INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S WATCH

Subanens Reclaim Ancestral Land

Right before the eyes of government militiamen, the once peaceful Subanen tribe in a hinterland barangay here defied fear and uprooted on Dec. 1 the five-foot perimeter fence erected by Zamboanga del Norte provincial government around the heart of what they called their ancestral domain.

BY MARS S. MARATA and ELMER D. SAGBIGSAL
Bulatlat.com

TRIBAL POWER: (Left) "Respect the Subanens’ right to self-determination!" reads a poster by Subanens  during Dec. 1 protest;  (Right) Subanen folk uproot fences around government livestock-breeding project. Photos by Mars Marata

Some 100 Subanen men, women and children made a decisive action when they cut the barbed wires, uprooted the concrete and wooden posts erected around the 189-hectare livestock breeding center of the provincial government in Sitio Tiala, Barangay Lipay, Jose Daman town, Zamboanga del Norte. The land occupied by the breeding center nestles between two big mountains serving as natural borders of the province with Zamboanga del Sur.

The five armed members of Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) who guarded the fencing work of the provincial government employees and who actually witnessed the uprooting, threatened the protesting Subanen of criminal charges but later calmed down after the heated verbal exchange with the protest leaders.

"We are not criminals, we are only defending our rights over our ancestral land," Onrico Simbulan, the regional chairperson of the Salabokan No'k G'Taw Subanen (Unity of the Subnanen People), told CAFGU member Pablo Majala, himself a Subanen.

"Those who grabbed our lands are the real criminals," the chairperson added.

Frusrated

"He should have understood us because he is also a member of the tribe," a dismayed Subanen leader said of Majala who, after being admitted as a CAFGU and promised employment, has become so vocal against the activities of his fellow Subanen.

"He (Malaja) knows that we have been registering our protest against this project since 2000 through petition-complaints, dialogues and other similar actions, but the government is not listening to us," Simbulan added.

Majala said, "Yes, I am also a Subanen but I believe this project will help us overcome poverty because the government promised us employment and share of the proceeds of this breeding center."

Of the 33 households living within the 189-hectare project, 13 say it will help improve their lives while 20 said it will just send them to landlessness.

Prepared

The uprooting started at around 2 p.m. and ended around 5:30 of the same day leaving about 70 percent of the entire perimeter fence razed.

To prepare for possible military harassment, the tribe decided to establish a temporary settlement wherein protesters can live together to ensure each other collective protection. A local human rights monitoring team was also set up to document and follow-up possible human rights abuses that will ensue after the mass action.

Simbulan expected harassment because the past months, during military operations conducted by soldiers belonging to the 5th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army who encamped at the nearby Barangay Lipay, people were discouraged from mounting protest and allegedly told, "You better cooperate, you cannot stop a government project."

The Australian government-backed project was supposed to start three years ago but could not be implemented because the Subanens prevented capitol workers from erecting the fences.

According to Simbulan, Gov. Isagani Amatong has been pressured by the Australian government to implement the project otherwise, it will get back the unused funds. The capitol however denied this.

Altenative services for the Subanens?

Speaking for the governor, Provincial Administrator James Verdugez said he could not believe that the Subanen did the uprooting on their own.

"There must be somebody who agitated the tribe for doing so," he said, declining to give names.

Verduguez in his report to media in Dipolog City denied the protesters’ accusation that the project gives favor the welfare of animals than the Subanen people. The accusation, according to Verduguez, is a mere allegation aimed to discredit the governor.

Verduguez claims that the project would provide alternative services to the Subanens in the remote Jose Dalman town. A Subanen villager said the government promised them with P250 daily wage for pasture workers and a source of milk for the people in the future.

But the alternative services did not please the supposed project beneficiaries. Alfredo Atad, one of the residents, said that they oppose the project as it undermined their sources of livelihood and prospects.

He asked, “Asa na mi mamuyo ug manginabuhi kun himoong pastuhan ang among kayutaan?” (Where will the Subanen reside and get their source of livelihood if their land will be converted into pastureland?). Atad also disagreed with the government proposal to transfer the affected families to the forested portion of the land because it is not suitable for farming and is a very hazardous place to live.   

Failed dialogue

In March 2000, a dialogue between the affected communities and a project representative at the project site, attended by 300 Subanen in neighboring communities, representatives from local government in Jose Dalman town and representatives from different government agencies such as DENR, BAI and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

During the dialogue, government authorities failed to convince the Subanens since the latter insisted on their rights over the land. Thus, the project was temporarily stopped, and the pasture material was utilized for the construction of their weekly meeting hall.

But on August 2003, the residents were surprised upon seeing government workers reconstructed the pasture by setting up fence and barbed wires.

In a petition last September, the affected communities asked the governor to stop the construction of the fence, help reclassify the land from forestland to agricultural use and withdraw the project in favor of the people.

Verduguez said his team went to sitio (subvillage) Lipay Nov. 12 to verify the petition. He said there were only few who registered their disagreement on the project, so there must some "ill-motivated" individuals who propelled the tribe to resort to such an "unbelievable" act of uprooting the fence.

“Illegal”

Town Councilor Oldarico Mejorada said however that the project is illegal because it did not have a memorandum of authority from the provincial council. He said he is ready to cooperate with the Subanens in their struggle for land and is ready to extend legal assistance to the tribe.

Verdugez claimed however that not all projects of the province ought to have a memorandum of authority from the council. The council’s approval of the 20 percent allocation from the annual budget based on the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) is proof of the legitimacy of any government project such as that in Tiala, he said.

From the mouth of babes

Junie, 12, who did not attend classes on that day to join the protest action of his tribe, said, "Defending our ancestral land is more important than attending classes today."

"We'll attend our classes tomorrow, I'm sure ma'am will understand us," said Gemma, 12, who helped in the pasting of protest posters on the walls of the tribal center which was turned into a construction supply warehouse for the project. Bulatlat.com

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