Bisaya’ as lingua franca

How “Lumad” became the collective term for non-Moro IPs in Mindanao, is traced to the late 1970s within the circles of the Catholic and Protestant churches with ministries for the IPs.  Another version traces it to a 1986 assembly in Kidapawan, North Cotabato during the founding Congress of  Lumad Mindanaw.

In both versions, however, the decision to use “Lumad” was reached by the IPs themselves, because while they came from various ethnic groups in Mindanao and spoke different languages, they could communicate with each other using Cebuano or what in Mindanao is commonly referred to as ‘Bisaya.’

“Lumad” was intended to  distinguish them from the Moro who are also indigenous to Mindanao, and from the ‘Bisaya’ which had earlier become a generic word for “settler.”

For a time, Mindanao was referred to as “tri-people,”  comprising the indigenous Moro and Lumad, and the  settler population.

Historian Rudy Rodil recalls that as team leader in 1974 for a Study on the National Cultural Minorities of Mindanao under the Mindanao Regional Development Project of the Mindanao Development Administration, he learned that when leaders from various tribes meet, “automatic nga Bisaya ang lingua franca” because “diha lang sila magkasinabot” (they would automatically speak in Bisaya because that is the only way they could understand each other).

He said all their field interviews in the IP areas were in Bisaya.  He recalled that even in the meeting of the Mindanao Highlanders Association or Mindahila, an organization of IP leaders, Bisaya was also the language used.

“Lumad” in the 1970s

In the 1970s, the use of the word ‘Lumad’ to refer to IPs in Mindanao started taking root during a series of conferences initiated by  Catholic and Protestant churches in Mindanao with IP leaders. Note that this was a period under martial law and among those who suffered human rights violations were the Moro and IPs of Mindanao.

Martial law, however, was just part of the long-running problem of Moro and IPs in Mindanao who were marginalized and minoritized during the Spanish and American regimes and later by the Manila-based central government. For decades starting with the agricultural colonies set up in 1913, residents from the Visayas and Luzon were enticed to settle in resource-rich Mindanao, then being touted as “Land of Promise.” Part of the enticement were land policies favoring wave after wave of migrants.

Soon thereafter, Mindanao was opened up for plantations, logging, mining and fishing operations, displacing thousands of Lumad and Moro peoples.

The Mindanao church – both Catholic and Protestant – was active in fighting for the rights of Mindanao’s IPs.

Among those at the forefront in advocating IP rights was Bishop Francisco Claver, an IP himself from Northern Luzon who was Prelate Ordinary when the Prelature of Malaybalay was established in 1969 and its first Bishop when it became a Diocese in 1982; Mindanao’s other bishops, priests and nuns, including foreign missionaries assigned to Mindanao for several years, and church workers.

Various church formations were also set up, in the 1970s including the Mindanao–Sulu Secretariat of Social Action (MISSSA), the secretariat for all Social Action Centers of the Archdioceses, Dioceses and Prelatures of Mindanao.

The MISSSA convened the  First Mindanao Regional Conference on Cultural Communities in Lake Sebu, Surallah, South Cotabato on February 5-7, 1974 “to give voice to the Mindanao minorities… a voice of anguish, frustration and fear; a voice crying out, almost without hope, appealing to the Christian communities of Mindanao.”

Exactly when the word ‘Lumad’ evolved into a collective term for  non-Moro IPs in Mindanao cannot be ascertained but based on documents gathered by MindaNews  and interviews with personalities who were active in church work in the 1970s, it was in the latter part of the decade.

There was even a newsletter named ‘Lumad,’ a publication of the Mindanao-Sulu Conference on Justice and Development (MSCJD) which Claver chaired. The publication focused on IP issues. Written in ‘Bisaya,’ its first issue was January-February 1979 and among the articles was a report on a Regional Consultation on December 18 to 22, 1978 in Midsayap, North Cotabato.

“Pahayag sa mga Lumad”

A seven-paragraph “Pahayag sa mga Lumad” (Declaration of the Lumads) dated December 21, 1978, crafted during that conference, was also included in the newsletter.

The declaration asked “Kinsa kami” (who are we) and “Unsay nahitabo” (what is happening to us) and “Ngano nga naghimo kami niining pahayag?” (why are we making this declaration?)

Responding to their own query on who they are, the Declaration said: “Kami ang mga lumad sa Mindanao sama sa (We are the Lumads of Mindanao such as the) Manobo, Subanon, Tiruray, B’laan, Higa-ono, Tagabawa” who gathered in Midsayap for the assembly called for by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and the MSCJD, to share experiences on problems affecting their communities in Mindanao, analyze their situation and plan on how to address these issues.

The participants said they made the declaration because of the spate of human rights violations  that they experienced, including oppression, discrimination, harassment and trampling of  their rights as “lumad sa Mindanao” (Lumads of Mindanao).

The declaration said they hope government, the church and other groups would attend to them so their communities can thrive  and they can live in peace.

Pop culture

Beyond the church and Lumad communities, the use of “Lumad” to refer to IPs became so popular it encouraged migrants who settled in Mindanao to want to learn more about the Lumads and their cultures. There was a surge in pride of being “Lumad,” too, as they were now given platforms where they could speak up and share their music and dances, among others.

Going “Lumad” became the “in” thing. Nieva’s Crafts, a Davao City-based business enterprise, launched its “Lumad” brand in 1981 featuring ethnic designs.

Singer-composer-poet Joey Ayala, now a nominee for National Artist, told MindaNews he coined the term “Bagong Lumad” (literally ‘new native’)  around 1980-1981” while still based in Davao City and used it “in the mid-1980s for a show at UP with Patatag.” He said the band “Bagong Lumad” was formed around 1985 to 1986.

Ayala also founded Bagong Lumad Artists Foundation, Inc. in 1988 to, among others, “reawaken indigenous consciousness.”

