Christmas for the Lumads

A Solidarity Campaign Project of the Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples (SAGIP)

PASAKA

Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern
Mindanao

Someday at Christmas we’ll see a land with no hungry children, no empty hand...

SHARE the JOY and PEACE of Christmas

SUPPORT PROJECT HELP!

H- Health

During the SAGIP medical missions this year many lumads (especially coming from Ata Manobo and Matigsalug Tribe) were diagnosed and almost 95% were positive of various illnesses mainly tuberculosis, malaria (falsifarum & vivax), scabies, kwashiorkor (severe malnutrition) , parasitism, goiter, anemia, etc. Measles, vomiting and diarrhea had taken the lives of more than 20 lumad children in the tribal villages of Talaingod this year. Unabated logging had caused the loss of valuable herbs used in indigenous healing by the Baylan (doctor-priest) .

• DONATE medicines for these diseases. PROVIDE iodized salt, vitamins and clothings. JOIN medical missions and SHARE your medical skills if you are a health professional/ worker.

E- Environment

Traditionally, Lumads are hunters and gatherers. Big logging concessions, plantations and dams, however have now rendered most forestlands and rivers--- their hunting grounds--- denuded. Breeding habitats for the binaw (deer), the takubong (forest rats), and the baboy ihalas (wild boars) are constricting.

• DO YOUR SHARE in reforesting the highlands. DONATE seeds (of hardwood varieties, or fruit tress like durian, native rambutan, mango, jackfruit and seeds of vegetables or food crops).

L- Literacy

The battle against illiteracy is starting at the community-level. More and more lumad organizations under PASAKA are now putting up literacy programs run by native community based teachers. Despite the reported high literacy rate of the country, illiteracy pervades most in the tribal/ lumad hinterland communities. These existing literacy schools (only one graded & formal) teach lumad children the 3Rs in the context of their culture and struggle.

• SEND lumad children to literacy school. SPONSOR community literacy programs. SPARE your used/unused notebooks, pencils/ ballpens, pad papers, erasers, chalk, crayons, used clothings, etc. HELP us publish SAGIP’s literacy reading-writing- arithmetic manuals.

P- Production

Long before environmentalism became a fad, lumads already practiced environmentally- sound farming techniques. But the onslaught of logging, mining and other destructive projects have threatened their food security.

• HELP lumads increased food production. DONATE farm tools such as bolo, lagaraw, guna, bairan/limbas, etc. SHARE your skills on agriculture.

TARGET BENEFICIARIES OF THIS RELIEF DRIVE/ PROJECT:

1. Ata Manobo tribe in Talaingod, Davao del Norte (Org: Salupongan ta Tanu Igkanugon)
2. Matigsalug in Sitio Bermuda, Naboc, Monkayo, Compostela Valley (Org: NABOKASA)

TARGET DATES for the CHRISTMAS with the Lumads Program in the Area:

December 15, 2007 and December 22, 2007

SEND your DONATIONS to:

Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples

Office: Diakonia Center, IFI Compound, F. Torres St., Davao City

Contact telephone #s: 305-0824/ 09286059209 or mail us at yutangkabilin@ yahoo.com.

Look for May for inquiries.

In the first Christmas, Jesus manifested his total solidarity with the poor (He was born in an animal’s shelter and wrapped in swaddling clothes), the persecuted (He was the main target of the mass murder of “the innocents”), and the refugees of this world (He was a refugee early in life, Mary and Joseph took him to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod)

--- Dr. Robinson Montalba

PASAKA
Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao
c/o Diakonia Center , IFI Compound, F. Torres St. , Davao City ; Contact telephone #s: 305-0824; CP #: 0929-2658967

PRESS RELEASE
December 4, 2007

Heed the lumads' call for peace, stop mil ops in Surigao ---- PASAKA

PASAKA, a regional formation membering 25 lumad organizations in Southern Mindanao and North Cotobato condemned the military operations in the hinterland villages of Surigao Del Sur which led to the displacement of more than 1,500 Manobo lumads and caused the stoppage of educational activities in the area's learning centers.

