Get to Know the Most Discriminated Indigenous Group in the Philippines – The Lumads

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The Philippines is a land of diverse cultures mostly ethnolinguistic in characteristics. There are now over 11 million indigenous people groups residing in different corners of the country. Why corners? It is because they are not living in compressed areas as in the cities. They are mostly located in hinterlands or countryside.

As indicated by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples or NCIP, there are no less than 11 % of the number of inhabitants throughout the country. It is just that there are about 60% of them who are living in Mindanao, and they are called the Lumads. They consist of 18 clans merging together or living separately.

Why discriminated? There are many factors contributing to this demoralizing act against the indigenous group:

1. The Mindanao soil is one of the top richest source of gold and minerals in the world.
The Lumads reside in the lands targeted by many multinational corporations hungry to exploit the natural resources. In 2015, there were 1 trillion dollar worth of mineral saves only found in Mindanao. The exact location of these mineral reserves lies the exact settlement of the Lumad people. How is this connected to discrimination? The State and the big corporations have made efforts for how many years just to threaten, discourage and destroy the living of the Lumads just to take the land.

The government, on the other hand, is also craving for the benefits it can get from these business sectors and to have these things, it has made many policies giving favor to the few exploiters while making the local settlers suffer so much from all type of life difficulties.

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Displacement has been taking place. Since the 80s, they have already been negotiated with business agencies. Many of them even sold their land, not knowing the possibility of future difficulties they could have. They have also been fooled by convincing them to sign many papers they could not even understand at the first place due to illiteracy. Some were only given canned goods, for instance, because they were ignorant of the type of foods that they thought they were something premium in the urban areas.

The Digging Demonstration took into consideration substantial scale remote interests in the mining part, while EO 79 gave the national government a last say in affirming applications for mining grants. For instance, the Liguasa, which is a piece of the hereditary area of the Moro people groups in Mindanao, holds a vast reserve of flammable gas worth several billions of dollars.

A portion of the biggest dams in the Philippines have additionally been or are at present being developed in the island also, including the Pulangi V dam, which undermines to dislodge a huge number of indigenous people groups from their familial terrains and would decimate their methods for vocation and lifestyle.

Regardless of these rich regular assets, numerous Lumad and different indigenous people groups in the Philippines stay buried in neediness. Infringement against their rights are likewise typical. Indigenous people groups' rights are as far as anyone knows secured by law through the Indigenous people groups' Rights Demonstration (IPRA) of 1997. This was never taken into effect. The Lumads are still being discriminated.

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2. The Lumad People are out-of-school.
Not even a single attempt of the government in building schools in Lumad communities happened. While there are some schools available in areas just closer to the urban areas, areas in mountainside do not have one. Some Lumad kids risk walking along kilometers just to go to schools, but many choose to work with their parents in the farm.

The good thing is that there are non-government organizations that initiated a plan on building schools for them. A notable school is the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development or ALCADEV, but later burned down by the military forces, insisting that it failed to pass a proper permit and it was illegal, while some schools were made military camps. The school was accused of teaching the children to be soon become communists of members of the New Peoples’ Army, the armed force of the communist group.

The teachers were abducted and killed including a Catholic priest-turned ALCADEV teacher to serve the indigenous community. No evidences linked to communist teaching were discovered. There was a fake news about it but later debunked. But the reality is that these burnt school cannot easily be reconstructed due to lack of financial support and due to fear among the teachers in going back to the community. Luckily, there are still heroic teachers who stand brave to educate the Lumad children despite the bombings, displacements, and militarization of the community.

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3. Due to their struggle for ancestral domain and for social justice, they are tagged as rebels and, at worst, terrorists Land is life for the Lumad people in Mindanao.
Just like the other indigenous people in the country and in the world, they see the failure to attain the ancestral land as a sign of death. Many have already died defending their lands. In 2015, they held a nationwide marching protest to let the people outside Mindanao hear the words not allowed to be spoken. It continued in 2016 and was decided to be made an annual protest. However, while they are doing this, many millennials only judged them as communists, dirty, uneducated, and that they should strive hard to find proper jobs rather than protesting on streets, not knowing that they lack such access to equal job opportunity due to ignorance.

Despite all of these, the Lumads are hopeful for a better society equal with the treatment of all citizens of the country. They may not have attended proper schools, but they have the wisdom many professionals do lack. It is so amazing to see that starting in 2015, they have learnt to get out of their communities to fight and confront the military and the government in their own backyards. Ignorant people would only laugh at them, but the critical ones see its truest value.

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