IP groups ask Church help in fight for their rights

MANILA, Philippines - Indigenous people (IP) groups sought the help of the Catholic Church in fighting for their dignity, self-determination and the preservation and conservation of their ancestral lands. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website said the Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas made the latest such appeal. "We have become squatters in our own lands. Our communities continue to be militarized, and our brave brothers and sisters, harassed and summarily killed by State armed forces. Our sacred culture is commercialized. We fall prey to unwarranted discrimination. We are denied or neglected of the State's basic services," KAMP spokesman Himpad Mangumalas lamented. He said indigenous peoples in the Philippines are at "war" to fight for their lands and the recognition for their inalienable rights to self-determination as a people. Also, he said IPs’ lands are being pillaged with mining and logging of multinational companies, and the aggressive construction of dams on their domains. Even their culture has not been spared because of commercialization, he said. He noted one proof of state harassment against the tribal peoples in the Philippines was the case of the missing Kankanaey-Ibaloi tribe leader James Balao. Balao disappeared last September 17, even as several residents suspect the military was behind the incident. Balao was a founding member of the Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA), an organization of the tribal peoples in the Northern hinterlands, founded in 1984 as an effort to unify the tribes in the North, then facing grave threat of losing their ancestral lands due to the Chico Dam project by the Marcos regime. Aside from Balao's case were numerous cases of harassments and summary execution of tribal leaders such as arbitrary arrest of Jose Cawiding, the secretary-general of the Metro-Baguio Tribal Elders and Leaders Assembly and a former staff of the CPA Education Commission in 2007. Militant human rights group Karapatan and the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace had recorded 85 cases of summary executions against tribal leaders nationwide and seven cases of enforced disappearances from 2001 to 2008. "In Mindanao, due to the continuous fighting between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), many tribal communities were destroyed and many tribal peoples were forced to leave their villages because of the total war," Himpad said. Aside from the lumads in Mindanao, the mostly affected by the war between the Muslim revolutionaries and the government forces are the Muslims, who are also fighting for their self-determination, he added. Himpad said he was saddened by the failure of the Arroyo government in keeping its promise of uplifting the lives and the promotion of well-being of the tribal minorities. "Overall, the Arroyo government has failed to respect, recognize, and promote the human rights of the country's indigenous peoples," he said. He added more and more certificate of ancestral domain titles were revoked and dishonored as the government itself has intensified the mining and logging activities in the more than 107,000 hectares of land which belong to different tribal communities in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. "What's positive with the indigenous peoples' struggle for the respect for human rights, including the rights to ancestral lands, territories, and resources is that it has continued to move the tribesmen and women and has impelled to dispel all dissimilarities across tribes and with our non-indigenous brethren to finally work hand-in-hand in a unified action," Himpad said. He said he hopes the Catholic Church will continue with its unwavering support the indigenous peoples they steadfastly fight for our rights to self-determination. During the celebration of the Indigenous People's Sunday, the Catholic Church has echoed the prayers of Filipino tribal minorities in all parishes nationwide and has shown their continued advocacy for the IPs. - GMANews.TV