"We join our fellow Lumads in condemning to the strongest terms the mockery of peace perpetrated by the 58th IB in Surigao Del Sur. These palpable acts reveal the inhumane face of the military that does not have any regard for human rights and peace, and their timing couldn't be any better timed at the civil society's observation of the Mindanao Week of Peace," stated Datu Monico Cayog, the Bagobo leader who is now the vice-chairperson of PASAKA.

He added, "The death of a military due to an NPA landmine is not the fault of the civilian communities but every time there is a casualty on the military's side, the civilian communities always suffer from the military's vengeful attacks. How then do we consider the military as the peoples' protectors or defenders of peace?"

Cayog said this renewed assault on lumad communities, especially the red-tagging of communities as supporters of the New Peoples Army, reinforces the implications of the report of United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is the number one violator of human rights.

"As in UNSR Alston's report and in UNSR on indigenous peoples, the AFP has sown ruthless terror against the people, and almost everyday, thousands upon thousands of lumads have fallen prey to its counter-insurgency policy," the lumad leader cited

In addition, Cayog addressed the public for humanitarian services for the victims of forcible displacement. "Our lumad brethren in Surigao need all the help from concerned institutions, churches and individuals. While the Arroyo government intensifies its attack on the peoples' rights and peace, the people must face it with unity and vigilance," he said.

PASAKA reiterates its reverberating call for peace; stop the militarization in Surigao and in other lumad areas and justice to all victims of human rights. ###

Reference:

(sgd)
Datu Monico Cayog
PASAKA Vice-Chairperson

PASAKA
Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao
c/o Diakonia Center , IFI Compound, F. Torres St. , Davao City ; Contact telephone #s: 305-0824; CP #: 0929-2658967

PRESS RELEASE
November 30, 2007

Lumad confederation reiterates call for GMA's ouster

Amidst the political turmoil faced by the Arroyo administration, highlighted by the Trillanes-Lim – led action at Makati city yesterday, some sectors of the civil society which have long called for the ouster of President Arroyo raise their own demands.

"The Trillanes-Lim show of outrage is only part of the greater fury of the Filipino people that continues to snowball against the president. The Arroyo government must not make a mistake of limiting the ouster-call in the Makati stand – off alone. Prior the incident at Makati, there is a clear demand from bishops and religious nuns asking GMA to step down and the impeachment complaint all wrought by the cascading exposes of Arroyo's corrupt activities, and her fraudulent cling to power," Monico Cayog, PASAKA Vice Chairperson said.

He added the indigenous peoples' sector has long called for the Mrs. Arroyo to yield to this call.

''Like the church and the rest of the civil society, the lumad people who have been victims of her militarist policies and plundering development projects have long been asking Mrs. Arroyo to step down. Devoid of any legitimate moral and political grounds, her presidency has caused the people to suffer from dire poverty and political repression," stated the PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao , which is composed of twenty–five local lumad organizations and is a member of the Gloria Step Down Movement (GSM).

Cayog also noted that the report of United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston that the military is behind the killings of 800 activists, journalists and civilians will result to stronger international support to the peoples' demand for Mrs. Arroyo to give up the presidential seat.

"The Alston report vindicates the victims of system of injustice perpetrated by this government. UNSR Alston's report is a strong testament that affirms the Filipino peoples' unwavering fight for justice and peace. But this shameless presidency resorts to violence to suppress the peoples' constitutional right to demand for change. The arrest of more than 50 media men covering the Makati stand-off and the tear-gassing of the Peninsula Hotel despite the presence of civilians reflect the government's due disregard for the people’s democratic rights," Cayog stated.

He added, "The Alston report exposes how the military's ideals have been perverted to the policy of extrajudicial killings implemented by the Arroyo government. The Magdalo soliders' mutiny in the first place was due to the corruption of the military ideals, and Senator Trillanes also strongly condemned the killings of activists and journalists made under this regime."

Cayog added that out of the 800 killings reported, about 100 involve indigenous peoples leaders and civilians who are opposed to the militarization and development aggression policy of the Arroyo government.

