On October 26, 800 Lumads will arrive in Manila. They will have traveled a long way from their homes, to do this protest caravan that calls for an end to the Lumad killings and the military occupation of Lumad schools and communities.

It behooves us to engage with the Lumads, to speak to them, to learn more about their lives. At a time when Manila’s mainstream media can barely get over itself doing election-related stories and “phenomena” like AlDub and JaDine, the stories about the Lumad crisis become old easily – if these are told at all. At a time when so much depends on the “public pulse” – which is to say falling back on what’s trending on social media – the Lumads living in evacuation centers in fear of their lives, is not a story that will get the hits mainstream media seeks.

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