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Thursday, August 07, 2008

What about the indigenous people in Mindanao?

Has the government considered the flight of the indigenous people in Mindanao?

If "ancestal domains" are being given to the MILF? What about the:

T'boli
B'laan (or "Bla-an",
Ata,
Bagobo,
Banwaon,
Bukidnon,
Dibabawon,
Higaunon,
Kalagan,
Mamanwa,
Mandaya,
Mangguwangan,
Manobo,
Mansaka,
Subanen,
Tagakaolo,
Teduray and the Ubo.

What will happen to these people located in the "juridical entity" the government is giving away to the MILF? Are they willing to be given away without them being informed or consulted?

Have they also considered that the Tuasugs (of the MNLF) is shunning this MOA on juridical entity?Are they also willing to be given away to the MILF without them being informed or consulted?

Another is, have they considered the Christians, who are the majority in places like Zamboanga, how they feel? Are they willing to be given away without them being informed or consulted?

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On the news:

"Since the signing of the UN declaration on the recognition of indigenous peoples' rights, no significant efforts have been seriously [undertaken] by the Philippine government to address the problems that threaten the lives of the indigenous peoples," Cayug said.

The Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Watch Mindanao said that at least 18 lumad leaders across Mindanao have been killed in 2006 alone. Also last year, at least 1,500 lumad families in Mindanao evacuated because of the alleged militarization of their areas.

Now the government are giving away their ancestral domains to MILF.

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Monico Cayug, secretary general of Pasaka, a federation of lumad organizations in Southern Mindanao, said the lumad communities are also being targeted in the government's counterinsurgency drive.

"The lumad once lived by the sea and in the lowlands. We have been pushed to the hinterlands through centuries of colonization. Now they are once again coming after our territories. We defend our lands, and the military is sent in to clear the way for the development. Our leaders are threatened and killed [and] whole communities evacuated," Cayug said.

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What is so special with MILF, GMA is treating them special? And she is even willing to ignore the basic premises of our constitution, including among others, the maintenance of our territorial integrity?


Source: Mindanao Tribes; Indigenous People of Mindanao