Cayog attributed said the killings from the ranks of the lumad people and the worsening militarization in the communities coupled with the encroachment of mining, agri-business plantations and other development projects to the Arroyo presidency. #

For Reference:
(sgd)
Datu Monico Cayog
PASAKA Vice- Chairperson

PASAKA
Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao
c/o Diakonia Center , IFI Compound, F. Torres St. , Davao City ; Contact telephone #s: 305-0824; CP #: 0929-2658967

PRESS RELEASE
November 14, 2007

Woman lumad leader and HR watchdog protested amid news of CAFGU allowance distribution

An Ata –Matigsalug Bae (woman leader) protested against the military’s continued recruitment of Civil Armed Forces Geographic Unit (CAFGU’s) triggered by yesterday’s news which showed military officers showing off stacks of 500 peso bills and distributing allowances for Mindanao-based CAFGU’s.

“Paying off and arming people who become instruments of abuse is nothing that lumads would be happy about. CAFGU’s and paramilitary groups have committed human rights abuses against our people innumerable times that I have lost count,” said Bae Bibyaon Bigkay Ligkayan, a respected leader of the Natulinan Ta Tanu Igkanugon, the lumad organization in Brgy. Kagalangan, San Fernando Bukidnon and which is also an active member organization of PASAKA.

Bae Bigkay added that many lumads are forced to join CAFGU’s while some are enticed with the promise of such allowances. She called such practice of the military as “shameless” and “as sign of cowardice.”

“The lumads who have either forcibly or voluntarily joined military forces are just being used to fight the military’s war, consequently, they become nuisance in the community and disturb our peace,” Bae Bigkay stressed.

The lumad leader herself professed of being hunted down by the Alamara paramilitary group, a notorious group of armed lumads allegedly created and funded by the 73rd Infantry Battalion which was then under the command of Col. Eduardo Del Rosario.

Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Watch (IPHR), a human rights watchdog documenting HRV’s committed against indigenous peoples, said in its report to United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples (UNSRIP) Rodolfo Stavenhagen that the most atrocious effects of recruiting civilians into paramilitary groups is the division that it creates in the community.

IPHR – Watch’s report said: “It has been established that most of those joining the paramilitary units come from the dregs of society. However, many other law abiding individuals are forcibly joining the paramilitary units due to threats from the AFP, the required quota of recruits, to get even with clan/tribal counterparts, and simply due to economic circumstances.”

In response to this report and testimonies from various indigenous tribes, UNSRIP Professor Stavenhagen recommended the disbandment of these groups as quoted below:

“Equally serious are reports of arbitrary detention, persecution and even killings of community representatives, coercion, forced recruitment, and also of rape, by the armed forces, the police or so-called paramilitaries. In this connection mention must be made of the CAFGU set up by the army in numerous indigenous municipalities, whose semi-military activities often tend to divide the local communities and set one group against another. These reports are documented and substantiated, and yet the alleged victims claim that they do not receive due process and justice in the courts when they file their complaints. The Special Rapporteur recommends that CAFGU, given their divisive effects and alleged human rights violations, be withdrawn from indigenous areas altogether.”

Despite these recommendations however, the Arroyo administration in 2003 increased the number of CAFGU recruits and then Defense Secretary Reyes gave orders to aggressively recruit indigenous peoples into the Armed Forces and its paramilitary units, the CAFGUs and vigilante groups. He even tasked them to allot 10 per cent of new recruits from the tribal people. #

For Reference:

Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay
Natulinan Ta Tanu Igkanugon Chairperson
PASAKA Council Member

PASAKA
Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao
c/o Diakonia Center , IFI Compound, F. Torres St. , Davao City ; Contact telephone #s: 305-0824; CP #: 0929-2658967

PRESS RELEASE
November 13, 2007

Lumads support second impeachment complaint against the president

“Mrs. Arroyo deserves every impeachment case lobbed against her. And the two cases filed against her this year alone only stress the fact that she has lost every credibility and ascendancy that a president should have,” said PASAKA Chairperson Mel Elio, a lumad from Bagobo tribe.

For PASAKA, supporting the impeachment call is based on two major reasons; that of heightened development aggression which has caused many lumad communities to lose their ancestral lands and be pushed to dire poverty; and militarization from which their people suffer from the state –perpetrated terror.

The PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao is the umbrella organization of 25 local lumad peoples’ organization representing various lumad tribes: Bagobo, Manobo, Mandaya, Mansaka, Agusanon, Tagbanwa, Matigsalug, B’laan, and Mangguangan tribes.

Mel Elio said that in the time of Mrs. Arroyo, the encroachment of mining companies in lumad communities have become more “rabid,” saying that out of the 32 priority mining projects of the Arroyo administration, 18 are in indigenous territories, six (6) of which can be found in Southern Mindanao.

Elio said that such pseudo- development projects come combined with militarization in order to quell the peoples’ resistance.

Elio said that the Ata-Manobos of Talaingod Davao Del Norte, a tribe that remains resistant to the destructive policies of the government, particularly that of massive logging, has been the target of grave militarization policies.

On March this year, aerial bombardments reportedly caused 1008 civilians to evacuate from the five sitios in Talaingod. While from October 2005 to January 2006, the military has been accused of hamletting for encamping within the civilian community of Talaingod.

“Military operations are motivated by the interest to force the Ata – Manobos into allowing the hydro-power plant that is to be constructed in their community. Also to blame is the all-out-war policy of the Arroyo administration which mocks the rights to self-determination of lumads and in general the democratic rights of people,” Elio said.

Elio added, “These anti-lumad, anti-people, anti-development policies of the Arroyo administration are strong bases for supporting the genuine impeachment complaint against Mrs. Arroyo. The truth in the peoples’ experiences is more than enough testimony to prove that she has betrayed public trust and her office.” ###

For Reference:

Mel Elio
PASAKA Chairperson

PRESS RELEASE
August 16, 2007

LUMAD LEADERS’ HOLD RITUAL TO DRIVE AWAY EVIL SPIRITS IN THE ARMED FORCES


References:
Norma Capuyan
PASAKA Council Member
& Chairperson, ASLPC
( Apo Sandawa
Lumad Peoples of Cotobato)

Media Desk: Look for May


To mark their condemnation of the Arroyo government’s militarization policies, about 18 lumad leaders from different tribes in Southern and Central Mindanao will troop to Camp Panacan today.

In a Manobo ritual called “panubad-tubad,” lumad leaders called on the good spirits of the Mamanwa, the Manobo god or creator to guard the ranks of lumad leaders and support groups who are facing threats of militarism from the “evil spirits” reigning in the armed forces.

“No less than the military perpetrate the worst kinds of human rights abuses against the lumads. In Southern Mindanao alone, 22 are documented victims of summary executions. More than 5,000 are victims of forcible displacement due to military operations and/or encampment in lumad communities from 2001 to 2007 alone,” protested Norma Capuyan, PASAKA Council Member and Apo Sandawa Lumad Peoples of Cotobato (ASLPC) Chairperson.

In the ritual, a white egg, covered with rice grains, and one peso coin was put in the center of a woven basket which rests on a long bamboo pole. In the basket, the egg was surrounded by “mama” leaves on top of which pieces of apog were placed.

According to Datu Maylan Andas, a Manobo datu from MAPA – Magpet organization in North Cotobato , the white egg symbolizes the truth in the lumad leaders’ protests. Datu Budjak Manajag from the SALUGPONGAN Ata-Manobo organization also said, it represents the peoples’ freedom from the current plight of repression, like how a chick is liberated from its shells upon its birth.

Capuyan denounced the Oplan Bantay Laya I and II counter-insurgency plans of the Arroyo government wherein lumad communities are directly affected.

“Lumad communities such as those in Arakan, Magpet, Antipas, Makilala, Tulunan, Colombio, Sultan Kudarat and Kitaotao, Bukidnon are cordoned by military camps and detachments of the 4th IB, 8th IB, 25th IB, 26th IB, 39th IB,40th IB, 72nd IB, 73rd IB. This is terror blatantly committed by the government against the people it should protect,” the Tagbanua leader said.

She also recounted that on March 8 to 14, 2007, a series of aerial bombings sowed terror among the Ata Manobo lumads of Talaingod Davao Del Norte. During these military operations led by the 73rd Infantry Battalion and the paramilitary group Alamara, three Ata-Manobo minors were injured while 1,008 lumads from Sitios Inaloy, Lasakan, Nalubas, Saso, and Agoo were forcibly displaced.