The Lumads were also featured in Noe’s Ark shirts designed by the late graphic artist Noe Tio, who was drummer of Bagong Lumad.

LUMAD-Mindanao

Mansayagan recalls that in 1983, a multisectoral organization named LUMAD-Mindanao was established with lawyer Fausto Lingating, a Subanen from Lapuyan, Zamboanga del Sur, as founding chair. LUMAD meant Lumadnong Alyansa  alang sa Demokrasya.

On April 2, 1985, human rights lawyer Romfraflo Taojo, then chair of LUMAD-Mindanao, was gunned down in his apartment in what is now Tagum City in Davao del Norte.

Mansayagan said an assembly was held in August 1985 supposedly to choose Taojo’s successor but choosing a successor proved to be difficult as many feared they would end up like Taojo.  In May 1985, a month after Taojo’s murder, three human rights lawyers in Davao City – Laurente Ilagan, Antonio Arellano and Marcos Risonar — were arrested on the strength of a Preventive Detention Action.

But it was in this August 1985 conference, Mansayagan said, where the IP leaders asserted they wanted a “pure Lumad” organization.

The non-Lumad in the assembly, he said, formed the support group, KADUMA-Lumad or Kahugpugan sa mga Dumadapig ug Nakig-unong sa Lumad while an Ad Hoc Committee composed of Lumad leaders from different parts of Mindanao was formed for the “pure Lumad” organization.

By first week of November 1985,  President Ferdinand Marcos, who had by then overstayed his term of office by 12 years (he declared martial law on September 21, 1972; his second and last term as President was supposed to have ended on December 30, 1973), announced  in an interview with America’s David Brinkley that he was calling for snap elections on February 7, 1986.

1986 Assembly

The dictator Marcos was ousted and Corazon Aquino, widow of the assassinated former Senator Benigno Aquino, was sworn in as President on February 25, 1986.

In June 1986, Mansayagan, then 26, said, the founding assembly of  the “pure Lumad” organization – Lumad Mindanaw – was held in Kidapawan City.

There, he said, IP leaders discussed  the many issues they were facing and towards the end of the assembly, discussed the appropriate word that would collectively refer to the different ethnic groups in Mindanao who are not Moro.

The consensus of the IP leaders,  he said,  was “Katawhang Lumad” which is ‘Bisaya’ for Indigenous Peoples.  The founding chair, he said, was Datu Balitungtong Antonio Lumandong, a Higaonon from Misamis Oriental. Omos, a Mangguangan from Davao del Norte, was its Secretary-General in the first two years.

Mansayagan said that in July 1987, Omos was the first Lumad who attended the sessions of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Peoples and that is how “Lumad Peoples” was first recorded in the United Nations as, according to Mansayagan, “the identity of Mindanao un-Islamized indigenous population.”

Rodil was  present at the assembly at the Guadalupe Formation Center on June 26, 1986 as a resource person on Mindanao history. He was then a Professor at the Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology in Iligan City and he recalls listening to the exchanges of the IP leaders on the collective name and the word “Lumad” won.

The historian remembers it was Fr. Rodulfo ‘Dong’ Galenzoga, who facilitated the discussion. MindaNews e-mailed the priest early Sunday morning to ask him about what he remembers of that meeting. He succumbed to pneumonia noon that day in a hospital in Iligan City.

Mansayagan recalls it was a long discussion initially facilitated by Nestor Masinaring and later by Galenzoga.

Rodil said that during this meeting, “wala ko nakadungog ug NPA or LMPF. Isip historian mao ang akong gigamit sa akong libro ug sa tanan nakong public lectures. Historic kato, first time nga nakasabot sa collective name sa mga Lumad. Simple ang meaning, indigenous, native, nitibo, taga Mindanaw ug lahi sa mga Moro or Bangsamoro” (I heard nothing of the NPA or the LMPF. As a historian, I used the word ‘Lumad’ in my books and all my public lectures. It was historic, first time the IPs agreed on a collective name with a simple meaning, indigenous, native, from Mindanao and distinct from the Moro).

Here was a collective name that the Lumads themselves did not find pejorative unlike the collective names given them by the Spaniards, Americans and even by the national government.

Rodil said the Lumads were described by the Spaniards as “paganos,” by the Americans as “Wild Tribes” or “Uncivilized Tribes” or “Non-Christian Tribes;” by the national government as “National Cultural Minorities,” “Cultural Minorities,” or “Minorities.”  In the 1973 Constitution, the IPs nationwide were referred to as Cultural Communities and in the 1987 Constitution as “Indigenous Cultural Communities.”

Common term

Italian-American missionary Peter Geremia, PIME, who headed the IP Apostolate in the Diocese of Kidapawan for decades, recalls that in the early 1980’s when they had consultations with the IPs in the Diocese of Kidapawan “we asked them if they have a common term for all tribes in Mindanao.  They replied that they used the term of each tribe like Manobo, B’laan, etc.”

He said a common term was proposed: “Talaingod and therefore, the first organization including different tribes was called NAKATA or Nagkahiusang Katawhang Talaingod.”

But Geremia noted that the term “Talaingod” was not widely used.

“The Bisaya used the term ‘Lumad’ for all tribes in Mindanao” but when the Diocese  organized the Tribal Filipino Program, they preferred the term ‘Tribal Filipino,’  he said.

“Some Tribal Leaders did not like the term ‘Lumad’ but it was widely used also by many Tribals,” Geremia told MindaNews on Tuesday.

He remembers the assembly in Kidapawan in 1986 when Lumad Mindanaw was  born “but I do not remember if there were objections to the term  ‘Lumad.’  I never heard that the term ‘Lumad’ was initiated or sponsored by the CPP-NPA-NDF, I only heard that it was the common term used by the Bisaya.”

Geremia recalled that some Lumad Mindanaw leaders were later “tagged leftist or sympathizers of the NPA.”

