Gathering at the Villa Maria
Resettlement in Porac, Pampanga last June 12-14, a thousand Aetas collectively
recalled their wrath and struggle when Mt. Pinatubo erupted ten years ago. They
prayed and danced their rituals and declared June 13 as their red-letter day—Aeta
Day. Joining them in this unique celebration were advocates of the interests and
rights of Aetas and all other indigenous peoples. Around a bonfire, they spoke
of their continuing hardships and survival. They spoke of their struggle to
regain their ancestral land. This is one of their stories.
By
Zelda dela Trinidad Soriano
Bulatlat.com
Ten years ago, the eruption
of Mt. Pinatubo displaced almost 200,000 Aetas still living in primitive ways in
the hinterlands of Central Luzon. Like the volcano that woke after centuries of
slumber, the Aetas who were erstwhile remembered merely in historical footnotes
as aborigines of the Filipino race, suddenly came to life in TV screens and news
photos. They stood out with their short but broad bodies, dark and kinky-hair,
round eyes, bahag (G-string) and tapis (a simple cloth worn around
the waist down), and bows and arrows for hunting.
As in any natural disaster,
the government put up evacuation centers and provided for the Aetas' emergency
needs: food, shelter, and clothing. Non-government organizations (NGOs) and
other charitable groups distributed packs of instant noodles, rice and sardines.
As if on cue, the aborigines found themselves objects of sympathy, pity and
charity. Many Aetas who lost their livelihood in the disaster turned to begging.
But this should not have
been the case, said Ricardo Guiao, secretary general of the Pampanga-based
Central Luzon Aetas Association (CLAA). The dole-out practice of government
agencies, some NGOs and other private foundations during their relief and
rehabilitation missions for Mt. Pinatubo victims in the early 1990s made Aetas
think, feel and act as beggars, he said in an interview.
Begging was never part of
the Aeta culture, Guiao stressed. Proof, he explained, is their survival for
centuries in the mountains. Although their farming methods are primitive and
they continue to hunt and gather food in the forests, the Aeta economy is
self-sustaining, he said. Everyone gathers food for everybody.
Now, says Guiao, some Aetas
now believe that asking and waiting for dole-outs is "normal and
good." The Mt. Pinatubo disaster started a tradition of begging among Aetas,
says Guiao, because their situation after the eruption was hard and there were
no other means of coping at the time.
Interaction with city folks
during relief and rehabilitation missions also taught these Aetas the Christmas
tradition. They learned to migrate to the cities in December to beg for gifts
and donations.
He cited his fellow Aetas
who lived in government housing units near the former Clark Air Base in Angeles
City and Mabalacat, Pampanga. He said they no longer till farms and that their
only source of income has become begging in the cities.
National Commission on
Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Director David Daoas agrees with Guiao. To illustrate
his point, he said in an interview that in 1995, Department of Social Welfare
and Development (DSWD) authorities arrested a group of Aeta beggars. Meant as a
rescue operation, the DSWD sponsored a livelihood project to encourage those
arrested to return to their provinces. The government gave away a number of farm
carabaos (water buffalos) to the rescued Aeta families.
The DSWD project succeeded.
Soon, a new batch of Aetas flocked to the cities begging for alms. When rescued,
the Aetas reasoned that they also wanted to have carabaos before going home.
No more G-strings?
"Sa dole out, natuto
kaming magsuot ng brief, pantalon at T-shirt. Natuto kaming maglaba ng may sabon
at magsipilyo nang may toothpaste... Pero dumami ang gastos. Pag nasira na ang
mga bigay na damit, pag naubos na ang sabon at toothpaste, wala na rin kaming
pambili (The dole-outs taught us to wear briefs, pants and T-shirts. It taught
us to wash clothes with soap and brush our teeth with toothpaste... But we had
no money to replace clothes that became worn-out and soap and toothpaste that
were used up)," comments Aeta leader Guiao.
Guiao believes however that
losing the G-strings and half-body tapis that are only physical symbols
does not mean the disintegration of the Aeta culture. He says that the way of
dressing, for one, should evolve with time based on people's needs. People
should develop their own economic capacity to produce the type of clothes they
need.
More than anything, however,
Guiao is bothered by other cultural inroads in his community since the relief
goods came. Today, instead of chewing betel nuts, some Aeta youth smoke
branded cigarettes such as Marlboro or Winston. April Boy Regino's love songs
and the head bang dance craze are now pushing the traditional dagaw to
obsolescence. Boys are openly courting Aeta girls and engaging in premarital
sex—considered taboo in Aeta culture.
