Lumads gather to forge own agenda

LANTAPAN, BUKIDNON—Some 100 indigenous peoples (IP) leaders representing lumad communities all over the country gathered here to forge an IP Agenda for the newly inaugurated Aquino administration.

Dubbed as the State of the Indigenous Peoples Address (SIPA ’10 kicked off yesterday at the Hall of Peace, Sungco, Lantapan town, here in Bukidnon. The opening coincides with the first State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III.

“With a new president at the helm, the IP leaders feel this year’s SIPA is also a good opportunity to draft plans of action to address our issues and concerns and forge a collective IP Agenda for the new administration,” Gonotan Edwin Ending, a Subanen from Zamboanga Peninsula said in vernacular.

In 2008, SIPA first started out as a gathering of IP leaders to discuss common issues hounding the sector particularly their struggle for the right to self-determination. After the three-day activity, the first and second SIPA (2008 and 2009) presented the real state of the IP communities which was conspicuously omitted in then President and now Pampanga 1st District Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s SONAs.

“This year, the IP leaders—through a series of workshops—will forge an IP Agenda for immediate executive and legislative action,” Rovik S. Obanil, communications and networking officer of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC-KsK)—a policy advocacy non-government organization, facilitating the SIPA since it started, said.

He added SIPA ’10 also aims to reach a collective platform for IPs to advocate for their rights, as well as a guide for support groups in their services and interventions for the sector.

On July 29, a press conference, to be held in Cagayan de Oro City, will be called for the official public presentation of this year’s SIPA—the IP Agenda.