Mansayagan said “Lumad Mindanaw” died on the day Lumad Mindanaw Peoples Federation was born in September 1994, during the general assembly of Lumad Mindanaw in Alabel, Sarangani where they also renounced alliance with the left.

“The end of Lumad Mindanaw was the beginning of LMPF,” he said, adding that they restructured the organization into a “genuine indigenous peoples organization with vision of asserting the inherent, alienable and collective rights to identity and / territory, self-determination and self-governance.”

He said they have identified about 30 groups of  “Katawhang Lumad” (Indigenous Peoples) in Mindanao who are asserting their rights to identity, ancestral domains and self-determination.

“Ridiculous”

Anthropologist Gus Gatmaytan, Director of the Ateneo de Davao University’s Institute of Anthropology described the NCIP resolution as “ridiculous.”

Gatmaytan said “Lumad” was adopted in the 1980s by Lumad leaders from different parts of Mindanao “who realized that they had shared or common experiences of insecurity, dispossession and violence during the years of Marcos’ Martial Law regime, and that they now needed a collective name that would refer to them as a group, and distinguish them from the Moro and settler populations of Mindanao.”

Gatmaytan stressed that the use of ‘Lumad’ as a collective term for IPs of Mindanao does not contradict the fact that they have their own ethnic names for themselves. “Identity is a complex and relational concept and process that allows a person to be an individual, an Arumanen Manobo, a Lumad, and a Filipino, depending on the context and their will,” he said.

Right to self-ascription, self-determination

Gatmaytan said it can be argued that “the gradual adoption of the name Lumad is an agentive act on the part of the various groups in Mindanao, reflecting a realization that as a group they had similar histories, problems and aspirations, which together serve as the basis for a shared sense of identity; an identity which they chose to refer to as Lumad.”

Their continuing use of the name Lumad, he added, is “an exercise of their right to self-ascription, which is itself rooted in their fundamental right to self-determination.”

“To say that the indigenous people of Mindanao were somehow manipulated into using the term Lumad, as the NCIP seems to be saying, is to assert that they are merely gullible minions of outsiders, incapable of understanding who they are, what they need and want, and planning their future,” he said.

Gatmaytan explained that if the IPs, groups, communities or individuals choose to refer to themselves as Lumad, “then that is their inherent and inalienable right.”

“No one — not the NCIP nor the Philippine state — can gainsay their decision to do so; nor can anyone ‘ban’ their use of any name they choose to use.  The NCIP should need no reminder to honor and respect the indigenous peoples’ exercise of their right to their identities, and to denote their identities in any manner or with whatever name they want.  It should refrain from any further attempt to politicize and control indigenous identity, and instead focus on the many, more urgent concerns and issues that the indigenous peoples face,” he said.

Focus on “bigger issue”

Gaspar said the use of  “Lumad” to refer to IPs “did not arise out of an ideological movement for an ideological reason. And as befits the origin of words that become part of a lexicon of a social movement, one cannot trace anymore where it first arose and who made the first move to start using the word. Somehow in the course of time, the word got appropriated and eventually took on a meaning for those using the term within the world of meaning for which it arose. And now an agency of a dictatorial State apparatus would claim the right to determine its origin? What an idiotic thing to do!!!”

Marites “Matet” Gonzalo, a Tagakolu anthropologist from Davao Occidental who serves as Coordinator of the two community-based IP schools of the Malita Tagakaulo Mission — the Holy Cross of Malita’s Kyasan and Lebleb branches — told MindaNews on Thursday that they have no issue with the word “Lumad” because they use the term “referring to ourselves” when they talk to those outside their communities.

Gonzalo said the Church has an “Adlaw sa Lumad” or IP Sunday or what was earlier known as Tribal Filipino Sunday.  She said they also have a Lumadnong Katesismo or Indigenous Catechesis and even have a song about their being Lumad like “Kitadun tengteng Lumad” or “We are Lumads.”

The word ‘Lumad,’ Gonzalo said, is not the issue. The bigger issue that needs to be addressed, she said, is the situation of the Lumads who are “pirming maipit ug magamit sa left and right nga grupo” (who are always the ones victimized and abused by groups from the left and right). (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews) – The Episcopal Commission on Indigenous Peoples (ECIP) of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)  and the Indigenous People’s Apostolate (IPA) of Mindanao’s dioceses are protesting “in the strongest possible terms” the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) resolution denouncing the use of the term ‘Lumad’ to refer to non-Moro Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao and enjoining the public “to address the IPs by their respective ICC/IP affiliation or ethnolinguistic group.”

“Lumad” is a Cebuano word meaning indigenous or native.

The NCIP claimed that that the  “emergence and continued use” of the word Lumad is is “marred by its association with the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines), NDF (National Democratic Front) and NPA (New Peoples’ Army) whose ideologies are not consistent with the cultures, practices and beliefs of ICCs/IPs.”

MindaNews reported last week on the  usage of the word ‘Lumad’ to refer to non-Moro IPs in Mindanao, tracing it to the the late 1970s (Read: “The IP struggle continues as NCIP red-tags and bans the use of ‘Lumad,’ the collective term for Mindanao IPs since the late 1970s”)

Signed by Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Jose Cabantan on behalf of ECIP-Mindanao and IPA network, the “Statement of Protest against the NCIP’s resolution denouncing the use of the term Lumad,” was posted on the ECIP Facebook page last Monday and the online CBCPNews.

The ECIP-IPA Mindanao said they would like to set the record straight that “it was the churches in Mindanao-Sulu – through its network of church people engaged in solidarity work with the Lumad communities – that gave rise to the popular usage of the word Lumad. It arose without an ideological agenda, let alone that of the communist movement.”

“It did arise out of a united people’s concern to defend the rights of the Lumad from the perspective of a Christian faith that is concerned with the least of our brothers and sisters victimized by both an repressive State and business firms interested in usurping the Lumads’ ancestral domains for profit purposes,” the statement added.

