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Tribal natives to stage picket vs.

DEVELOPMENTAL AGGRESSION

MYNEWS                                           

ROGER M. BALANZA

Mindanao Insider Daily

            Indigenous peoples groups here would stage a picket on Friday at the region eleven office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in protest of intrusion of large agri-business corporations into ancestral domains.

            These corporations made us poorer, said Datu Monico Cayog who heads the Bagobo-Tagabawa tribe in Sibulan, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.

            Cayog was one of tribal leaders who held a press conference in Davao City last week to announce the holding of the Pasaka Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao General Assembly on October 6-10. The assembly would be followed by a 3-day conference on the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA) from October 9-11 spearheaded by the Kusog sa Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (Kalumaran).

The conference, to be attended by tribal associations from all over Mindanao, would primarily analyze how developmentAL aggression by large corporations into ancestral domains affected indigenous peoples since IPRA was passed ten years ago.

At the core of the discussion would be lack of free and informed prior consultation with natives before the corporations are allowed to carve out ancestral domains for business. The NCIP is mandated by the IPRA law to conduct such consultations.

NCIP is accused of conniving with big business instead of protecting tribal rights to ancestral domain, said Cayog whose tribe is protesting against construction of a hydro-power plant and banana plantation expansions in Davao del Sur.

Datu Ildefonso Gonzaga, spokesperson of the Natulingan Domain in San Fernando, Bukidnon, said tribal natives are never consulted when large businesses intrude into their ancestral domain. In Bukidnon a multi-million pesos mega-dam project is threatening to wipe our tribal villages, said Gonzaga, who adds tribal frustration at seeing their ancestral lands taken away by big business is driving away natives to the side of the New People's Army. This led to a growing insurgency and militarization.
            Kalumaran Secretary General Dulphing Ogan said tribal natives would share experiences at the conference and present case studies on how IPRA affected the lives of the tribal people.

Ogan said the week long activities of the indigenous peoples would be capped with a picket at the NCIP office, “to show our displeasure at NCIP's performance in protecting the rights of the tribal people.”

posted by Rogelio at 10/07/2007 18:32:48