The European Union (EU) is extending a P31 million worth of grant to support indigenous communities in Mindanao.
The grant was extended to the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines-Northern Mindanao Sub-Region (RMP-NMR) for its Healing the Hurt Project to be launched today.
“The project will contribute to the protection and strengthening of indigenous peoples’ traditional structures and community-based organizations. These organizations are at the forefront of the IP’s fight for access to ancestral domain and resources,” the RMP-NMR said in a news statement.
The grant will benefit some 17,000 Lumads from 43 communities in the provinces of Misamis Oriental, Bukidnon, Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur.
The project will be launched at the grounds of the RGS-abandoned hospital in the center of Barangay Balit, San Luis, Agusan del Sur.
“The village of Balit is seen as the most appropriate setting for the start of the activities as it recently witnessed the killing of its leader, Datu Angis,” RMP-NMR stated.
RMP-NMR Head Sis. Ma. Famita Somogod, MSM, said aggressive industrialization in Mindanao led to intrusions by corporations into the IPs’ ancestral domains.
This has rendered many IPs victims of discrimination and sometimes outright violence.
In less than a decade, RMP-NMR, together with other human-rights institutions, has documented several cases of extrajudicial killings of indigenous leaders.
Of the more than 30 Lumads killed since June 2010, at least five of them are datus, the traditional leaders of indigenous communities. The killings have consequently led to the insecurity of thousands of indigenous families.
“The killing of a datu is a big blow to an indigenous community because the community depends on him on almost every aspect of the community life, from personal conflicts within families to feuds between clans,” said Jomorito Goaynon (Datu Imbanwag), chairman of the action-partner Kalumbay Regional Lumad Organization.
RMP-NMR also said that over 100 Lumad leaders are currently facing fabricated and malicious charges that prevent them from carrying out their human-rights work.
Moreover, RMP-NMR said the insensitivity of institutions that promote chauvinism and discrimination causes a majority Filipinos to have xenophobia against Lumads.
Currently, more than a thousand individuals have sought sanctuary since they felt the insecurity of their areas after his death.
The launching will double as a solidarity action with the evacuees and the bereaved family of Datu Angis.
Cai U. Ordinario