It urged the NCIP “not to be derailed in their mandate to serve the IPs of this country by engaging in actions that are only counter-productive and can only lead to fragmentations among our ranks. Instead, the NCIP should concentrate in fulfilling their tasks to support the struggles of the IPs for a better life, lived in justice and peace, free from coercion, harassment and victimization from various forces.”

“On our part, we pledge to continue what we have done in the past sixty years, to align ourselves in the struggles of our Lumad sisters and brothers.  By doing so, we are merely following the exhortations of our Holy Father, Pope Francis who has reminded us through his encyclical Laudato Si and talks at various fora that  ‘Indigenous peoples are a cry of hope. They know what it is to listen to the earth, to see the earth, to touch the earth. They remind us that we human beings have a shared responsibility to care for our ‘common home’.’”

It concluded its four-page statement by saying that it is “by engaging in generous dialogue and by joining forces,  that we will end up becoming more aware of the fact that we need each other, as well as be able to highlight the fact that harmful behavior affecting the environment around us also has a negative impact on the serenity and fluidity of coexistence” and the Lumads “cannot continue to suffer injustice” and young people “have a right to a better world than ours and expect coherent and

The ECIP’s mission is to “work for and with Indigenous Peoples in their effort, first, to secure justice for themselves, second, to protect their ancestral lands, and third, to preserve their cultural heritage.”

It also aims to foster among the Christian majority “a greater awareness of and appreciation for the Indigenous Peoples in order to help in lessening, if not totally eradicating, prejudices against them” and to undertake specific programs “for the realization of the above functions with the approval of the Bishops concerned and in collaboration with their respective Indigenous Peoples’ Apostolate, inclusive of complying with the directives from the Holy See and instructions from the Conference.” (MindaNews)

(Presented by Dr. Augusto “Gus” Gatmaytan on 25 March 2021 during the roundtable discussion “What’s in a Name? Views from Anthropologists on ‘Lumad,’” the first of a two-part series triggered by the resolution of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples on the use of ‘Lumad,’ a collective term that has been used to refer to Indigenous Peoples in Mindanao since the late 1970s. The second part, ‘Kinsa ang mga Lumad? Views from Indigenous Leaders’ is on March 27. The two-part series was organized by the Ugnayang Pangagham-Tao or Anthropological Association of the Philippines).

This roundtable discussion was prompted by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP’s)  Resolution no. 08-009-2021, dated 2 March 2021, denouncing the use of the term ‘Lumad’ to refer to indigenous peoples of Mindanao.

Please allow me then to focus my remarks on this resolution.

The NCIP’s resolution claims that indigenous leaders are ‘clamoring’ for an end to the use of the name ‘Lumad’ to refer to the indigenous peoples of Mindanao. If there is such a clamor, then it is a very quiet one. I have been working with indigenous communities across Mindanao since the 1980s, and I have not encountered any indigenous leader actively campaigning against the use of the name ‘Lumad.’

Certainly, there have been and are people who dislike it, or do not use it, or cannot relate to it, but this hardly amounts to a ‘clamor.’ What evidence is there of this ‘clamor’? Everyone was getting on with their lives until the NCIP came up with this invented crisis. Why is the NCIP trying to project the existence of such a ‘clamor’?

The resolution states that the ‘emergence’ of the name ‘Lumad’ is ‘marred’ by its association with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF). As the Ecumenical Commission on Indigenous Peoples (ECIP) recently pointed out however, the ‘emergence’ of the term is linked to the pioneering pastoral work of the Catholic Church in Mindanao and Sulu in the 1970s, which developed without an ideological agenda, even as it strove to support indigenous communities suffering at the hands of a repressive state and exploitative business interests.

It  would thus seem that rather than the CPP-NPA-NDF coining or appropriating the term, they were only following the lead of the Church and its indigenous community-partners by ‘riding on’ their growing or continuing use of the name. But even if the CPP-NPA-NDF did use the name in their organizing or fund-raising work, what of it? Should we similarly stop using the words ‘Islam’ or ‘Islamic’ because it has been marred by its association with the Maute group and the extremist interpretation of Islam championed by ISIS?

The resolution decries how the name ‘Lumad’ is ‘not an indigenous term.’ However, there is no pan-Mindanao indigenous term for the aboriginal peoples of the island, taken as a group. The resolution does offer alternative terminology, but these are all in English or Filipino/Tagalog. ‘Lumad’ may be a Visayan term, but at least it does not recall our colonial subjugation or reiterate the political and cultural dominance of imperial Manila. More importantly, it was the indigenous communities of Mindanao themselves who gradually adopted or appropriated the name ‘Lumad’  as a way of asserting a shared identity or location. In other words, they have made it their own; just as the Bangsamoro have made the very non-indigenous term ‘Moro’ their own.

The resolution argues that ‘Lumad’ should not be used because the LMPF leaders who allegedly adopted the term are not the ‘recognized representatives’ of the indigenous peoples of Mindanao. First, it is not clear at all if it was the LMPF that first adopted the name ‘Lumad.’ Given the information brought to light by Carol Arguillas of MindaNews, that the name had been in use since the late 1970s, the resolution’s claim becomes highly debatable. Other groups or individuals might have previously adopted the name already, but had neglected to document the occasion. Second, this argument betrays its proponents’ lack of historical awareness.

In the 1980s and 1990s, there was no island-wide mechanism for selecting the ‘recognized representatives’ of all indigenous peoples of Mindanao. On one hand, the indigenous groups of Mindanao have historically been uncentralized, acephalous polities, organized into largely autonomous settlements or villages. On the other, there were in the 1980s and 1990s only separate, relatively small networks of communities and leaders, linked together by Churches, or by NGOs, or by indigenous peoples organizing initiatives, or by local politicians, or by the Presidential Assistant on National Minorities (PANAMIN) and the Office of Southern Cultural Communities (OSCC).