Although most Aetas still
maintain their traditional values, Guiao predicts that the system of dole-outs
amid the continuing poverty and displacement of the indigenous community could
change their lives forever.
Preserving the good
Tony Abuso, coordinator of
the Episcopal Commission on Indigenous People (ECIP) of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), differs from Guiao. "It is hard to
tell if changes in cultural practices are good or bad, even if these were
assimilated from the dominant Western-influenced culture or if these have
evolved naturally," he says.
Only the Aetas themselves,
he stresses, could say if cultural changes are practically acceptable for them.
"The situations are different in the past and at present," he says.
"They might also need to adapt their beliefs, for example, to improve their
productivity unless they have other choices and prefer the old ways."
Guiao argues though that the
doling out of relief goods, in particular, is a case that limited the Aetas'
choices.
Unequivocally, NCIP's Daoas
sees the indigenous peoples' culture in general as "slowly
disintegrating." Himself an Igorot, he admits that even the technical step
of preserving the indigenous peoples' culture—documentation—has never been
fully accomplished. Documentation is one of NCIP's tasks that cannot proceed
without any budget, he mutters.
Surprisingly, the
four-year-old commission has no budget except for salaries and a meager amount
for operational expenses.
But the NCIP director is not
in favor of relief goods in addressing the Aetas’ poverty. "There must be
better ways of helping the Aetas and the indigenous peoples than relief
goods," he says. Empowering the Aetas economically is one way of laying the
ground for their self-determination, including the preservation of their
cultural integrity, he says.
Farms, not relief goods
Guiao goes farther. The best
solution, he says, is declaring the territory from around Mt. Pinatubo crater
down to the edge of the mountain slope as an Aeta ancestral domain. Here they
could maintain their farms and vegetable gardens while preserving the forest
cover that is also their source of food and other materials. They could set up
their villages, where they could practice their beliefs and traditions.
In the first place, he says,
government intervention should have been in the form of providing adequate
social services such as education, health, infrastructure, irrigation,
agricultural machineries, water and electricity rather than just relief goods.
"Kami na ang bahala sa
pagpapaunlad ng aming katutubong lupain (We’ll take care of developing our
ancestral land)," declares Guiao. He adds that the Aetas have mastered the
science of agriculture, the laws of nature, as well as the art of surviving in
natural disasters as in the case of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption.
The problem, Guiao argues,
is that their narrow area of activities has limited them from transferring to
safer grounds and expanding their farms and resources.
He cites that most of the
Pinatubo land—which incidentally is also the Aetas' original ancestral
territory—has been privatized. About 44,000 hectares owned by Clark
Development Corporation (CDC) is open for development projects. At the boundary
of Pampanga and Zambales, some 2,000 hectares are owned by a certain Don
Jovencio Dizon. The lower part of Pinatubo mountain is a government
reforestation area.
Soon to be acquired by
another private foreign group is some 2,000 hectares of land that will be
bulldozed to give way to a dump site using the landfill technology. Guiao says
wastes coming from different parts of Central Luzon are to be dumped at the
future landfill site.
In one of its publications,
Metro Manila-based advocacy group Katribu contends, "denial of national
minorities' right to their ancestral land and self-determination hinders their
full development as a people with their own distinct and collective
rights."
Remember the Aeta legacy
The Aetas are considered the
earliest inhabitants of the Philippine islands. They are one of some 40
ethno-linguistic groups in the country, each with a distinct language and
culture. Tribal Filipinos number about 4.5 million.
Historically, they were the
least influenced by Christianity and Hispanization. Neither were they Islamized.
They either withdrew to the hinterlands in the face of colonization or they
stood their ground successfully.
The Aetas have continued to
live in their relatively isolated, self-sufficient communities, at a time when
most communities in the lowlands were integrated into a single colony under
Spain. They were also able to preserve their culture and ways of life as
reflected in their communal views on lands, cooperative work exchanges, communal
rituals, songs, dances and folklore.
Instead of hierarchical
governments, each community has a council of elders that customarily settles
clan wars to restore peace and unity. Violence, crime and "domestic
problems," however, are rare in Aeta villages.
Over centuries, the Aetas
survived several Mt. Pinatubo eruptions by transferring from one place to
another, starting agriculture and flexibly renewing resources. They have
preserved the forest, improved the agricultural lands and sustained their needs.
This is so because,
according to anthropologists and sociologists, the Aetas carry the typical,
positive values of the real Filipino—independent, hardworking, flexible and
kind-hearted.
Considering their traits and their history, the Aetas have proven their power and capability to determine their destiny as a people. Hopefully, relief goods will not come their way again and make more beggars out of them. Bulatlat.com