Freedom Comes With a Price

The idea of an indigenous people is not a myth. After an afternoon of learning and broadening our horizons, many of us are now more informed of the status of the indigenous people of the Philippines and how the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance (CPA) has been fighting for the rights of the indigenous people to self-determination and to determine the path of their own development.

In a matter of hours, repeated use of unfamiliar terms became the norm as we started to understand what words like barangay and Igorot meant and the deeper issues they carry. For example, the Cordillera region has many provinces and the many provinces has many municipalities and the many municipalities has many barangays and the many barangays has many ilis. Confused yet? Its only a matter of order and the means of how the structure works. While an Igorot is a general term for all the indigenous people in the Cordilleras and it can sometimes be taken as a derogatory term especially when the person involved is an Igorot. The source of the word never meant for it to carry negativity instead, Igorot means ‘from the mountain’, a simple term to carry the actual roots of these people.

Johnny Sawadan like so many of the staff and volunteers at CPA are natives of the Cordilleras and have a vested interest in the land they live in and in the people that claim residency in these lands. Johnny very graciously was our teacher for the day at CPA, patiently guiding us through the background and history of the Cordillera region and the issues and struggles faced by both indigenous and residents of the area.

Foreign investment in the country has brought on a lot of progress. If colonialism in Malaya had the British reaping the rewards of the tin and rubber for their own purposes and without much rewards to the people of Malaya. Here in modern day Philippines, the same acts of colonialism is now given a legitimate reason to ‘rape’ the land of its natural heritage, namely through the mining and potential dam projects. It’s true that the dam built would provide enough water to deliver a huge percentage of electrical current to the inhabitants of Luzon Island, yet the environmental damage destroy homes and cultural heritage, increases the commercialization of indigenous cultures, threatening the food security of farmers and peasants to Transnational Corporations and most of all, the quiet lives lived by these indigenous people.

A phrase mentioned by CPA I found intriguing and yet contrasting was the issue of development aggression. The natural progression of development is supposed to bring on an improvement to standards of living. Instead the aggression that takes place ruins natural resources and demolishes the indigenous peoples’ basic source of revenue.

What is democracy in such a political system? As Malaysians, we can easily recall back to the Orang Asli’s in Malaysia and one oft mentioned struggle they face was the Bakun dam project and look where that got them. Here at the CPA, there is a sense of purpose as they push on with the objectives and purposes of the Alliance and continue on with their work, even when there is the Oplan Bantay Laya and extra judicial killings have been ordered. For the land they live on and its equivalent to life and all things holistic, the CPA will remain in defense of ancestral domain and for self determination of the indigenous people of the Philippines.

An image of a small girl holding up the sign of ‘Ako Na ba ang susunod’ which means ‘Am I next’ will be the one thing I remember most from the CPA and what I can in my small way do to spread the news and inform the public of what really takes place.

by Shu Yi