What seems to have happened is that indigenous leaders, advocates or organizations — on their own, or taking their cue from Church workers, non-government organizations (NGOs), or yes, leftist ideologues — began to refer to themselves as ‘Lumad.’ This appropriation of the Visayan word ‘Lumad’ represents the historical moment when indigenous leaders in communities across Mindanao, who until that point had been relatively isolated from each other, realized that they shared histories of displacement, violence, and discrimination; faced a common set of problems; and similarly aspired to recognition and development. These shared characteristics provided the basis for a collective identity, an identity they have over time chosen to refer to as ‘Lumad.’

As members of marginalized groups, these leaders and advocates could not force other peoples, groups or communities to do the same. But over the succeeding forty years, other indigenous organizations and communities all across Mindanao, have similarly adopted or used the name ‘Lumad.’ This suggests that with their growing links to the political, economic and cultural mainstream, more and more indigenous communities and organizations have also begun to think of themselves not as isolated communities, but as a part of the indigenous peoples of Mindanao, taken as a group. This is the beginning of a pan-Mindanao indigenous consciousness, and of what Karl Gaspar calls the ‘Lumad social movement.’

This is not to say that they have abandoned their own names for their own peoples. The politics and processes of identity formation allows someone, for example, to be:

1.an individual;
2.a member of a family, as designated by a surname or family name;
3.a member of the Arumanen Manobo of Carmen, North Cotabato;
4.a member of the Cotabato Manobo group, along with the Ilianen and Kirintiken Manobo,
but not the Umayamnon or Adgawanon Manobo of the Agusan region;
5.a Lumad, along with the Subanen and Mandaya, but not the Kalinga or the Buhid;
6.a member of the indigenous population of the Philippines;
7.and a Filipino.

The complex and fluid nature of identity formation provides members of indigenous groups different ways of referring to one’s self or one’s group in differing contexts, and/or for different purposes. These various ways of describing one’s self do not contradict each other. One does not surrender one’s identity as Higaunon or B’laan by using the name ‘Lumad,’ any more than being a proud Cebuano makes one less Filipino. No one is confused by this, except perhaps for the NCIP.

In the field, it is the indigenous communities’ own names for themselves that are used in local settings. The term ‘Lumad’ is employed only as a sort of casual or conversational alternative for the local people’s name, or when referencing the indigenous peoples of Mindanao as a group; e.g., to compare the situation of indigenous peoples in Mindanao with those of Palawan. In other words, it is used as a collective name to refer to the indigenous peoples of Mindanao, in the way that ‘Igorot’ or ‘Kaigorotan’ and ‘Moro’ or ‘Bangsamoro’ are collective terms for groups of peoples who share certain historical, political and cultural characteristics.

What is more, people in the communities do not narrowly associate the term with the left. Indigenous groups, organizations and leaders of different political persuasions use the name to refer to the aboriginal peoples of Mindanao, as a group. Thus community residents speak of Lumad who are members of the CAFGU, of Lumad who are members of the NPA, and of Lumad who are neither.

The resolution finally asserts that there are no ancestral domains or territories under the name of ‘Lumad’, implying that there is no such things as a ‘Lumad’. It is true that there are no territories under the name of ‘Lumad,’ but this proves nothing. The name ‘Lumad’ was not intended to replace the various endonyms of indigenous peoples of Mindanao, nor is it used that way. Members of indigenous peoples or communities know that they are T’boli, for example; and that their domains and territories belong to them as members of the T’boli people, not as ‘Lumad.’ It is not surprising then that they claim their ancestral domains as T’boli.

Having said that, there are still circumstances when they might find the name ‘Lumad’ to be useful.

The NCIP resolution thus fails to justify its call for ending the use of the name ‘Lumad.’ What the NCIP resolution does achieve is to reflect this moment in our political history, when we witness the dawn of an Orwellian dystopia where the state seeks to control how people think by controlling how people use language. It seeks to persuade people that using the name ‘Lumad’ is to be associated somehow with the CPP-NPA-NDF.

In doing this, the NCIP has arrogated unto itself the power to determine who the indigenous peoples are, and how they are to be called. But this right belongs not to the NCIP, nor even to the Philippine state. — which is historically responsible for much of the injustices and inequities suffered by indigenous peoples — but to the indigenous peoples themselves.

Indigenous peoples have the right to self-ascription, which is itself rooted in their fundamental right to self-determination. They have the right to determine, among other things, their own name or names. There are examples of Philippine groups choosing how they are to be called: The best-known example are the Ilongot of Nueva Vizcaya, who sometime in the 1980s began to call themselves Bugkalot. Here in Mindanao, the Bukidnon of Songco, in Bukidnon province now call themselves Talaandig; and some of the Manobo communities in the Davao-Bukidnon boundary area now call themselves Matigsalug.

These choices have all been respected; why should the case of ‘Lumad’ be any different? If indigenous organizations or communities wish to call themselves ‘Lumad’ to reference their being part of the indigenous population of Mindanao, then that is similarly their right. The NCIP should honor and respect their will, refrain from agitating or terrorizing others from using it, and listen to and learn from their Lumad constituents.

(Augusto “Gus” B. Gatmaytan, PhD, has been working with Indigenous Peoples since 1985. He obtained his law degree in 1987 from the University of the Philippines, after which he co-founded the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC), a non-government organization that today continues to provide legal and other services to indigenous communities across the Philippines. In the 1990s, the worked with Manobo and Banwaon communities in Agusan del Sur province as legal consultant and community organizer. In 1999, he was among the lawyers who defended the constitutionality of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act in oral arguments before the Supreme Court of the Philippines, in the case of Cruz and Europa vs. Secretary of the Environment, et al. His work with indigenous communities in Mindanao inspired him to study Anthropology, eventually receiving his doctorate in that discipline from the London School of Econoomics and Political Science in 2015. He currently teaches at the Ateneo de Davoao University and is Director of the Ateneo Institute of Anthropology)

First of seven parts

(Editor’s note: This article is a slight revision of the lectures the author delivered between the years 1999 and 2000 to two major audiences — the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility in Metro Manila and the Bishops-Ulama Forum, now known as Bishops-Ulama Conference, in Davao City.)

