Oppressors celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Month

THE United Nations has set aside August 9 every year as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People and August as the month for mankind to honor IPs and to be more aware that there are indigenous people whose culture and peaceable ways of life must be appreciated, respected and protected, and whose needs must be met.

In the Philippines, instead of responding positively to the UN’s calls on behalf of IPs, in general and except for the very few who truly care for the IPS, the people who hold political power over them in the national and local governments, and those who hold firepower--in the military and police--all work to oppress them. They help industrial and business interests send them away from their jungle and riverine habitats, force them to flee so that mining corporations can do what they want.