Accents
IPRA for Terry
Last week's column opened with IPRA, an acronym for Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, that brought me to friendship with Terry, "she of the kinky hair and deep swarthy skin of the typical aeta." A Web search gave me this very long title: AN ACT TO RECOGNIZE, PROTECT, AND PROMOTE THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS CULTURAL COMMUNITIES/INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, CREATING A NATIONAL COMMISSION ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, ESTABLISHING IMPLEMENTING MECHANISMS, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. Whew-w-w! A legalese-speak for short REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8371. Still shorter, IPRA, the more popular name of the rights of the ati you meet at Valeria St. or in the overpass above it.
Long ago when I was a kid, I recall that every time a tribe of ati would come down from the mountains, we children would hide, afraid of their "supernatural" powers—only to realize as we grew older how helpless and powerless these people are. I remember a town elder saying to give the aborigines (his word) due respect. "Call them Manong. They were here in this land before us, inhabiting this country years ago before any of you were born. This you will understand later." And so we did grow up with tolerance and understanding, with compassion even.
During our flight to the States last month, I leafed through PAL's Mabuhay magazine, October 2008 issue, which had an interesting pictorial spread of six ethnic groups: Bontoc, Ayta, Apayao, Dumagat, Tala'andig, and T'boli. The magazine cited Malaybalay, capital of Bukidnon, where seven related ethnic groups celebrate from mid-February to March 10 the founding date (1974) of Bukidnon province. Vying in the annual celebrations are a potpourri of Bukidnon, Higa'onon, Tala'andig, Manobo, Matigsalug, Tigwahanon, and Umayamnon. All ethnic sounding names.
For Terry and for the rest of the indigenous peoples, I am enumerating hereunder major IPRA provisions—especially stated here for us their fellow Filipinos to give the respect they deserve. Emanating from the combined wisdom in the halls of Congress, these mandates are as sacred, fair and just as the biblical commandments engraved on the stone tablet handed down from Mt. Sinai:
"The State shall protect the rights of ICCs/IPs (Indigenous Cultural Communities/ Indigenous Peoples) to their ancestral domain to ensure their economic, social and cultural well being and shall recognize the applicability of customary laws governing property rights or relations in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domain;
"The State shall recognize, respect and protect the rights of ICCs/IPs to preserve and develop their cultures, traditions and institutions. It shall consider these rights in the formulation of national laws and policies;
"The State shall take measures, with the participation of the ICCs/IPs concerned, to protect their rights and guarantee respect for their cultural integrity, and to ensure that members of the ICCs/IPs benefit on an equal footing from the rights and opportunities which national laws and regulations grant to other members of the population; and
"The State recognizes its obligations to respond to the strong expression of the ICCs/IPs for cultural integrity by assuring maximum ICC/IP participation in the direction of education, health, as well as other services of ICCs/IPs, in order to render such services more responsive to the needs and desires of these communities.
"Towards these ends, the State shall institute and establish the necessary mechanisms to enforce and guarantee the realization of these rights, taking into consideration their customs, traditions, values, beliefs, interests and institutions, and to adopt and implement measures to protect their rights to their ancestral domains."
Repetition oftentimes produces results—thus my dear departed mother would remind us when we left tasks undone. Let me then reiterate the questions I posed to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in last week's column: How far have the indigenous peoples risen from the adversities enumerated in the exhibit at the Museo Iloilo: poverty, poor health, lack of education, loss of ancestral lands, and destruction of their environment? How far has the NCIP accomplished toward solving these problems? Asked another way, how does the NCIP score in the implementation of the foregoing IPRA provisions? Questions worth repeating when you see the ati in city streets — glassy-eyed, palms open for alms, her child lying asleep on frayed cloth.
(E-mail: lagoc@hargray.com)