peoples of the mountains, of the hinterlands, of the waving seas, of the lush forests and teeming valleys and hills. We see the man in nearly bare garments, wearing the hunter’s wardrobe and the near naked women and children they aim to feed and protect.
Ladies and gentlemen, friends and visitors, honored guests, we must admit that the native life of the Indigenous peoples (IPs) have become farthest from our minds of lately, even though in our younger years, we have heard about them in many myths and legends, and even had venerated their cunning ways – as we say, with bows and arrows, the hunter within us lives like an eternal spirit.However, today, while we embroiled ourselves in our steep modernity, Somehow, it is inevitable that we dispel their ordinary ways as we embrace the convenient modern life with many tools of innovative communication, entertainment and utility. How else can we surpass this gargantuan indifference when we ourselves are belabored by many questions of technology – whether we have electronic loads, or power banks or internet fees?
This is the main struggle of the IPs and the IPRA law, or Republic Act 8371, otherwise known as “The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997”, enacted in a time when our nation was in great strife hurdling armed struggles from rightists, leftists and the usual separatists entities from the South, as well as the specter of fragile politics and governance that was heavily embattled by a crippling national power crisis that had seen our homes and workplaces covered in extended darkness.
Almost a couple of decades hence, we have not seen the full fruition of this law, as if we have met a great dead end, a towering blank wall that is almost impossible to overcome.
My companions in aim and aspiration, the IPRA law was born in the most sacred of circumstances, anchored even under the most fundamental law of our land, the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which had prescribed the promotion and protection of the rights of the IPs, the framers of our most supreme law, having then of right mind for justice, fairness and gratitude to the natives, to the peoples that reminds us of our past, of our ancient ways, of where we have comes from, of our roots, of how we, as Filipinos, have been as valiant and sturdy as these hunters and warriors from the mountains, those cunning Tbolis, the brave Manobos, the cultured Igorots, the Badjaos whose astuteness at sea is unparralled, the land-dwelling samals, and many others who make us not forget of our ancient hunting ways, us who were feared by foreign intruders and whose courage and fighting ways were told about throughout the world as the fiercest kind.
Under Article XII, National Economy and Patrimony of our Constitution, it is clearly provided that:
“SECTION 5. The State, subject to the provisions of this Constitution and national development policies and programs, shall protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral lands to ensure their economic, social, and cultural well-being.”
Being a constitutional provision, this a clear mandate, by the people, from the people, that indeed, we should pursue this ultimately benevolent mission and undertaking, to see the day, that the rights of the IPs are pursued to the end, and see its final fruition.
According to the words of Fr. Albert E. Alejo, SJ, as he was then submitting a position paper on the Bangsamoro Basic Law, “the IPRA itself is a peace agreement”.
I agree to this completely, for IPRA is an innovation of law and social justice that has the potential of becoming a tool for social transformation, a model to a nation that is continually beset by armed struggles, an economic introduction that could heal the wounds of many sectors in the society, to mend conflicting egos, and contrasting persuasions.
If in the end, IPRA could build a road towards social transformation of the IPs, then it can show us a light towards unending peace and harmony, a road map that we could pattern up to.
That the success of IPRA, its full implementation and execution, now becomes more and more a must and of great complement, in a time that the present government gropes in darkness for the key towards lasting peace in our nation.
The Indigenous person hopes not the sky or the heavens, but merely the humble desire to be in harmony with the mainstream society as well as participation in governance. These two main aims is the battle cry of the natives, who have long been suffering great indifference and alienation from the society.
It is but unbelievable my friends, that we sometimes help foreign refugees, while our tribes languish in poverty and fear, of lack of education and livelihood, killed like chickens by mining giants, as if fed to the lions alive.
It is but time for us to move forward, that the society and the government should look from within and without, to finally work to the fullest of efforts, to give the IPs their dues, their ancestral domains, their participation in government. For I believe, that leaving them in the jungles and disentanglements becomes a national guilt that brings us further from the peace and harmony that we aim to seek, and the national economic progress that our nation is starting to experience although seemingly still a fragile reality – a fragile economic gains since our society is still like this, in the time of serfdom, feudalism and patriarchy, where the gains is only amongst the rich and not shared or distributed to the people.
The story of the IPs is the story of the Filipino people. In so long as the IPRA law does not become a main reality, the IPs will continue to languish in scarcity and darkness.
My brethrens in ambition, the success of IPRA becomes now the success of our nation, the victory of peace and the success of social harmony amongst us.
Thank you very much.
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