Introduction

The Lumads are the indigenous peoples of Mindanaw. They constitute approximately five percent, clearly the minority, of the total Mindanaw population in the 1990 census. The rest of the inhabitants in the region are Muslims, also indigenous, estimated at 20 percent; settlers and their descendants roughly make up the balance of 75 percent. It should be pointed out that a good portion of or assimilated into the latter segment are descendants of native inhabitants who were converted to Christianity in the Spanish period, mostly from northern and eastern Mindanaw.

How they became minorities is the story of this paper. Not only have they been reduced to a numerical minority in their own lands, they have also been marginalized in other aspects of our national life. Their minoritization involved mainly the state machinery, with unwitting participation from the major segments of the population. It is not our intention to find fault, merely to lay down the facts in the hope that we may be able to help secure for them a well deserved social space in the Filipino nation. Their situation is not beyond help.

The Lumad Communities and Their Ancestral Domains in Mindanaw 

The Lumads are the Indigenous Cultural Communities of Mindanaw, namely, in alphabetical order: the Ata, Bagobo, Banwaon, Bla-an, Bukidnon, Dibabawon, Higaunon, Mamanwa, Mandaya, Mangguwangan, Manobo, Mansaka, Matigsalug, Subanen, Tagakaolo, Talaandig, T’boli, Teduray and Ubo.

We have 19 in the list but there can be more because aside from distinguishing themselves by their ethno-linguistic identity, they also, and more commonly, refer to each other by their geographic names or their place of habitation. It can easily increase to 35, using their own definition of tribu (tribe).

Origin of the Name Lumad and its Significance

The name Lumad grew out of the political awakening among them during the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. In June 1986, representatives from 15 tribes agreed to adopt a common name in a congress, which also established Lumad Mindanaw. This is the first time in their history that these tribes have agreed to a common name for themselves, distinct from the Moros and from the migrant majority.

Lumad is a Cebuano word meaning indigenous. The choice of a Cebuano word may be a bit ironic — Cebuano is the language of the natives of Cebu in the Visayas — but they deemed it to be most appropriate considering that the various tribes do not have any other common language among themselves except Cebuano. Lumad Mindanaw, the organization, is no longer intact, but the name remains and is, from all indications, gaining more adherents. The use of Cebuano Bisaya in northern-eastern Mindanaw has been there, already noted by the Spanish missionaries when they got there in 1590s. This is easily observed that east of Cebu as far as Bohol, Leyte and Samar and northern-eastern side of Mindanaw, their languages are heavily influenced by Cebuano; on the west, that part of Negros is Cebuano-influenced but that portion facing Panay, it is heavily Ilonggo-influenced. It is very important to note that this phenomenon took place prior to the resettlement programs imposed by the American colonialists and carried over by the Republic of the Philippines. In short, contact via trade and language easily travelled across the sea. But notice that large islands like Mindanaw and Luzon, contact in between communities was extremely more difficult by overland travel, thus, more languages emerged as a result. Linguist experts can tell us more about this reality on the ground.

Lumad-Mindanaw’s main objective was to achieve self-determination for their member tribes, meaning self-government within their ancestral domains and in accordance with their customary laws under the sovereignty of the Republic. The decision to have a common name was crucial and historic. This was a first in Lumad history.

Earlier, they were called by various names by outsiders, which they shared with other indigenous groups all over the country. They were labeled paganos by the Spaniards or referred to simply by their tribal identities. They were tagged Wild Tribes or Uncivilized Tribes or non-Christian Tribes by the Americans. They were officially named the National Cultural Minorities or just Cultural minorities or simply Minorities by the Philippine Government. They were renamed Cultural Communities in the 1973 Constitution; this was revised to Indigenous Cultural Communities in the 1987 Charter. Bisayans call them nitibo; Tagalogs call them taga-bundok or katutubo. Christian churches used to prefer the name Tribal Filipinos but today they are among the more active users of the name Lumad, and in a more respectful tone. Except for paganos, all these denominations also included the Moros.

Commonality Among Lumad Communities and Other Inhabitants of Mindanaw

Although the different Lumad communities do not have a common language, they actually have so much in common among themselves and with the other indigenous inhabitants of the region as well. Firstly, like the rest of the Philippine population, they share a common origin in the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages. Secondly, among themselves, according to a recent linguistic study,  a large segment or fully 17 groups belong to the Manobo subfamily of languages, thus pointing convincingly to a common origin among them.

Thirdly, this similarity of origin is acknowledged, each in its own way, among the Moro people and the Lumad by their folk tradition. For example, among the Kalibugan/Kolibogan of Titay, they speak of two brothers as their ancestors, both Subanen. Dumalandalan was converted to Islam while Gumabon-gabon was not. Among the Subanen of Lapuyan, Zamboanga del Sur, they talk of four brothers as their ancestors. Tabunaway was the ancestor of the Magindanaw; Dumalandalan the Meranaw; Mili-rilid of the Teduray, and Gumabon-gabon of the Subanen.

The Manobo of Cotabato and the Magindanaw say that brothers Tabunaway and Mamalu are their common ancestors, although they differ on which of the two was converted to Islam. In the Manobo version, it was Mamalu who became Muslim; in the Magindanaw version, it was Tabunaway. The Manobo version further states that they share the same ancestor with the Ilyanun, the Matigsalug, the Talaandig, and the Meranaw.

In the Teduray tradition, the same brothers Tabunaway and Mamalu are acknowledged as their ancestors.

