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Volume 3,  Number 39               November 2 - 8, 2003            Quezon City, Philippines


 





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Indigenous Peoples Watch

Subanen Chiefs Want IPRA Scrapped

In a summit held last week of October, Lumad groups declared they have had enough of the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act (IPRA). In a resolution passed during their summit in Naga, Zamboanga Sibugay, 500 Subanen leaders, elders and sympathizers called for the scrapping of IPRA for being inutile and even insidious in protecting indigenous tribes' rights and welfare.

By ELMER D. SAGBIGSAL 
Contributed to Bulatlat.com

OZAMIS CITY - Lumad groups held a summit last week of October and declared they have had enough of the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act (IPRA). In a resolution passed during their summit in Naga, Zamboanga Sibugay, 500 Subanen leaders, elders and sympathizers called for the scrapping of IPRA after finding it inutile and even insidious in protecting indigenous tribes' rights and welfare.

Onrico Simbulan, regional chair of Salabukan No'k G'taw Subanen (SGS), summed up the Lumad leaders' radical stand: "Six-years is more than enough experience and lesson that IPRA deserves to be scrapped, as it did nothing to help the sorry plight of the Subanen."

Simbulan said that IPRA was used not to protect the Subanen rights and welfare but to facilitate the entry and implementation of destructive projects detrimental to their ancestral land and rights. IPRA can be considered a landmark legislation with a negative twist: it promotes deception rather than rights protection, he said.

Enacted in October 1997, Republic Act 8371 (or IPRA) is the first and only comprehensive law that is supposed to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples in the Philippines. The Act is also considered by some NGOs as a landmark legislation that would finally answer the decades-long clamor of indigenous peoples for recognition of their rights over their ancestral lands.

But Efren Soon, Coordinator of Indigenous Cultural Communities Center for Development (ICCCD), said during the summit that IPRA "pays lip service to the principles of respecting, upholding and protecting the rights and interest of indigenous peoples." Based on the tribal communities' experience, he said, the Act in fact strengthens other oppressive laws that brought forth the historical injustice committed against the indigenous communities.

Instead of recognizing ancestral land rights, IPRA tied tribes to the legal framework of land ownership contrary to their customary laws, culture and tradition, Soon added.

Toothless Act

In an IPRA conference last year, lawyer Marvic Leonen of Legal Rights Center- Kasama sa Kalikasan (LRC-KSK) advised the Lumad (non-Muslim tribes) not to be too dependent on IPRA. "Huwag pakahon sa IPRA na may maraming kontradiksyon at di malinaw na interpretasyon" (Don't be trapped by IPRA which is riddled with contradictions and vague interpretations), he said.

Timuay Elino Dumagsa, chair of Mt. Malindang Timuay Council, on the other hand, said that while indigenous peoples are claiming their ancestral land rights based on IPRA law, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) prohibits them from any human activity within the so-called protected and watershed areas covered by the National Integrated Protected Areas (NIPA) program.

For instance, Dumagsa said, Subanen farmers were barred from cultivating the land, gathering firewood and rattan and hunting wild pigs in the 53,262-hectare part of Mt. Malindang which DENR had declared a NIPAS area or a “strictly protected zone.”

"IPRA never protects the Subanen people" said Alfredo Atad, Subanen leader in the town of Jose Dalman. He laments that the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), the agency tasked to implement the law, has lifted no finger to help Lumads in their struggle against an unpopular government pasture project.

"Instead of helping us prevent the entry of the pasture project, the NCIP is trying to dampen the struggle of the tribe by forcing us to claim first the land through application of Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC)," said Atad.

Timuay Alano Osi complained however that their CADC-applied ancestral land was also a site of Integrated Social Forestry (ISF) program. Osi suspects that their application would be rejected as the DENR provides the beneficiaries with 25 years Certificate of Stewardship Contract (CSC).

Sowing disunity

Anastacio Langgap, a local leader in Mt. Paraya, said that the NCIP's appointment of new leaders has only created conflicts and divisions among the people in the community. He said that the new appointed leaders were authorized by NCIP to officiate in weddings and other rituals which are not part of the responsibilities and powers of genuine Subanen leaders.

By performing these non-traditional roles, the NCIP-appointed leader collect fees ranging from P50 to P 500, contrary to a policy where they are supposed to perform their functions without charge, Langgap also said.

Martino Ayas said that the presence of the NCIP-appointed leaders has only spawned division in the community as they claim legal authority over the leaders and elders chosen by the people under their custom.

Self- governance

"Even without IPRA we can assert our rights and defend our land," said Timuay Bernito Sanghilan. He recounts that their tribe successfully stopped the construction of a dam in Dumpoc in 1990 when the whole community acted as one.

The people were also able to block the entry of DENR personnel and the controversial Integrated Social Forestry Program in the land which they had declared as ancestral domain.

Simbulan concluded: "Kung ang tribo na ang mag-delineate sa ilang ancestral lands, kini expression sa self-governance ug di na kinahanglan ang balaod" (If the tribal peoples can delineate their ancestral lands, that is an expression of self-governance and there's no need for law anymore). Bulatlat.com

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