Mythologies of the Lakbayan Tribes

LAKBAYANI is a photojournalism exhibit that aimed to spread awareness on the multitude of alleged state-instigated human rights violations against members of the indigenous community. Decelle Marie Suarez, College of Communication Art and Design (CCAD) Representative of UPC-USC, said the dawn of the crisis of the nation’s minority shouldn’t be ignored. “It is our utmost priority to protect and voice out the calls of our Lumads in Mindanao. This event is only a manifestation that the threat is no longer here but the danger inflicted on them exists,” she lamented. The exhibit, which ran from Sept. 18 to 22 at the UP Cebu Jose Joya Gallery, was also organized by third year Mass Communication students and Layag Productions of UP. AS HUNDREDS walked the streets of Cebu bringing with them tents, placards and limited amount of food last Aug. 22 to 25, students of a state university joined them to listen to the visitors’ stories and share them with the Cebuanos. The lumads, moros and other members of the minority camped out at the Fuente Osmena circle, where they received visitors and conducted programs as part of a program dubbed Lakbayan 2017, which means “the people’s journey.” In commemoration of Human Rights Week, the University of the Philippines (UP-C) Political Science Society, UPC-University Student Council, and the Journalism 103-B students took photographs during Lakbayan 2017 to look at the situation and listen to the true stories of our indigenous minority.

The first day of Lakbayan on August 31st attracted more than 2,000 indigenous people from different regions in the Philippines. Day by day until the last day of the event on September21st, the number of participants kept increasing over the three week protest. I was lucky to be part of Lakbayan to learn and observe the issues faced by ethnic minorities in the Philippines, especially the story of Kerlan. At the meeting, which was organized by the Asia Indigenous People Pact[1](AIPP) and the Asia Indigenouse Peoples Network on Extractive Industries and Energy[2] (AIPNEE) who are Oxfam partners, I met Kerlan Fanagel, a man who belongs to the B’laan tribe in Mindanao. Kerlan Fanagel is a human rights defender. He joined Lakbayan, which signifies a long journey for him and some national minorities of the Philippines, especially those from his region, who often have to travel for weeks to locations where they organized and conducted campaigns to demand justice and respect for their rights. Kerlan Fanagel believed that the life of his tribal people has a strong connection and relationship with their ancestral lands. Development projects such as extractive industries, energy and agro-industrial have been approved on their lands without proper consultation and consent from local communities. His tribal people were not informed in the first place and were forced to live with development projects that bring little benefits to their livelihoods but in return they don’t have a full access to their ancestral lands. After FPIC training in Baguio and observing the Lakbayan, this made me and other participants reflect on how to make FPIC work in Asia. In a country like the Philippines where there are laws and institutions recognizing indigenous peoples’ rights, including rights to FPIC for their land and other resources[5], there still remains a systematic lack of enforcement. The breakdown of trust between indigenous people, project developers and government institutions due to poor communication, lack of persistent dialogues of parties concerned, and genuine respect to FPIC principles have become underlying problems. While making FPIC works in a country like the Philippines may only directly affect 10-20 percent of its total population[6], it would set good precedent for Asian countries, which are home to 260 million indigenous peoples, who make up 70 percent of the world’s indigenous populations[7]. Oxfam views that FPIC is emerging more broadly as a principle of best practice for sustainable development. It helps to reduce conflict and increase the legitimacy of the project in the eyes of all stakeholders[8]. Indigenous peoples are on the front lines of losing their lands and having their livelihoods and rights to free, prior and informed consent impacted forever. Their vulnerability increases as the number of extractive industry and other land-intensive industrial projects grow.

Lakbayan is a “protest tactic, an organizing tool, propaganda machinery and a lobby mechanism” (Raymond Palatino). This involves the mobilization of mass organizations of peasants, indigenous peoples and agricultural workers who travel from the peripheries to the capital to present their demands to the national government. It highlights the displacement of indigenous peoples by domestic and foreign plunderers, issues of food security and local struggles, the call for the resumption of peace talks and the militarization and attacks of rural communities. It counters and brings to the fore the government's callous attitude towards these issues. A month-long march and sea crossing brings the rural struggle closer to new ties with other communities where the movement may be weak, to potential new allies and supporters that can provide “information, supplies and logistics”. The camp-outs in the city become spaces for education, receiving material support, and “staging ground” for political action. Inspired by this tradition, Dang A Dang Radio will present LAKBAYAN: VOICES OF RESISTANCE FROM THE PHILIPPINES – a collection of protest music and sonic expressions of dissent and sociopolitical struggles in the Philippines. Through a sampling of the archive through “listening stations” with additional text and visual material, it will enrich the contemporary understanding of protest through the vibration, frequency, and tonality of voice, sound and music. The exhibition will present an inter-generational selection of sounds from the classics of the First Quarter Storm movement, a period of civil unrest in the 1970s, to the current generation of activists and musicians, accompanied by background information and context through materials like songbooks, liner notes, posters, and photographs from the collection of Dang A Dang Radio, and other progressive organizations. Among the material shown is Dang A Dang Radio's collection of archival recordings of Philippine protest music spanning from the 1970s to the present day, Joey Clemente and Nil Buan's documentary film titled Daluyong (1984) that chronicles the momentous Lakbayan or Lakad ng Bayan Para sa Kalayaan (People's March for Freedom) held from March 1 to March 7, 1984, and works by Federico "boyD" Dominguez, a visual artist and musician from the Philippines known for putting a focus on farmers and indigenous peoples in his art. Drawing from the spirit of the Lakbayan, the exhibition will “transport” the stories of struggle from the peripheries, not as an appeal for mercy, but in a call for solidarity.

The Lakbayan ng Pambansang Minorya (transl. Journey of the National Minorities) is an annual march, rally, and camp-out (kampuhan) by minority peoples of the Philippines, including Lumad, Aeta, Mangyan, Moro, and Igorot, coming from their respective homelands. It is held in Manila and other major cities from October–November, to protest against human rights violations, lack of self-determination, exploitation of ancestral lands, and lack of basic social services within communities of indigenous peoples. The yearly event, which started in 2012 (as Manilakbayan, a combination of words Manila and Lakbayan), is organized by SANDUGO, with the backing of various militant, progressive, and other allied groups. The participants have been termed as Lakbayani (combination of words lakbay and bayani, meaning hero). Because of the marginalized situation of indigenous peoples in the Philippines, many affected by militarization, environmental degradation, resource plunder, and the ongoing counter-insurgency war of the Philippine government, they have been forced to evacuate or become "bakwit" (a colloquial term) to schools, churches, and other evacuation centers. This situation has been ongoing long before the first Lakbayan. On September 1, 2015, Emerito Samarca, was killed by alleged members of the Magahat-Bagani paramilitary group backed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). He was a human rights defender, as well as the director of the Lumad school Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV) of Surigao del Sur. Two days before, the paramilitary forces warned the community of a massacre. A day before, residents and school staff evacuated out of fear for their safety.^[5] About 3,000 to 4,000 individuals were affected and evacuated to Tandag, the provincial capital. This became a major reason for the Manilakbayan 2015, where these evacuees and other minority groups converged in Manila and other cities to air their grievances and to hold protests at government offices.Indigenous peoples of Mindanao arrived in Manila on October 25, after their march from their respective communities. The next day, the University of the Philippines Diliman welcomed about 700 Lumad for the university to serve as a host for the minority peoples for a week. The ritual was termed as Salubungan (welcoming), with the Lakbayanis shaking hands with the hosts. The protesters, their supporters, and volunteers built a camp within the university. The activities included sit-in discussions regarding their culture and issues, various programs, feasts, and games.