The Higaunon communities recognize a common ancestry with the Meranaw in their folklore especially in the border areas of Bukidnon and Lanaw. They also believe that the Talaandig belong to their same ethnolinguistic group. Common Higaunon-Meranaw ancestry is pronounced in the Bukidnon folklore where they speak of two brothers Bowan and Bala-oy, one of whom is said to be the ancestor of the Meranaw.

Among the Talaandig of Bukidnon, their great ancestor Apu Agbibilin is acknowledged as the common ancestor of the Talaandig, Magindanaw, Malanao (their pronunciation) and Manobo tribes who were saved at the highest peak of Mt. Kitanglad during the great flood.

Among the Bla-an (pronounced by them as two syllables, accent on the second syllable) of Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanaw and Cotabato, they speak of common ancestry with other ethnolinguistic groups. In an interview with a Bla-an tribal leader of Danlag, Tampakan, South Cotabato, this author got the following account, which should be quoted here lengthily:

“It was Almabet, their creator, who gave them that name. Almabet created eight people, first the Bla-an, then the others, namely, Tabali (T’boli), Ubo (Manobo), Alnawen (Maguindanaw Muslim), Teduray, Klagan, Matigsalug, and Mandaya. He called them by these names. They would later be the ancestors of ethnic groups of the same names. Lands were assigned to them. Kolon Nadal (Koronadal) was given to the Bla-an. Almabet ascended from Melbel (Marbel). From here they (Bla-an) went to Kolon Bia-o (Columbio), to Buluan which they partly share with the Alnawen (Maguindanaw Muslim), to other parts of the present South Cotabato, and to Datal Pitak in Matanao in the present Davao del Sur. The Tabali went to Lake Sebu. The rest went to their respective places. Although they claim common ancestry with these other groups, their languages are not mutually intelligible.”

The Kalagan and the Tagakaolo belong to the same ethno-linguistic group.

Ancestral Domains of the Lumad of Mindanaw

Traditionally, the Subanen have inhabited the Zamboanga peninsula, with larger concentrations in the following specific areas: Dapitan or Illaya Valley, Dipolog Valley specifically in Diwan, Punta and Sinaman, Manukan Valley, Sindangan, Panganuran in the present town of Gutalac, Coronado in the present town of Baliguian, Siocon, Kipit in the present town of Labason, Malayal and Patalun (now Lintangan) both in the present town of Sibuco, Bolong Valley, Tupilak and Bakalan Valleys in the town of Ipil, Lei-Batu Valley, Sibugai-Sei Valley, Dumankilas Bay, Dipolo Valley, Lubukan Valley, Labangan Valley and Mipangi Valley. Other concentrations are also found in the present towns of Katipunan, Roxas, Sergio Osmeña, Sr., Leon Postigo, Salug, Godod and Siayan.

The Higaunon, also known as the Bukidnon, traditionally speaks of their territories as the Walu Ha Talugan, the eight territories named after big rivers: Odiongan (Gingoog), Agusan, Kabulig (Claveria), Tagoloan, Lanaw, Cagayan, Pulangi (Bukidnon) and Balatukan (Balingasag). Roughly, these would be from the Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur west of Agusan river across Misamis Oriental and northern Bukidnon as far as Rogongon in Iligan City.

Sharing a common ancestry with the Higaunon, the Talaandig are concentrated mainly around the Mt. Kitanglad area in the province of Bukidnon. Their chieftain lives in Songco, Lantapan, Bukidnon. In their tradition, their great ancestor Apu Aliga, was recognized as the keeper of the territorial boundaries of the ancestral domains of the early Talaandig, Magindanaw, Manobo and Malanao tribes.

The Manobo are traditional inhabitants of several portions of Mindanaw: at the east side of Agusan river in the Agusan river valley as far as the region below Tago river in Surigao del Norte down to Surigao del Sur; in Bukidnon south; in Sigaboy north of the Cape of San Agustin in Davao Oriental; along the coastal stretch from Padada in Davao del Sur down to Sarangani Bay in South Cotabato; in Sultan Kudarat, and in Cotabato.

The Banwaon also live in the Agusan del Sur south of the Higaunon territory.

The Mamanwa have been living in the area around Lake Mainit at the Agusan del Norte-Surigao del Norte down to Tago river in Surigao del Norte.

The Mandaya have traditionally occupied the stretch of territory from Tandag in Surigao del Norte down to Mati in Davao Oriental and in the area of Salug river valley in the interior of Davao del Norte. Within the Davao Oriental-Davao del Norte are also to be found the Mansaka, Dibabawon and Mangguwangan populations.

Starting from that part of Davao City bordering Davao del Norte down to Davao del Sur, we have in succession the Ata, the Bagobo, the Tagakaolo-Kalagan, and the Bla-an.

As we move into Cotabato from Davao del Sur, we run into the Bla-an again, then the Ubo, then the T’boli, then the Dulangan in Sultan Kudarat, and the Teduray in the province of Maguindanaw.

On the whole, using the territorial jurisdictions of the present — prior to the creation of Sarangani, namely, the 22 provinces and 16 cities that constitute the entirety of Mindanaw and Sulu, there is incontrovertible evidence that from 1596-1898, at least, the Lumad traditional habitat encompassed 17 provinces and 14 cities. Today, however, mainly because of the massive influx of settlers from Luzon and the Visayas and the corresponding displacement of the local population, determining the exact boundaries of Lumad tribal territories has become extremely difficult, especially in areas where Lumad population is heavily intermixed with or dominated by the settler population. This is the case in most parts of the above 17 provinces and 14 cities. We shall see more of this below.

Tomorrow Part II: Lumad Concept of Ancestral Domain

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. A peace specialist, Rudy Buhay Rodil is an active Mindanao historian and peace advocate)

Part 4 of 7: A Quick Historical Overview of the Resettlement Process in Mindanaw  

(Editor’s note: This article is a slight revision of the lectures the author delivered between the years 1999 and 2000 to two major audiences — the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility in Metro Manila and the Bishops-Ulama Forum, now known as Bishops-Ulama Conference, in Davao City.)

