THE LUMADS

Once a thriving people in Mindanao, Their Culture and their numbers are now diminishing. The Original stewards of the lowlands, they have been historically, systematically, forcibly pushed to the hinterlands.

Composed of eighteen ethnological groups, Lumads span the entire island of Mindanao. Most of them live on subsistence agriculture. Many of them illiterate with barely little help accorded to them by government. The Lumads are perhaps the most marginalized, the most exploited and yes, the most abased sector in the Philippine Society.

Yet Lumads are determined to hold their heads high and prove that they are a dignified and proud race. After all, weren’t it them who never yielded to Mindanao’s colonization and conquest?

But today, Lumads are facing perhaps the gravest and decisive threat to their posterity as peoples. Vast tracks of their ancestral lands are gradually being eaten away in the name of Ethnocidal Aggression. When corporate greed for profit combines with State-prescribe”development”, the horrifying effect is ethnic annihilation or ethnocide. No, ethnocide may not take the form of a bloody massacre. But as an ancestral domain is integral to Lumad culture and, with it, the loss of a deeply-rooted race.

In Southern Mindanao, seven major indigenous groups are engage in a struggle against Ethnocidal aggression.

They are the B’laans of Davao del Sur(population: 256,106), The Mansaka of Davao del Norte(115,248), the Mandaya of Davao Oriental(268,913), the Bagobo of Davao del Sur and Davao City(102,444+), the Ubo of Dvao del Sur and North Cotobato(6,403), and the Manobo of North Cotobato, Davao City and Davao del Norte(103,723+).

They are Mounting a battle against 4 major “reforestation ” projects manage by private logging concessionaries, 1 geothermal plant expansion, 2 “biodiversity conservation” project, 1 dam construction project, 3 major tourism sites, 1 brewery project, 4 major mining operations, at least 3 major logging operation and 2 hydro-eletric power plant.

For non-Lumads, the reality of ethnocide is enough motivating factor to rally behind the struggles of indigenous peoples. Being the last bastion of ecological preservation, and being the living legacy of our history as a nation, indigenous peoples posses in their hands the survival and identity of non-indigenous peoples.

Indeed, ethnocide is an elegy to our own dying.

Declaration of the Principles

We, members of different organizations, religious institutions, academe, groups and individuals, the participants of the Solidarity Conference on Indigenous Peoples held in Davao City, after having heard and reflected on the situation of our brothers and sisters in the hinterlands, do hereby present this Declaration of Principles supporting the struggle of the Lumad people, in particular, and the Filipino people, in general, for peaceful and liberating society:

HENCE, inspired by the growing sentiments of the Lumad brothers and sisters for Land, Ancestral Domain and Self-determination, we do hereby make this Solidarity Conference for Indigenous peoples as venue for asserting and reaffirming our stand on the sanctity of land as the source of all life, by struggling for a society of the Lumads governed by themselves. Thus;

THAT, the Indigenous peoples’ future is threatened by government’s development program such as land and crop conversions which adversely affect the Lumads economically, politically, socially and culturally;

THAT, the Lumads’ Ancestral Domain, have kept them and their ancestors alive for centuries, are now being destroyed and grabbed by those who hardly care for it;

THAT, the Lumads are now culturally and socially discriminated against; their rights to food, shelter and security have been denied, thus, deprived of their right to exist;

THAT, the State has unleashed war in response to the Lumads’ demands and inarticulated utterance of distress and pain brought about by the basic social services they deserve;

THAT, as God’s mission to this Mother Earth is preservation and protection of His bountiful creatures, He made all faithfuls, men and women, equal and responsible stewards of His bounties and defenders of the rights He has given;

We, therefore:

1. Reaffirm the sanctity of life and land, and uphold the rights of Lumads to Ancestral Domain and Self-determination;

2. Recognize that the land, as source of life, binds peoples’ diversity of faith – Christian, Muslim and Lumad faithfuls – thus, making a radical outgrowth of these peoples’ faith to God, Allah or Magbabaya;

3. Recognize the Lumads as peoples’ whose cultural traditions are still rooted in the rich cultural values that defend and protect the source of life, and the land;

4. Recognize that the identity and race of the Lumads is rooted and sown in the land, and that no person can own the land because it sustains the lifesource of both the present and the future generations;

5. Urgently pursue the call of saving the Indigenous Peoples, part of God’s creation, from threat of total annihilation or ethnocide through supporting them in their struggle to ancestral Domain and Self-determination;

Recognize that, we, members of different organizations, religious institutions, academe, groups and individuals, and other Lumads advocates have indeed much to contribute for the integral liberation and development of indigenous Peoples in our land.

Purpose

Sagip was inspired by the Solidarity Conference on Land February 21, 1994 where Datus(trbal chieftains) from seven tribal groups shared about their ongoing struggles to defend their ancestral domain. It was formed for the purpose of a broader program of action and a more concerted effort by urban-based sectors to address the conditions and issues of indigenous peoples who are caught in the advance of Ethnocidal aggression in the highlands

SAGIP is a broad network of Southern Mindanao-based NGO’s, religious institutions, students, educators, sectoral groupings and concerned individuals who are bound and propelled by common desire of recognizing and supporting the indigenous peoples struggle for ancestral domain and the right to self-determination.