Will the Lumad of Mindanao have a better future?

Mindanao is home to 18 indigenous groups collectively known by the Bisayan term “Lumad” meaning “native.” But we use with a capital L because it is proper name. Along with the other 40 or so ethno-linguistic communities which constitute over 12 per cent of the Philippine population, the Lumad of Mindanao have, for generations, been marginalized, politically ignored, oppressed, dispossessed of their homelands, disenfranchised, paralyzed by poverty and low-level education, and killed by their fellow Filipinos. In the election season, the problems faced by the nation’s indigenous peoples were absurdly neglected in the presidential debates and the campaign as a whole. This is both tragic and telling of the metropolitan mindset.

In the past year alone, thousands of Lumad have fled their ancestral lands as a result of warfare between the military, the communists, and Muslim insurgents. Human rights groups reported 68 summary killings by military and para-military groups, including the assassination of indigenous community leaders. Together with two other activists, Emerito Samarca, director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development, who had been actively defending Lumad lands against mining incursions in Surigao del Sur, was bound, slashed, and butchered. The murders triggered an exodus of Lumad who fled the area in fear for their lives. Just a few months ago, a Protestant church mission house in Davao City, where hundreds of displaced Lumad from Davao del Norte and Bukidnon sought refuge, was set on fire. Witnesses say members of a military-backed militia were responsible for the attack.