Capuyan also said that as the Arroyo government pursues its war on terror drive, lumads are recruited in CAFGUs and paramilitary groups, causing divisiveness within the lumads.

“In GMA’s all out war, lumads are made to point guns at their own fellow lumads. Paramilitary groups are formed such as the ALAMARA and the BAGANI forces as the military’s frontliners or pawns in their terroristic war,” decried Capuyan.

The lumad leaders also denounced the Human Security Act, a law that they say will aggravate their human rights situation.

“Through the HSA, the Arroyo government is legitimizing the perpetration of human rights abuses against those who merely have their words and principles as weapons to fight for justice, peace and genuine development,” Capuyan said.
This protest concludes the PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao Council Meeting, which was held from August 13 -15 and wherein problems and the consequent lumad peoples’ actions on militarization and development aggression were tackled. #

Press Release
August 15, 2007


Bloodletting ritual against MINING and other ANTI-LUMAD policies held

A white native chicken was sacrificed today in a bloodletting ritual by Manobo, Bagobo, Umayamnon, Blaan Lumad leaders from Southern and Central Mindanao under the banner of PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao to express their dissent over mining and other anti-lumad policies of the Arroyo government.

Datu Monico Cayog, PASAKA Secretary General said the white chicken symbolizes the peace that they demand, while the blood symbolizes death to all destructive projects in their communities, particularly mining, logging, dams and militarization to which he attributes the uncountable human rights abuses perpetrated against the lumads.

Norma Capuyan, chairperson of the Apo Sandawa Lumadnong Panaghiusa Cotobato (ASLPC), denounced the transfer of the Philippine Mining Development Corporation (PMDC) in the direct control of President Macapagal Arroyo.

“Out of the eighteen (18) mining priority areas in Mindanao , sixteen (16) are ancestral domains of the indigenous peoples. This influx of mining is thus tantamount to the death of indigenous communities which depend greatly on land for their survival. ” Capuyan declares.

Capuyan said that aside from mining, massive logging has caused the deforestation of many lumad communities such as the Ata-Manobo ancestral lands in Talaingod, Davao Del Norte; while dams like the Tudaya hydro-power plant, now on construction in Mt. Apo, is threatening the denudation of some Bagobo and Manobo communities.

Meanwhile, Datu Monico Cayog said that human rights abuses perpetrated against lumads escalate due to the implementation of development projects in lumad communities.

“Development projects are coupled with militarization, since the government knows that the lumads protest these destructive projects. When HEDCOR started constructing the dam in Tudaya, Sta. Cruz, the 10th IB was deployed and CAFGUs were constantly harassing the residents. When the Ata-Manobos of Talaingod opposed the supposed Talaingod hydro-powerplant, the 73rd IB with other units hamletted the community from which ensued massive displacement and harassment,” Cayog recounted.

Cayog said further that genuine development will only be achieved thru nationalized industrialization, “free from the encroachment of foreign nations which only want to plunder” our natural resources.

Dolphing Ogan, Secretary General of KALUMARAN, a Mindanao-wide federation of lumad organizations, noted the deteriorating situation of the lumads socio-economically, culturally and politically.

“The lumad people are suffering from blatant neglect from the government due to the absence of education, health and other basic social services in our communities. But the biggest crime that the Arroyo government is accountable for is that on top of this, we are grabbed of our ancestral land which is the material base of our socio-cultural, economic, and political life. Appallingly, we are tagged as rebels or enemies of state when we defend the mere right to our land and life,” Ogan said.

PASAKA which members 15 local lumad organizations has successfully held its 6th Council Meeting from August 13 to 14. Datus and tribal leaders will stage a protest action at Camp Panacan on August 16 to mark its call to stop the militarization of lumad communities , the rampant killings and red-tagging of indigenous leaders. ##



References:
Datu Monico Cayog Secretary General, PASAKA
Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao

Dolphing Ogan
Secretary General, KALUMARAN

Norma Capuyan
Chairperson , ASLPC

Media Desk:
Look for May