Summary
Highlights
Attorney Jennifer Corpuz introduces her group's research and advocacy for indigenous peoples' rights, focusing on their contributions to solving national and global problems, such as sustainable forest management and small-scale mining practices. She emphasizes the importance of highlighting their positive impact rather than just their struggles.
Corpuz provides a working definition of indigenous peoples, noting their cultural preservation, community identification, collective relationship to land, and role as stewards of nature. She highlights that IPs constitute a significant portion of the Philippine population (15 million, 100-120 groups) and are crucial for maintaining green areas, rivers, seas, and cultural diversity.
Due to their success in conserving territories, IPs face immense pressure from growing populations and resource exploitation. This leads to issues like forced evictions, militarization, and disregard for their free, prior, and informed consent for development projects.
Indigenous peoples are not anti-development but advocate for sustainable development. They desire involvement in the development process and the right to define appropriate development for their communities. Citing the 'seventh generation' philosophy of Native Americans, Corpuz stresses that IPs consider long-term impacts and prioritize sustainability.
Mining projects often lack IP participation, are established in sacred areas, and can be culturally destructive. While not inherently opposed to all mining, IPs emphasize listening to their expertise on what the land can sustain. Corpuz cites the Itogon landslides as an example where the government's immediate moratorium on small-scale mining was seen as a violation of indigenous rights.
Large-scale agribusiness, such as palm oil plantations, negatively impacts indigenous communities, leading to malnutrition and the destruction of traditional farming, which is inherently sustainable. Corpuz also discusses how well-intentioned government programs like land reform can be detrimental to IPs if individual land titles disrupt their collective land ownership and make them vulnerable to exploitation.
Militarization forcibly displaces IPs, causing psychological trauma and community breakdown. Companies exploit cultural norms, like respecting elders, to divide and conquer communities, leading to internal conflicts and the erosion of communal spirit. International and national rulings recognize the importance of culture, and actions disrupting it are seen as 'killing' the community.
Indigenous activists face criminalization, harassment, and even death for opposing projects. 'Red-tagging' – labeling them as communists or rebels – is a common tactic to delegitimize their struggles and remove human rights protections, often leading to them being 'fair game' for abuse.
Under international law, all peoples, including indigenous peoples, have the right to self-determination, which means determining their identity, political status, and development trajectory. Corpuz highlights the discrimination IPs face, as seen in instances where they are viewed as beggars or denied access to basic services due to prejudice, often because of their ethnicity.
IPs often reside in 'geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas' (GIDAs), lacking access to government schools and health centers. Policies like conditional cash transfers with attendance requirements are impractical for them. Corpuz shares an example of discriminatory policies, such as penalizing home-based births, which disregard indigenous traditions and local contexts.
IPs engage government through organization, local government representation, and legal assistance. Corpuz outlines a legislative agenda for incoming lawmakers, including an alternative mining bill that respects IP rights, culturally sensitive education, recognition of indigenous conserved areas, and protection of traditional knowledge from misappropriation.
Supporting IPs is crucial because the well-being of the 'whole body' (the Philippines) depends on the well-being of all its parts, especially those often left behind. Their contributions to culture, identity, and environmental preservation are invaluable, making their struggles integral to a 'true and liberated Philippines'.