YESTERDAY, Aug. 9, was the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. This is observed annually to raise awareness and protect the rights of indigenous populations. In the Philippines, we have a law that supposedly ensures their protection – the Indigenous Peoples Right Act (IPRA) approved in 1997.
But 24 years after the enactment of IPRA, genuine recognition much more the realization of our IPs’ collective rights remain an aspiration. There is much to be done for IPs to assert and attain their inherent right particularly to land and self-determination.
Has the IPRA, touted as the landmark law to uphold IPs’ collective and human rights, been effective or inutile to protect their rights? IP sacred lands are rapidly lost to big business interests like destructive large-scale mining. Their cultural rights and heritage are continually undermined by eco-tourism programs. Their human rights grossly violated by the intensified militarization of their communities.
Some IPs even view the IPRA as a tool to legally plunder their ancestral lands. Bitter experiences prove this. The IPRA facilitated the entry and operations of destructive large-scale mining, commercial logging, agri-plantations and other so-called “development” projects into their ancestral lands. The IPRA was used by different administrations to pursue and cash-in on the natural resources of IP lands to the benefit of the big foreign and commercial businesses. The Free Prior and Inform Consent (FPIC), a vital element of the IPRA law and inherent right of the IPs, is one of the most violated and manipulated process of the law. The process of consultations with the IPs is frequently undermined. Cases of intimidation, harassment and ostensible deception are common to pressure the IPs to give in to proposed projects.
While some IPs have claimed benefits in the implementation of the law, the wider experience of IPs show that indigenous peoples have to resolutely assert their rights to their ancestral lands and self determination to realize their collective aspirations.
