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9 Recommendation and Issues of Icc

This document discusses issues and recommendations regarding the situation of indigenous cultural communities in Mindanao-Sulu. It covers land rights and recognition of ancestral domains; political rights; state development projects and compensation for land loss; basic human rights protections; education and cultural rights; and calls for immediate actions including appointing an indigenous representative to the House and conducting an ethnographic survey.

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Jim D L Banasan
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
65 views

9 Recommendation and Issues of Icc

This document discusses issues and recommendations regarding the situation of indigenous cultural communities in Mindanao-Sulu. It covers land rights and recognition of ancestral domains; political rights; state development projects and compensation for land loss; basic human rights protections; education and cultural rights; and calls for immediate actions including appointing an indigenous representative to the House and conducting an ethnographic survey.

Uploaded by

Jim D L Banasan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INDIGENOUS CULTURAL

COMMUNITIES’
SITUATION IN
MINDANAO-SULU
RECOMMENDATION AND ISSUES FOR
ACTION
A. LAND RIGHTS AS
ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND
PROPERTY RIGHTS
1. State recognition of indigenous right to
their ancestral land is believing in their
fundamental right to life.
2. Recognizing indigenous views on life
means a new law on land and natural
resources should be passed recognizing
ancestral domains and ancestral lands
of indigenous cultural communities as
private communal property.
3. The government must re-classify lands
in the country taking into consideration
the traditional property and land use
system of the indigenous cultural
communities.

4. The government must compensate


indigenous communities for land losses
among the cultural communities resulting
from state infrastructure projects.
5. The government must enact laws
providing for a system of compensation for
the use or exploitation of natural
resources found within areas of ancestral
domain by private or government
corporations.
6. Creation of presidential commission that
will do a study-survey delineation and
registration-titling of all areas of ancestral
domain and ancestral lands, without
precluding the possibility of individual
titles. Further, the findings shall be the
bases for a legislation on ancestral domain
and ancestral lands.
8. Return of all government reservations
which are lands originally belonging to the
indigenous cultural communities, or if such
be no longer feasible, the setting of
appropriate compensation for the same.
B. POLITICAL
RIGHTS AS CITIZENS
AND AS MINORITIES
1. State recognition of indigenous
customary laws, especially those
pertaining to marriage, inheritance,
settlement of disputes, and traditional
political leadership structures as part of
the legal system of the country.
2. Declaration of sizeable areas of
ancestral domain as local government
units and legalizing the government of
the same in accordance with the
indigenous customary laws.
3. Indigenous representation in larger
political units where the area of
ancestral domain is part.
C. STATE DEVELOPMENT
AND COMPENSATION FOR
LAND LOSS / LAND USE
Mt. Apo Geothermal Project
•Also known as the Mindanao Geothermal
Project located in Kidapawan, North
Cotabato
•Mt. Apo is also considered the ancestral
home by indigenous cultural communities
who believe that their God lives in the
mountain.
Large-scale mining remains a constant threat faced by
Philippine Indigenous Peoples.
• August 2019, Cordillera Indigenous Peoples formed the
Aywanan Mining and Environment Network in opposition to
the mining applications of the Cordillera Exploration
Company, Inc. (CEXCI), a subsidiary of Nickel Asia Corporation
in partnership with Japan-based Sumitomo Metal Mining Co.
Ltd. CEXCI’s mining applications cover 72,958 hectares of land
in the ancestral lands of the Indigenous Peoples in the
Cordillera and parts of Ilocos Sur. Petition-signing against the
mining applications of CEXCI started in August 2019 and is
continuing.
• July 2019 led to the temporary suspension of the gold and
copper mining operations of multinational company Oceana
Gold. The company’s mining permit (Financial and Technical
Assistance Agreement) expired in June 20 after 25 years of
operation. Pending the renewal of its permit to operate, the
company appealed to continue its operations but this was
denied in a regional trial court.

Communities affected by the mining operations opposed the


renewal of the company’s mining permit. They have long been
complaining of the environmental destruction and human
rights violations committed by Oceana Gold.
In Mindanao, the Lumad Indigenous Peoples continue to oppose at least
three mining tenements that were approved by the government and
cover around 17,000 hectares in the Pantaron mountain range, which
straddles the provinces of Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Bukidnon,
Misamis Oriental, Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur. The Pantaron
range is the main source of the major watersheds in the region.

 In the energy front, aside from hydropower projects that the Duterte
administration continues to build, the Kalinga geothermal project of
Aragorn Power and Energy Corporation and Guidance Management
Corporation, in partnership with global energy company Chevron, is
about to complete its exploration stage. The project covers 26,139
hectares in Kalinga province.
2. Reparation for indigenous
communities whose lands have
been despoiled.
D. BASIC HUMAN
RIGHTS VS. STATE
RIGHTS
1. Government
compensation for lives
taken in the course of
military or paramilitary
or police operations in
the past.
2. Non-recruitment of
members of the
indigenous communities
into the paramilitary
units employed for
counter-insurgency.
3. Declaration of areas of
ancestral domain as peace
zones; the same shall be
properly recorded or
registered at least by the
local offices of the
Department of Interior and
Local Government for
dissemination to
appropriate military and
police units.
E. STATE POLICY
ON MINORITIES
1. The government must adopt a clear cut
and consistent state policy on the
indigenous cultural communities, defining
their political rights as citizens, and their
cultural rights and economic rights as
cultural communities.
F. EDUCATION,
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
1. Integration into the appropriate
textbooks in all levels of education of
correct and adequate information
about the indigenous cultural
communities to create among the
young a new atmosphere of mutual
acceptance..
2. Use of local language as a medium of
instruction in schools located within areas
of the cultural communities.

3. Conduct a study on the applicability on


the nationwide scale of traditional
sustainable development practices of the
indigenous communities.
G. IMMEDIATE
1. Immediate appointment
by the Office of the
President of a genuine
indigenous leader as the
sectoral representative of
the indigenous cultural
communities in the House
of Representatives as
provided for in the 1987
Constitution.
2. Conduct an
ethnographic survey
of all people in the
Philippines.

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