The resettlement of Mindanaw was initiated by the American colonial government as early as l9l3. It was sustained and intensified during the Commonwealth period, and picked up momentum in the post-World War II years. Altogether, there were a number of resettlement programs.

A severe drought in Sulu and Zamboanga and grasshopper infestation in Davao in 1911-1912 adversely affected rice supply in the Moro Province and this gave General John Pershing, who was then Governor of the Moro Province, the excuse to call “for the importation of homesteaders from the overpopulated Philippine areas.” The campaign for settlers into the first agricultural colony in the Cotabato Valley started in earnest in Cebu where fondness for corn among the population is legend. The American colonial government paraded around Cebu a cornstalk, thirteen feet tall, propped up with a bamboo stick, to convince the people of the fertility and productivity of the soil in Cotabato. But in addition to being farmers, the volunteers had also to be skilled in arnis, an indigenous form of martial arts. Fifty persons responded. The government provided the initial capital and some farm tools on loan basis. They were also assured of eventually owning homesteads. Thus was born the first agricultural colony at the Cotabato Valley. Its specific aim was to produce cereals or rice and corn.

The year 1913 saw the passage by the Philippine Commission of Act No. 2254 creating agricultural colonies aimed, officially, at enhancing the rice production effort already started in the Cotabato Valley. Specific sites selected were Pikit, Silik, Ginatilan, Peidu Pulangi and Pagalungan, the very heart of Magindanaw dominion in the upper Cotabato Valley – the site of several armed skirmishes last year between the MILF and the armed forces, and Glan at the southernmost coast of the present South Cotabato province. In its supposed attempt to integrate the various sectors of the population, distinct population groups were purposely mixed in the colonial sites. In Colony No. 2, for example, composed of Manaulana, Pamalian, Silik, Tapodok and Langayen, Cebuano settlers and Maguindanaw natives lived together. Strangely, the settlers were allotted 16 hectares each while the Maguindanawon were given only eight hectares each. Altogether, six agricultural colonies were established in 1913.

Unable to further finance the opening of more colonies, the Manila government passed Act 2206 in 1919, which authorized Provincial Boards to manage colonies themselves at their expense. Lamitan in Basilan was thus opened by the Zamboanga province, Tawi-Tawi by Sulu, Marilog by Bukidnon, and Salunayan and Maganoy by Cotabato between 1919 and 1926.

No significant government resettlements were organized until 1935. Settlers nevertheless migrated either on their own or through the Inter-island Migration Division of the Bureau of Labor. As a result, aside from already existing settlement areas like that in the Cotabato Valley, or in Lamitan in Basilan and Labangan in Zamboanga, and Momungan in Lanaw, we also see several in Davao, specifically in the towns of Kapalong, Guiangga, Tagum, Lupon and Baganga; also, in Cabadbaran, Butuan and Buenavista in Agusan, and Kapatagan Valley in Lanaw.

The next big initiative was the Quirino-Recto Colonization Act or Act No. 4197 of 12 February 1935 which aimed at sending settlers into any part of the country but with special reference to Mindanaw, that is, as a solution to the Mindanaw problem, as the peace and order problem with the Moros was called. But before any implementation could be attempted, the Commonwealth government came into existence and it decided to concentrate on opening inter-provincial roads instead.

The National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA) created by Commonwealth Act No. 441 in 1939 introduced new dimensions into resettlement. Aside from the usual objectives, there was one curious item providing military trainees an opportunity to own farms upon completion of their military training. The Japanese menace was strongly felt in the Philippines at this time and this particular offer was an attempt by the government to strengthen national security. Under the NLSA, three major resettlement areas were opened in the country: Mallig Plains in Isabela, and two in Cotabato, namely, Koronadal Valley made up of Lagao, Tupi, Marbel and Polomolok and Ala (now spelled Allah) Valley consisting of Banga, Norallah and Surallah. By the time the NLSA was abolished in 1950, a total of 8,300 families had been resettled.

The Rice and Corn Production Administration (RCPA) of 1949 was meant to increase rice and corn production but was also involved in resettlement. It was responsible for opening Buluan in Cotabato, and Maramag and Wao at the Bukidnon-Lanaw border.

Before the National Resettlement and Rehabilitation Administration (NARRA) came into existence in 1954, the short-lived Land Settlement Development Administration or LASEDECO took over from NLSA and RCPA. It was able to open Tacurong, Isulan, Bagumbayan, part of Buluan, Sultan sa Barongis and Ampatuan, all in Cotabato.

NARRA administered a total of 23 resettlement areas: nine were in Mindanaw; one in Palawan; five in the Visayas; one in Mindoro; seven in mainland Luzon.

A product of the Land Reform Code, Land Authority took over from NARRA in 1963. For the first time, resettlement became a part of the land reform program. The creation of the Department of Agrarian Reform in 1971 also brought about the existence of the Bureau of Resettlement whose function was to implement the program of resettlement.

The Economic Development Corps (EDCOR), a special program of the government to counter the upsurge of the Huk rebellion — a brainchild of Ramon Magsaysay, then Secretary of National Defense under President Elpidio Quirino — must also be mentioned. This program was responsible for opening resettlement areas for surrendered or captured Huks (insurgents) in such areas as Isabela and Quezon in Luzon, and Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato and Maguindanaw in Mindanaw. Those in the latter were carved out in the heart of Magindanaw and Meranaw ancestral territories. One of them, the town of Buldon in Maguindanaw is a battleground between the forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government armed forces.

The formal resettlement programs spawned the spontaneous influx of migrants who came on their own. It is estimated that more people came this way than through organized channels.

To be able to appreciate how fast was the process of displacement among the indigenous groups, one can do a comparative study of the population balance in Mindanaw over several census years.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. A peace specialist, Rudy Buhay Rodil is an active Mindanao historian and peace advocate.)

Next: Part V: Population Shifts in Cotabato